Does anyone know the difference between Sharpness and Sharpening?

Forum|Forum|2 years ago
December 31, 2023
4 replies
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I appreciate Sharpness is used in masks in ACR and the amount can be varied - but what is it actually doing? Is it similar to Texture and Clarity?

If Sharpening is used in ACR it can be selective and the various parameters can be suited to taste.

I am trying to determine which will prove better for finner detail.

Windows

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Conrad_C

Community Expert

I appreciate Sharpness is used in masks in ACR and the amount can be varied - but what is it actually doing? Is it similar to Texture and Clarity?
By @Jonathan1

Assuming you are asking specifically about the Sharpness option in masks*: This is a good question, because it does work differently than the image-wide Sharpen option. According to the book Lightroom Classic: The Missing FAQ, “The local sharpening adjustments only affect the Amount of sharpening, and the Radius, Detail and Masking settings remain identical across the photo, using the settings selected in the Detail panel.” Also, “If you set the Sharpening slider to between -50 and -100, it applies a blur similar to a lens blur…” So you don’t have as much control as the image-wide Sharpen setting, and a negative Sharpness value in a mask is one way to blur something.

If you want to compare Sharpen/Sharpness to Texture and Clarity, all are forms of the same thing — increasing local contrast — with the difference being the detail frequency bands they affect. Sharpen was introduced first, and addresses the finest detail frequencies. Clarity was added later, and affects much lower detail frequencies. So you could set Contrast first for general contrast, set Sharpen for the finest details, and set Clarity for local contrast. Texture was added more recently, and it addresses detail frequencies coarser than Sharpen but finer than Clarity, filling in between those two. The frequency bands are not the only difference between the options (for example, Clarity is more focused on midtone contrast than the others might be), but that is the main difference.

*If you are instead asking about the Masking option in image-wide Sharpen, that’s something completely different than the Sharpness option in masks.

J

Jonathan1Author

Inspiring

Thank you for the reply, it does improve my understanding.

I suppose what I am really trying to determine is if I were to apply
Sharpness of say 20, how does this compare to a Sharpen of 20 Radius 0.5
with Masking.

I think the issue is that Sharpness is a composite value and I am trying to
gauge if it is really comparable to Sharpening.

If I apply fine Sharpness to birds or animals I usually go for something in
the region of 25-30 and a Radius of 0.5 and Masking as required, I am
trying to gauge if a Sharpness value 20 would be comparable and if it would
have shortcomings as there is just the one parameter.

--

Jon Ashton MSc

Mobile: 07546082193

Conrad_C

Community Expert

The info from the Lightroom Classic Missing FAQ book seems to indicate is that Sharpness is not a composite value, it is only the Sharpen value from the image-wide Detail panel. It says the other parameters are taken from the image-wide values in the Detail panel. So if you apply Sharpness value of +20 in a mask, if I understand it correctly that would be the equivalent of Amount 20, and not altering the same Radius, Detail, and Masking values you entered in the image-wide Detail panel. I’m making an assumption that those other values are simply carried forward unchanged from the image-wide value, and not applied a second time.