Your opinion please - are these over-sharpened?

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III

01/18/2012 08:30:30 PM · #1

I'm hoping I can get some folks to respond in this thread and weigh in on some of my old challenge submissions.

I've just gotten a much larger monitor (literally 4x the area), and now I'm noticing that some of my old images appear to be over-sharpened, usually not much, but still, a lot of my stuff now seems to be just a little too sharp.

I've reviewed the comments on the images below, and no-one said anything about them being too sharp, but..... Sometimes we hold back, especially when it's just a "little too sharp", I know I hesitate to comment on sharpness usually because there's always a perception/preference issue at play, often I'll only say something if it's just an egregious job of sharpening.

So, I'd just like an honest opinion, as I think it will help me to adjust myself to this new monitor - at this point I don't know if the effect that I am seeing is just due to huge pixels, or if it's real and I've just not noticed it before.

Here are a few that did well, but now look too sharp, do you agree?

- Almost everything

- look @ the front legs

- conveyer belt to the right of the image

- mesas to the left

- Just the buildings to the left

This one looks just about perfect, do you agree?

Thanks to those who are willing to weigh in.

Yo_Spiff

Olympus 12-100mm f/4.0 M.Zuiko ED IS PRO

01/18/2012 08:44:50 PM · #2

A couple of them may be just a tad too sharp to be realistic. The first one in particular. I think your assessment of most of them is pretty accurate. "Navajo Lands" looks fine to me, though.

You had some pretty big monitors before, what did you change them out to?

Germaine

Canon EOS-7D Mark II

Canon EF 24-70mm f/4.0L IS USM Lens

01/18/2012 08:47:50 PM · #3

They look fine to me. I think its a matter of personal taste and what effect you are going for. Hyper-detail and HDR are all the rage these days...

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

01/18/2012 09:00:33 PM · #4

Originally posted by Yo_Spiff:

I found an excellent deal on an out of box Sony 55" Bravia 3D TV..

ETA: It makes a surprisingly good monitor. :D

Thanks for the opinions, that's pretty much exactly what I wanted to hear... (oh damn, now I really should be worried shouldn't I??) :)

Message edited by author 2012-01-18 21:01:39.

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

01/18/2012 09:05:26 PM · #5

I don't think they are over sharpened. Remember, sharpening is essentially a form of contrast adjustment, but along the edges. I left comments. What you could be seeing on your new monitor is the effect of a stronger contrast range. I looked at them on 2 different monitors, a CRT and a DVI. Those areas you were talking about did show a higher contrast on the DVI (as they should), but I don't think they are too off.

I think with your new monitor, you'll have better control over the degree of sharpening. It may also help to marquee around an area and view the histogram shape before and after sharpening to give you an idea of how drastic you may be changing the image.

Tamron SP AF 28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di for Canon

01/18/2012 09:06:07 PM · #6

Originally posted by PGerst:

Especially to you, thanks for the effort there! I appreciate it very much.

PGerst

Canon EOS-20D

01/18/2012 09:10:19 PM · #7

Anytime. Thanks for bringing me back to those images! :)

Originally posted by Cory:

Especially to you, thanks for the effort there! I appreciate it very much.

kirbic

Canon EOS R5

Canon RF 24-70mm f/2.8 L IS

01/18/2012 09:11:20 PM · #8

Originally posted by Cory:

I found an excellent deal on an out of box Sony 55" Bravia 3D TV..

ETA: It makes a surprisingly good monitor. :D

The only one of the shots that I think could have used less would be the insect macro. On a couple of the others I can see just a hint of sharpening artifact, but it's not over the top. You mention that the new monitor is actually a television. That's part of the problem. TV sets may (most do) apply sharpening by default to most if not all signals. It may be possible to turn down (or off) the sharpening.
We have used our 50" plasma display as a monitor, and it works OK, but you can see the effects of signal processing on hard edges, such as when text is displayed on a uniform background.

GeneralE

Canon PowerShot S3 IS

Canon 12x IS USM (S3 IS built-in Lens) -- 36-432mm (35mm EQ)

01/18/2012 09:14:43 PM · #9

They look OK to me on an old CRT monitor. I didn't notice any halos -- assuming you want sharp images you have a very nice batch of pictures there ... :-)

Osiris1975

Canon EOS-600D/T3 Rebel

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

01/18/2012 09:26:39 PM · #10

Only the first photo struck me as over-sharpened. I really enjoyed the second photo, too.

Mousie

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

01/18/2012 09:27:35 PM · #11

I hardly ever sharpen my own work. I tend to like more natural looking detail. That said, the only one where I'd say you've over-sharpened is the insect, and even then it's not all that bothersome. Insects are prickly!

I'm not seeing any annoying halos, harshly stepped edges, or any of the other artifacts that read 'too sharp' to me. It looks like you've pushed it right to the line but haven't gone over it.

Beetle

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

01/18/2012 10:13:24 PM · #12

Another vote for the over-sharpened insect, the rest look fine to me.

Beetle

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

Canon EF 24-105mm f/4.0L IS

01/18/2012 10:13:24 PM · #13

Oooooops, double post, sorry.

Message edited by author 2012-01-18 22:13:46.

Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24-70mm f/2.8G ED

01/18/2012 10:16:57 PM · #14

:)

Excellent, thanks for the help everyone, I think I've probably got my eyes just about calibrated to this new "monitor" :)

Dr.Confuser

Nikon D800

01/18/2012 10:31:23 PM · #15

I sometimes need to remind myself I don't have to sharpen the whole image to the same degree. If you create a composite layer on top of your layer stack, you can sharpen it and then mask to selectivelyy reduce sharpening. Not legal in Basic, however.

Giles

Canon EOS-5D Mark III

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

01/19/2012 04:14:48 AM · #16

just out of interest how close do you sit to your 55" monitor, i use my 42" hd from about 1.5 metre away sat on the sofa but its brighter then my macbook pro, be nice to have a huge monitor though on the desk, didnt know you could sit that close is all.