proper time to use enhance feature in ACR

[Willlax]

Is it better to use the enhance featurein ACR before or after sharpening.?

If I enhance prior to sharpening should/can I sharpen the enhanced image?

[Jeff A Wright]

Willax, which Adobe application or service is your question in relation to?

[Willlax]

ACR  Adobe Camera Raw.  Should  I sharpen an image in ACR and then use the enhance feature OR use the enhance feature and then sharpen OR is the enhance feature alone a sharpening device?

[Chuck Uebele]

I'm not 100% sure, but it looks like the enhance feature ignores sharpening and just works on the base image. So it really doesn't matter if you do that before or after, other than the setting will carry over to your enhanced image, but they can be reset to default.

[TheDigitalDog]

Detail (Sharpening) is capture sharpening and it done 'visually' so I'd suggest doing so after. 

The steps applying all edits are done at the time of rendering the image, not user applied so you can season to taste at any time, but again, I'd do this after the iteration with Super Resoution is applied but if someone on the Adobe team feels otherwise, I'm all ears. 

[Conrad C]

I think the Sharpening settings in Camera Raw are not used by the Enhance features (Raw Details and Super Resolution). The interpretation of details in the raw data is what’s enhanced, and then Camera Raw settings like Sharpening are applied on top. However, the existing Sharpening settings are carried forward and applied after Enhance.

So it’s OK if Sharpening was applied before Enhance, but after Enhance is applied you should look at Sharpening to see if those old settings are appropriate for the new level of detail, and adjust as needed.

Below are Adobe articles about these options. These are long articles written by the Camera Raw team, not the Adobe help files that are often less than helpful.

Enhance Details 

From the ACR team: Super Resolution

[Willlax]

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[Chuck Uebele]

That's what I seemed to find in my testing. Applying sharpening did affect the base image, it just applied it to the image using the same settings, which can be dialed back.

[Per Berntsen]

I would definitely turn off sharpening before enhancing.

In the screenshot below, the first image has been created from an unsharpened original. The second image has been created from a sharpened original, and shows halos and artifacts from the sharpening.

The first image can be sharpened to look much better than the second, which is difficult to improve.

The third image is a sharpened version of the first, using Topaz Sharpen AI.

[Per Berntsen]

@Chuck Uebele 

Yes, you're right about dialing back the sharpening, I didn't notice that the enhanced image had sharpening settings in ACR.

But the original sharpening settings don't create a good result with the enhanced image.

I had a hard time getting decent sharpening with the ACR filter, as well as with Smart Sharpen.

Topaz Sharpen AI worked best for me, at least on this particular image.

[Chuck Uebele]

Yea, better to start fresh.