Print sharpening choices when making an A2 landscape fine art print

How does sharpening fit in at various points in Keith's printmaking workflow. How it depends on the source image and your creative choices for the print.

Keith walks through his image to print workflow, including processing files and editing them to make a print at the chosen size.

00:00 Start
00:30 Choice of photo
01:22 Software options
02:38 Looking at the original RAW file
04:20 Viewing distance - think about your audience
05:30 Editing choices - tonality
09:10 Scaling the image for a big print?
10:20 Printer quality settings
10:58 Should you sharpen before enlargement
13:55 Looking at the enlarged image for additional editing
15:05 Watching for dust spots
16:10 Sharpening for print
17:29 Nik Sharpener - an example method
19:38 Does the print sharpening matter [for this image]
19:50 Rendering intents
21:05 Working colour space choice
21:40 Looking at the print results
22:45 Fitting the sharpening to the image content
25:23 So, when does sharpening matter?

The basics of sharpening are covered in several articles and reviews on the Northlight Images site.

These include the Nik software mentioned in the video

This article about viewing distances and print resolution has been regularly updated since 2006

Sharpen AI is covered in detail at

Upsizing and sharpening is covered at:
This includes a 30min video looking at the issues and process involved:

For 'Business of Photography' videos and articles see:

[jbairdexp]

Not sure how I missed this video, but it was super interesting. After you mentioned print sharpening in your most recent video I wondered if you'd already done a video on the topic....and the "search" button is your friend as I always say! :-)

[RAS-pzst]

Fantastic video.
I was printing my autumn photos while listening in Lightroom. Epson ET 8550.
Your enthusiasm for the subject is catching!
More of these videos of this type. Thank you!

[tjmanou]

LOL hahaha "Only photographers look at photos that close and they never buy anything". ;)))) Brilliant!

[simonkipper]

Excellent content
I have followed your reviews for a while but only just stumbled across this channel.
Thank you

[brianlaunchbury]

Like the video. Totally agree with your views on competitions and what different viewers see when they look at a print.

[iandawkins]

A great overview, informative and understandable. I am using Affinity Photo as I cannot justify the cost of Adobe software as an amature. Many thanks.

[ddsdss]

Thanks. Most of my images don't really need much in the way of sharpening and my goal is always to produce the best print (not not necessarily the best JPG), but I've never been sure exactly when/how to apply sharpening as there are so many ways to do that. I process RAW in DxO PhotoLab (5, with an upgrade to 6 when it goes on sale--they charge too much for upgrades!), where I've got some sharpening options, plus Topaz Photo AI (which includes Sharpen AI) is another choice. I've also got Nik Sharpener Pro (which I've not used much yet--I wonder how it compares to Topaz) and I always print using Epson Print Layout. One nice feature of Photo AI is that the latest update (the program is a "semi-beta" WIP) is AI masking, so you can affect only the "subject." You do need to take care to avoid oversharpening, as that's easily "achieved" (remedied via slider). Also, thanks for the advice about searching for dust spots at different enlargements.

BtW, agreed--presets are at best a starting point and if you're going to rely on them you may as well shoot JPG with a "creative" mode applied.

[thomastuorto]

I'm with you on the presets. I see no point in them. I also can see if I was to make my own say, eg., light, medium or heavy contrast preset or something or other but would rather just start from scratch for usually for me, every photo or shoot (just a hobby) are different. Thanks for the vid, = enjoyed.

[billb]

Another great video. Can you share where in your P900 work you mention the max resolution to send to it (that is useful)? I know i saw it in a video but must watch too many of yours as unsure of which one😀

[iefdelaender]

I actually only use Lightroom. For printing, I use the Epson print layout software. In Lightroom, I sharpen my photo in the details panel and when exporting, I then also set the sharpening to high for glossy paper and matt paper.

Although I have Nik Sharpener Pro, I have never tried that. Would I benefit from that or not? It's an extra task in the print workflow.

[RonK]

thanks for the video, great info, beautiful image. Since you mentioned the "450 ppi": I bought a Canon PRO-200 a few weeks ago; I tried printing a .jpg with 400 ppi (through Canon Print & Layout SW) and the output was completely smeared, while everything works fine with 300 ppi images. Is this printer-based or rather different image by image? Don't want to be lazy, but do I give up a lot if I just stick with 300 ppi as this works fine (for my newbie's eyes at least)?

[thomaseriksson]

There were lots of good advices in this video. So I need two programs, one for enlargement and one for sharpening besides PS and LR. I have an out of focus landscape picture and I wonder if can I straiten that out with a sharpening program or is it just a contrast enforcer?

[tundrusphoto]

Hello, Keith. Do you have any experience to share regarding printing with Capture One? This video is very helpful. Thank you.

[jean-claudemuller]

Hi Keith
My understanding is that printers have a fixed paper avance pitch to print each line that is for Epson pro printers 360 lines / inch and that the enormous printer dpi values of some thousands represents the density of ink dots on each line.

How can an image have more details with a 450 ppi file (relative to print size) when the printer can only gives 360 lines per inch ?

Is there perhaps a driver internal 360 lines /inch downsizing algorithm that sharpens, like for example lankzos ?

[huanliu]

Hi Keith, for the life of me I can't figure out what print resolution I should be using in the Nik Sharpener for my Canon Pro-1000. Could you please point me to the right direction?

[PeterWigenBjarnoe]

I watch your videos about printing with great interest and I learn a lot, but I do have some questions (actually I have many) about resolution. I am the happy owner of an Epson SC-P900 (which I bought after watching your videos).

Which resolution do you recommend when it comes to Epson SC-P900? 360, 720, 1440 or 2880 dpi?

I have experienced challenges when printing in 1440 dpi, as it is as if there are parts of the image that do not print. I print from Lightroom Classic, that's reports that there may be problems when you print with too high a resolution, meaning it is from 720 dpi and up. I print from an iMac with i5 CPU and 64GB RAM, which I think is OK.

[markflanagan]

Hi Keith, another very informative video and thanks so much.
I am afraid to ask, but here goes. having only Rawtherapee as a software editor for raw files as part of my learning in digital editing for the last few years which i have found to be quite excellent once getting the feel for it but it does not have brushes or radial masks and layers and so on ( not quite true but not on a photoshop level), my question is
having recently purchased Luminar Neo as a one off (can add the new developments later) i am very impressed with the edit tool for raws and the ability to introduce various masking techniques is a revelation for myself personally,
Would you or others have any reservations about creating prints from this AI software as printing digital files is very much my future aim, i do not use the presets as i develop the raw as subtlety as a I am able. 
Thanks again, Mark

[henri.witteveen]

I wonder do you use software like Gigapixel AI on high resolution sensors like the one in the Canon 5DS?