Sharpness discussion

[Tom Roper]

Originally Posted by Paolo Ciccone

...regarding the noise, it is not a gain issue, it is really the sharpening added, the -3db setting basically lowers the contrast in the scene and so it affects how the sharpening is triggered. I verified that behavior with several cameras.

BTW, one last note, you can add sharpening in post based on an neutral image, you cannot remove excessive sharpening once it's "baked" in the image.

It's important to remember that there is no universal configuration.

Excellent observations, well said.

[Dirk Bouwen]

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

Many lenses give their highest resolution when stopped down, but not the XH-A1.

Thanks for the response.

[Annie Haycock]

Originally Posted by Tom Roper

Polarizers you have to be careful with. The quality varies, some are very good, some can absolutely wreck sharpness. But aside from recommending that you use a quality one, is to use it judiciously. You can overdo it with video, especially compared to film. I recommend with video that you not use the full polarizing effect when rotating the ring, it just doesn't look right with video. My $0.02

There are a lot of photographers overdo them with stills - an almost black sky on a sunny day just doesn't make sense.

Polarisers can also give strange results with a wide-angle lens, leaving half the sky pale, and the other half dark. And similarly if you are panning across a landscape - effectively you are widening the angle. Remember the polariser works best at 90 degrees to the sun.

[Paolo Ciccone]

Originally Posted by Bo Sundvall

what kind of sharpening is best, just a 'simple' sharpening or using unsharp mask? And what settings to use for the sharpening filter to get the best and most out of the sharpening process?

I personally like Unsharp mask as it provides more control than Sharpen. Sharpen has only one dial, the amount of sharpness you want. Unsharp mask allows you to choose the radius and a threshold. The amount of sharpness and the settings are depending on the type of footage that you have and can and probably will, change with different scenes. For example, for closeup of faces you don't want to have much detail at all, unless you want to make people look at their worst. Watch your local news for an example of this. Excessive detail, in-camera detail, is one of the optical giveaways that something is shot on video. The ability to adjust the detail level on a shot-per-shot basis is another reason to keep the detail level of the camera at its lowest. This will provide a more filmic look and give you more control on your footage. Like with everything, shoot some tests of different subjects and check the results before shooting your masterpiece :)

[Giovanni Speranza]

Recently i shot some ads in HDV for SD.
My sharpening technique was editing the ad in FCP ProRes, adding 25% Sharpening.
Then i nest the ProRes sequence in a SD one.
The HD sharpening is not disturbing because the SD resolution is not able to read the smaller contours, but the perceived image sharpness can be raised a lot.

Maybe it's even better to put the HDV clips directly in the SD sequence and apply the Sharpen there. I have to try it

[Cal Bickford]

thanks for the info paolo!

Does anyone else have an opinion on in-camera sharpening vs. sharpening in fcp?

[Giovanni Speranza]

Originally Posted by Cal Bickford

thanks for the info paolo!

Does anyone else have an opinion on in-camera sharpening vs. sharpening in fcp?

I quote.

And i add: in camera sharpening happens before encoding and could affect the encoding process negatively because the codec could break more easily due to excess of image information.


On the other hand sharpening in FCP could be applied in different ways depending on the final media.

[Cal Bickford]

thanks giovanni, thats an interesting point. so it sounds like shooting at -9 is the way to go for important projects.

[Phil Taylor]

Does anyone else have an opinion on in-camera sharpening vs. sharpening in fcp? "

I personally do not add sharpening in camera. You can do that in post if necessary.