Sharpness in Image Viewer

[Edgar]

Hi guys

I am having some issues when viewing images with different softwares.

I do some image sharpening in the Canon supplied software "Digital Photo Professional", and when I 'convert and save' my images, it doesn't look the same as it would from the Canon software itself and I can't understant why.

http://img202.imageshack.us/img202/9549/samplev.jpg

As you can see, the image on the left are viewed with the Canon software, and the image on the right, is viewed in the Windows' Image Viewer software.

Any reason why this is happening?

[swifty]

I'm not sure if this is it but it could be the different ability between ur two software's algorithm at resizing. If u work at an unusual size eg. 19.2655% of the originals as opposed to a nice multiple like 25% then the software sometimes has trouble displaying it properly although this is usually jagged edges rather than unsharpness.
If u open each image in each software, both at say 12.5% or 25% or 50%, do they look about the same or are u still loosing sharpness?
The only other thing I can think of is something happening during the saving process. I'm not sure what your workflow is but eg. from RAW -> Tiff -> jpeg something could have happened. Just check that u havn't inadvertently reduced the save quality or something but again if that was the case, I'd expect more jpeg artifacts rather than unsharpness.
Sorry that's all I can think. Hope something in there helps.

[ricktas]

Not sure with Canon DPP, but some editing software has settings for how a photo is displayed. So you may find the version you are seeing has some extra sharpening etc applied to it. As they say to "optimise the viewing experience".

It could also be that the Windows viewer, softens photos slightly for display, cause that is what the expect Joe Average to want to see.

[Edgar]

Yes, they are very confusing, even the sharpness varies from software to software even when the same jpeg photos are opened.

The sharpest is from the Canon's DPP > Photoshop CS4 > LightRoom > Windows' Picture Viewer.

So I don't know why one to rely on, I've had similar issues with the colours as well (not just the sharpness issue) as from my recent thread -

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?t=40772

It does looked like viewing and editing (simple processing) through the Canon's DPP produces the best effect, but the thing is I am not sure if they are good when viewed through the Canon's DPP because they over doing it, or other softwares are not re-producing the photos as it should be.

I love Lightroom and was using it to organise my photos and processing, however, ever since I tried the Canon's DPP, I just don't know which to rely on.

[I @ M]

Edgar, I think you can solve your problem fairly easily.

If you are concerned about how sharp a photo will appear printed then simply process the same photo with the different versions of software that you have and then either print them yourself or have them printed and see which has the best result.

If you are worried about how they are viewed on the web then simply upload the the different versions and compare them as you and billions of other net users will see them, live in the ether, so to speak.

The "test zone (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=114)" forum here on AP can be used for that purpose.