How much sharppening ?

[aalleexx]

My question is regarding sharppening, when i've shot with the 7d i always leave sharppening all the way down, you can always sharpen in post
My question is this, if we are trying to duplicate the look of film does that mean that the final image must not be that sharp? I've always steered away from the super hd look that some cameras create, i personally dont think that when an image looks super sharp it resembles a film perpective, what do you guys think about sharppening? Do you think that if going for the film look it must not be that sharp? How do you like your sharppness?

[Alex H.]

I like my sharpening just like my sharpness... with one "p."

Sharpening is one of those things that needs to be used cautiously. If you push a post-production sharpening filter too far, you'll create some nasty artifacts and thus more problems than you're solving.

Film does have a softness to it. If you're shooting in 30p, you're working with video motion and not film motion and thus a sharper picture feels a bit better. For 24p, though, it's a safe assumption that one would be going for a film look, and sightly softer picture can be fine. In the end, it's really a matter of personal taste.

[aalleexx]

thats exactly what I was thinking, film as least to me has never looked super sharp, 35mm always has a bit of softness and grain to it, hopefully more film experts can voice their opinions

[aalleexx]

any ideas?

[pianoboy]

If you watch the Zacuto shootout, 35mm film actually retains a lot more detail than DSLRs, especially if scanned in 4k.

But I agree, leave the sharpening off, and sharpen in post if it needs it. If you sharpen in camera, there might be some artifacts that you don't like, and you're stuck with them.