How to sharpen photographs in Adobe Lightroom

Photography sharpness is an indispensable aspect of captivating images. It goes beyond simple in-camera focus; photography sharpness allows for intricate detail and can elevate an image's impact immersing viewers in a world of stunning clarity.

A photographs sharpness is not limited to the in camera realm of aperture settings and lens quality though. Images straight out of camera are likely to be inherently unsharp. With Low Pass (Anti Aliasing) filters prevelent in most cameras, there is almost always some level of increased sharpening that is necessary in post production.

Photography sharpening in post production is achieved by adding various stages of contrast. Layering each stage to achieve an overall result of detail and clarity. One of the easiest ways to achieve this is through the four stages of sharpening available in tools such as Adobe Lightroom.

In this video tutorial, we shall look at how we can implement each of these four stages in Adobe Lightroom and the impact each one has on the overall sharpness of the image. The final stage in the sharpening process is the cherry on the cake to avoid compression desharpening when you post your photographs to the web or social media.