Adobe lightroom sharpen function creates more noise

I searched what noise means and i found out it's those tiny grain like particles on an image. If you have adobe LR when you turn up sharpen slider along with detail it gets grainier. If you turn it up super high the outlines all become white.

I didn't like the grainy look but i still wanted it to be sharp so i usually turn down the detail but left the sharp function close to 100 like 90. Well you can still see it and ppl call that noise and i was like but i take all my night shots at low iso of 160 with a tripod stand how can there be noise? Nope no noise before i run it through LR sharpen.


Anyway i used another program called gimp ver2 and it can sharpen but doesn't produce the grainy effect. Personally for me i just feel making the outlines sharper is better but is it neccessary?

If that is the case using gimp might be better.

Also why does LR produce noise when you sharpen images.

 

Don't apply to much sharpness in LR.
Its just sharpening for compensating the AA filter.

If you only want to use LR you have to sharpen at the export window and select your final image resolution.

If you want to use gimp export the pictures in full size without sharpening.
In gimp you can resize them an than sharpen them with e.g. Gmic sharpening filters.

 

I use Lightroom on a daily basis. The sharpening function in LR is very impressive but you need to know how to use it.

Here's a few pointers..........

Lightroom 5 has the best sharpening algorithms and is what I use.

Make sure that all your sharpening and noise reduction is done while zoomed in on a 1:1 ratio.

Start by making sure you have removed any chromatic aberrations in the camera calibration module.
Next start with about 70 on the amount slider. Adjust to taste after you have finished with all the other sliders.
Most important step is to mask out the areas that DONT need sharpening. Hold down the ALT key and start moving the masking slider. Normally somewhere between 60-90. Whatever is highlighted white is the only areas that will get sharpened.
Then hold down the ALT key and start moving the radias slider. Somewhere between 1.0 and 2.0 is the norm but depends on how many details there are and the pixel density of the sensor. Basically you are telling LR how wide you want the sharpening to be on each edge. 1.0 = 1 pixel 2.0 = 2 pixels . 1.0 gives you a more realistic feel to the image. I tend to like 1.3 with the D800.
Last one is detail, again hold down ALT and start sliding. Go careful with this one. Somewhere around 50 is normally all you need but it's up to personal taste. This one adds noise!

The noise reduction section needs to be handled with care. Noise reduction will soften the image but used right it will counterbalance the "sharpened noise". normally around 10-25 on this slider, again you can hold down the ALT key for a better view of the effect.
The color slider is very useful specifically on night (dark) images where color artifacts tend to lurk in the shadows. I usually put this slider on zero then slide all the way to 100 while looking at the image. This shows where and what the color noise is and then you can fine tune it. Around 10-30 is the norm.

Go practice on some of your images, I'm sure I've just opened up a whole new world for you

 

hey thanks for the advice. I will try it now.

 

let's see does it look better?

 

Did you sharpened after resizing?

 

The "output sharpening" in the export settings takes care of the loss of sharpening due to resizing an image.
When you export your images to be viewed on the web, choose "Screen" and "Standard" in the "output sharpening" section.

These settings were not put in there as a gimmick, they do work very well. Best way to see it is by testing it out. Export an image and reduce it's size by 50% or more and choose "screen" and "high" in the output sharpening section. Then export the same image without the output sharpening selected and see the difference.

 

Yes that's the most importent sharpening.
The sharpening of the sharpening module gets almost eliminated be resizing an image from ~18MP to 1MP.

 

That is another image and i didn't resize it at all i uploaded it at full res to flickr but posted it here at 1024x640 as this forum doesn't automatcially resize large images.

 

Thats a big problem.
You let flicker do the work and give up the control of the final sharpening process.

 

I don't get what you mean. I saved the picture as the size as it is. I upload to flickr and i poste it in a smaller size cos it will extend beyong the screen as it's huge.

 

Flikr is resizing your image and resizing eliminates the sharpening.
You should resize in LR to eg 1200px width and select sharpening for screen standard.

Now you can post this picture without additional resizing.