Carrying on from a point in another thread, a discussion of sharpening.

As little as needed avoids haloes and other artifacts, and Unsharp Mask is my tool of choice. I have used this from Photoshop 7 through to CS5, which I currently use.

Unsharp Mask, Threshold 3, Radius and amount depending upon size of final image and image factors. In terms of amount, web images are usually 1000 pixels on the longest side, which fits in with EPZ requirements. It is convenient to make just this one size wherever possible. Radius is around 1.1 to 1.4 pixels and amount about 50% for a K20D or K-5 and ambout 75% for a Q. Different types of sensor behave differently and cameras themselves have different characteristics of JPEG sharpening. For DSLRs +1 sharpening in camera is already set by me.

For A3 prints, a larger radius of pixels as there are so many more pixels in any dimension of the image, so usually 2.2 or therabouts. Sharpening for print needs to be slightly higher, so 100% to 125% is the norm. For other sizes, we can make something in between these two sets of values.

Hopefully my web images look sharp but not over sharp, and likewise my prints.

The technique of converting to LAB mode and just sharpening the luminance (black and white) channel is useful for architectural subjects as the colour information is not affected at all, so we end up with an underlying very sharp image with no artefacts in the colour channels. We convert back to RGB before saving for print.

In recent times, using LAB colour as an intermediate step has not seemed so necessary so I can only presume that the algorithms have been improved in each upgrade of Photoshop.

Comments and questions most welcome.

Rather than hijack this thread I'll start a new thread on the subject later on tonight.

See the third thread down in the Your Photos section.

That's assuming that converting to JPEG needs no further input from the photographer, but, depending on image size required, the amount of sharpening, for example, will vary, as will the parameters for that sharpening.

I think you're describing things from the point of view of an entirely different workflow. I've got six articles here on PU that describe a very simple workflow and which summarise what I might do. See the articles section and you'll know straight away if we're talking about different approaches.

All part of the process of preparing and fine tuning an image for presenting to the world. Levels is a powerful way of adjusting brightness and contrast, as is Curves.

Sharpening can also be fine tuned for a particular image, not necessarily globally.

It depends how much control we want over the final result.

That's assuming Lightroom creates a JPEG to the spec we want. Are there adjustable parameters for specifying levels and sharpening?

I'm afraid that we can't promote any charities on Pentax User so this can't be promoted on here either. Like many things, in principle a good idea but there are huge practical problems.

SRS are offering 10 ex-demo K-01 cameras for £219 on eBay, the regular price on their website is somewhat higher.

The outgoing Q body is also available at what loooks like a clearance price of £99, again from SRS and eBay. Excellent news, if you don't have one here's your chance!

Always nice to have the heads up on bargains! I'll put this is Leads to Deals.

Ah, these were yours? You didn't say that the first time around. This isn't really a classified ad because you're not offering the items her, but we'll let it pass.

As a rule, this section is for people to buy and sell Pentax-related items here rather than link to adverts/auctions elsewhere.

Also, turn off highlight and/or shadow correction as this too limits the ISO range.