Sharpening & Desaturation in LR2

Sharpening and Desaturation in Lightroom 2

In LR2 capture sharpening an image of winter trees with lots of fine branches illuminated by a late winter sun just before sunset, sharpening with Amount A75 Radius R1.0 Detail D50 and Masking M50, resulted in significant desaturation of the colors on the fine branches. The warm red-yellow late winter sun was scrubbed away an replaced with a bleach off white.

[BTW, the sharpening engine in LR2 isn't unique. I only tested this in LR2 but I would suspect that the other applications which use the same sharpening engine would produce similar results.]

After reading and rereading, S. Kelby and M. Evening on LR2 capture and output sharpening. I ran a series of tests on an image taken moments before sundown on a beach in southwest Seattle.

I started with no capture or output sharpening and exported to a 900pix quality 70 for screen jpg. I tried a quality setting of 100 and compared it to 70 and there was no visible difference in issue under consideration.

image #1 no capture or output sharpening

image #2 A75 R1.0 D50 M50 - output screen std

image #3 A75 R1.0 D50 M50 - output sharpening OFF

image #4 no capture sharpening - output screen std

image #5 A75 R 0.5 D50 M50 - output screen std

image #6 A75 R 0.5 D50 M50 - output sharpening OFF

I observed that comparing image #1 with image #2 there was a dramatic difference in saturation of the small branches. There wasn't much difference between image #2 with image #3, it was detectable but you had to look hard to see it. Image #4 wasn't much different than image #1. In other words, using ONLY output sharpening set to screen standard at 900pix there was only a very slight amount of bleaching in the color of the small branches. You really had to look for it.

It occurred to me that reducing the radius from 1.0 to 0.5 might improve the color. In fact, it did but only very slightly. It wasn't easy to see the improvement. Image #5 was nearly identical to image #2. Just to illustrate the problem I have posted image #1 followed by image #2. The other images must be viewed in LR or PS to really appreciate what is happening so I will not post them.

This problem cannot be corrected by simply increasing the saturation. The desaturation only affects small portions of the overall image. If globally increase the saturation the image will end up generally over saturated.

Another observation of the test results. Just working with this one image, hardly a valid sample. It didn't seem like the capture sharpening was very useful for an output size of 900pix.

[BTW, Editing in the develop module at less than 1:1 you don't see the sharpening anyway. Switching to the library module (E key) will display something close to what the final jpg will look like. Not identical but close enough.]

When you output sharpen for screen standard without any capture sharpening with a target size of 900pix the results look reasonably good on a large LCD (24inch iMac). This isn't intended to be a generally valid statement only an observation based on working with one or two images.

Roped Up

I developed the top image using a straight up approach and a harsh or radical approach. After looking at both of them I think the straight up approach is more appealing. I'm getting a little weary of looking at over cooked harsh images, the current thing among LR newbies.

Gear #1 - Fisherman's Wharf

Porthole #3

This is one of a series, I am posting #3 first just to cause confusion.

Normandy - Fisherman's Wharf

Mary B, Ernest & Harmony - Fisherman's Wharf

This is perhaps a bit over saturated in the blue channel, but when I backed off on the blues to make the background less electric I didn't like what it did to the other blues so I decided I could live with it until I come up with something better.

I worked up a series of presets for LR2 while working on this one. The preset titles are "fifties" "sixties" and "seventies" which follow this pattern:

seventies: recovery 70, fill light 70, blacks 70, brightness 70, contrast 70, clarity 70, vibrance +70, saturation -70. I also have a variant of this which leaves vibrance and saturation at their default values. The presets are just starting points for fine tuning. I got tired of dragging back the 100 values all the time so it made sense to make some presets at lesser values

Fishing Boat #19101 - Fishermans' Wharf

Fishing Boat - Detail #5

Two different exposures, slightly different development. The top shot was slightly overexposed giving some better tonal gradation in the middle and dark tones. The bottom shot was slightly underexposed. I am hard put to decided which one I like better so I will leave them both up here for a while.

Fishing Boat - Detail #2 #3 #4

The deck behind the cabin is where most of the action takes place on these fishing boats. This is one had a lot of gear which made it suitable for a sort of 'heavy metal' PP treatment. I am not thrilled with the white rag or the gunwale in the lower right corner but didn't see any reasonable way to get rid of them.

Fishing Boat - Detail #1

Went out to Fisherman's Wharf this morning, Saturday Dec. 6th, 2008. Shot closeups of fishing boats for over three hours. Rather than try and name all of these I am just going to number them.

Trident 08788 - Fisherman's Wharf

The Owl - Fisherman's Wharf

Spent several hours at Fisherman's Wharf on Sunday, Nov. 31, 2008 shooting in the fog. Lots of subject matter, will need to go there again.

Shipping

Airport Way, somewhere south of Spokane Street.

Two Drums - Airport Way

Went down to Georgetown again this afternoon. After an hour or so I took the car up Airport Way toward Spokane Street just to see what was there. Found a condemned factory waiting for demolition. Had only a hour of sun left and this shot was just before the sun disapeared.

Ranier Brewery - Coldstorage Demolition

From my most recent Georgetown shoot, a view of the Old Rainier Brewery from the north west looking at the site where the cold storage building was recently removed due to "safety factors". A man out getting a little fresh air on his Ducatti told me the ground underneath the building was in a state of permafrost having been frozen for decades.

Wheel & Window - Georgetown

Behind the Brewerey

This was taken behind the old Rainier Brewery in Georgetown.

Backyard Project - Georgetown

This was a messy yard, with several projects. I gave these shots a sever Lightroom treatment. It seemed to suit the subject.

Two Pumpkins - Georgetown

Wheelbarrow - Georgetown (again)

Sunday 11/16/08, went back to Georgedown, armed with my e510 + 14-54zd. Another Dark day, needed IS for a day like this. Long exposures.

SouthPark Bridge on the Duwamish

The Corner - Georgetown

Yet another photo from my recent Georgetown shoot. I shot this through the gap in a gate of a chain link fence. Didn't leave many options for framing the photo, other than, zooming, portrait and landscape.

Loading Dock - Georgetown

These were taken during my Georgetown shoot, Sunday Nov. 9, 2008 late in the day. The light was failing and the exposures were long.

Lucky's Manor - Georgetown

Went to Georgetown today to do some afternoon shooting. I was exploring an alley and came upon this place which I have no idea what it might be. I wasn't the least bit inclined to go up those stairs and inquire about the nature of the business.

Still Life with Junk

This was taken in South Park on election day, Nov. 6, 2008.

Last Light at Duwamish Bridge

Election Day, just before sunset I was down in South Park at marina just east of the bridge. The storm had passed and the remaining clouds were dramatic. This isn't something over cooked in LightRoom, this is what it really looked like. I did use LR2.1 to recover the original look. Camera was e500 iso400 14-54mm ZD at 17mm f6.3 1/160th.

Water Tower at Sundown - Duwamish

These were taken on election day, Nov. 4, 2008 just a few minutes before the sun disappeared. I kept moving as the sun went down to get a better angle to shoot from. I was walking along a fence at marina in South Park and trying to get close enough to the river to see this tower which was obscured by some trees. It was a race with the sun to see if I could get up close to water before it disappeared. As I was moving the light kept changing, the result is several looks all taken just one or two minutes apart.

Liliana's Salon

These businesses are on one of the back streets of Burien WA, not to far from the police station, court house and fire department.