Landscapes and Sharpening

DxO PhotoLab
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Keen DXO user, skies look great and better than in Cap One, but capture one has the edge when it comes to sharpness of building etc.

Any suggestions as to best DXO setting to adjust to improve the sharpening on import or after.
Using a Fuji Xt5

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If you haven’t yet got FilmPack, get it!!! You don’t need to install it, just enter the licence in PhotoLab and it appears all nicely integrated. You need look at the four Fine Contrast sliders.

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Good question. I also use an X-T5 and struggle with sharpness of foliage and structures in the distance. I’ve been trying different lens sharpness settings without any great success (so normally I stay at the default +1). In good light and low ISO, SOOC jpgs (with sharpness set to 0 or +1) are sharper than RAWs developed in PL, but you only notice in 100 % view.

Maybe it’s an X-Trans demosaicing thing? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

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I agree – you can do great things with the fine contrast sliders. However, things get crunchy and unnatural quickly if you don’t use them carefully and as far as my observations are concerned they do not improve the “real” sharpness.

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Personally, I use Topaz Photo AI after everything else. Sharpening can be selective and applied in multiple layers for different parts of the image.

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@Joanna Trying to get as much done as possible in one program, feels like I spend too much time in post as it is.

Film pack is installed and running, but I am not sure what you mean by ‘four Fine Contrast sliders’?

Are you talking about Contrast, Micro Contrast and Fine Contrast?

@shodan_f X-Trans is beyond me I am afraid.

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Have you expanded that section? There are three more fine contrast sliders - highlights, miid-tones and shadows.

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I have, so what are you suggesting in terms of adjustments, maybe I am just being thick?

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See details/hints via the help-text (Click on the little “?” button);

Also, it’s worthwhile understanding that the Fine Contrast slider is a “super set” of the 3 sliders listed beneath it (for Highlights, Midtones & Shadows) … such that the setting for Fine Contrast adds to or subtracts from the settings for its subordinates.

For example, the net result of settings below is for there to be no impact at all.

  • image
    image296×118 2.81 KB
  • The Fine Contrast setting is cancelling out (subtracting from) the H/M/S settings.
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Many thanks John, so if I am reading it correctly. ‘Use Midtones & Shadows Fine contrast’, and leave fine contrast alone for landscapes?

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I’m a long time Fuji user and this is one of the reasons I’ve recently paused using their cameras whilst I explore other brands. I often felt editing was much more difficult than it should be; no matter the software.

Currently using M43; what a revelation.

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I took a similar path; from Sony.

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I wouldn’t necessarily say “leave Fine Contrast alone”; just be aware that use of Fine Contrast is also impacting Highlights, Midtones & Shadows … and adjust accordingly.

  • Perhaps another way to look at is to think of Fine Contrast as a substitute for Highlights, Midtones & Shadows adjustments when you want the Highlights, Midtones & Shadows adjustments to be all exactly the same.
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Many thanks again John.

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15

Chris

Maybe read this

Pascal

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16

Now bookmarked, thanks.

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I sort of agree there but, from much experience of making large prints as well as small, sharpening can be affected by scale of the print to the original.

I use the Fine Contrast sliders to improve “detail” but, it can be all too easy to overdo that on smaller prints. And selective print sharpening in Topaz, at the same time as resizing, can make a subtle difference to the final quality, especially at larger sizes.

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That’s the reason I stopped using them

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