T2i To sharpen or not to sharpen?

Derkoi

Derkoi

Well-known member
So, like many others I've been using the neutral picture style with zero contrast, zero sharpening & a couple of notches off the saturation.

Then i wondered if you guys were actually sharpening in post or just leaving things they way they are?

I've been grading but not sharpening, I'm happy with the results but wondered what you lot were doing?
 
I think you would end up asking yourself 'Are the extra render times worth it?'

maybe do it as part of your corrective phase on just the clips that need it?
 
I add a bit of grain to the image but don't sharpen it. To my eye it doesn't do anything nice to the image.

I've seen 7d projected at 35' across from a 1080p blu-Ray and it was sharp enough for me. Of course as always, YMMV. Do some tests!
 
Derkoi said:
So, like many others I've been using the neutral picture style with zero contrast, zero sharpening & a couple of notches off the saturation.

Then i wondered if you guys were actually sharpening in post or just leaving things they way they are?

I've been grading but not sharpening, I'm happy with the results but wondered what you lot were doing?
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My 550D has never looked like real full HD to me, it just looks like an up scaled SD. I always use zero sharpening in camera too. In post, I add noise and film grain to give the image texture. It also gives the illusion of it being sharper too. I always go too far though and make it look all grainy 16mm heh...
 
You could try out the different sharpening filters for VirtualDub , you can find extra sharpening plug-ins here and here. Convert the colorspace in Vdub to 32-bit RGB, and tweak some subtle sharpening there. For denoising and sharpening I find it outperforms most commercial applications by a stretch. As an extra you could resize to double resolution in Vdub with the Lancszos algorithm, apply sharpening and grading, and then resize back to 1080p for output. This would also make for a sharper image without generating noise in the image. The render times in Vdub are very fast on most plug-ins, so even with the resize the render shouldn't be too slow.
 
Interesting to see some of you throwing grain on there. I'd only do that myself if i was trying to emulate film stock for a music video or something
 
Derkoi said:
Interesting to see some of you throwing grain on there. I'd only do that myself if i was trying to emulate film stock for a music video or something
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A little bit goes a long way. I don't throw it on to be noticed as a visual feature, but it helps mask the low-light blocks and plastic looking faces and such. And I agree that it seems to raise apparent sharpness.
 
plasic looking faces :huh: not the 550 i have or most of the great looking PQ in films on the sites.Grain i seen enough of that on Super 8.
 
William_Robinette said:
A little bit goes a long way. I don't throw it on to be noticed as a visual feature, but it helps mask the low-light blocks and plastic looking faces and such. And I agree that it seems to raise apparent sharpness.
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Cool, i might have to experiment. :thumbsup:
 
EyeNorth said:
You could try out the different sharpening filters for VirtualDub , you can find extra sharpening plug-ins here and here. Convert the colorspace in Vdub to 32-bit RGB, and tweak some subtle sharpening there. For denoising and sharpening I find it outperforms most commercial applications by a stretch. As an extra you could resize to double resolution in Vdub with the Lancszos algorithm, apply sharpening and grading, and then resize back to 1080p for output. This would also make for a sharper image without generating noise in the image. The render times in Vdub are very fast on most plug-ins, so even with the resize the render shouldn't be too slow.
Click to expand...

I wonder if there's anything like the MSharpen Filter for Avisynth that would work on FCP? Sounds much better than Unsharp Mask.
 
The grain rebuilds the image, a little goes a long way.

I'm starting to use sharpen at the last stage of mastering on an adjustment layer above the whole timeline. My camera sharpness is -3 a la Stu M.
 
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