Nikon Rumors Forum » Topic: Sharpening in Capture NX vs. Lightroom 3

adamz on "Sharpening in Capture NX vs. Lightroom 3"

adamz — Sun, 01 May 2011 17:04:30 +0000

closing this topic, Mike, if You want to have it open back please change the privileges on Your photos so they can be visible for all.

chuckcars on "Sharpening in Capture NX vs. Lightroom 3"

chuckcars — Sun, 01 May 2011 15:49:13 +0000

Looks to me like you are using too much sharpening in your workflow. NX2 sharpening is terrific, simple. Sharpening should ALWAYS be done last. If you are in to NIK software at all, their sharpening software is also tops. It will give you all the control possible. I do not use Lightroom.

DVC Mike on "Sharpening in Capture NX vs. Lightroom 3"

DVC Mike — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:46:06 +0000

DVC Mike on "Sharpening in Capture NX vs. Lightroom 3"

DVC Mike — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 22:36:33 +0000

I have a Nikon D7000 and I shoot in 14-bit NEF (raw). I’ll develop the photos in both Nikon Capture NX 2.2.6 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.3. After doing any post-processing in NX2 or LR3, I’ll save the photo for use on the web as a downsized JPEG (1024 pixels wide).

I’m consistently getting sharper results in the resulting JPEG files using Nikon Capture NX2 than using Adobe Lightroom 3.

With NX2, I’ll do minor capture sharpening, resize the image to 1024, and then use an UnSharp Mask for output sharpening. I get great results.

With LR3, I’ll use the Details tab to do capture sharpening, and then export to JPEG, which resizes the photo. In the export settings, I have output sharpening turned on for Screen and amount set to either Standard or High. However, the downsized JPEGs generated by LR3 look less sharp and focused.

Is there any way to have more control over the output sharpening in Lightroom 3?

Any suggestions?