ACR Default Sharpening

[clkirksey]

Can anyone comment on the default sharpening in the latest version of ACR? Does it exist? If so is globally based or local (pixel level)?

[Schewe]

Comment on what?

Yes, there is a Camera Raw Default for sharpening...and in the Detail panel it's global but modifiable by using an Adjustment Brush...

[clkirksey]

Comment on what?

Yes, there is a Camera Raw Default for sharpening...and in the Detail panel it's global but modifiable by using an Adjustment Brush...

Thanks. There are indications that some sharpening is done as part of the demosaicing process. This sharpening would compensate for demosaicing artefacts as I understand. This I would call local pixel level sharpening and not directly under the users control. But a global sharpening (the same parameters applied to the whole image) may also be applied that cannot be eliminated by the user even if the controls are set to zero. Is this understanding correct? If not where is it incorrect? I am not trying to find fault with ACR but trying to understand some results from lens testing done at DPReviews which uses ACR as the baseline raw converter..

[madmanchan]

If you set Camera Raw's sharpening to zero (i.e., Amount = 0 in Detail tab), then CR doesn't apply sharpening.

At least, that's the way I see it.

One can get into a deep low-level discussion of whether or not a demosaic algorithm (or any type of image processing) is applying sharpening. Any time a program needs to perform interpolation (e.g., interpolating missing color values for a Bayer camera, i.e., vast majority of digital images shot in the world), the choice of method used to perform that interpolation could be argued to have some sharpening applied.