Sharpen and crop

[Naturenutz]

If you want to sharpen and crop a photo,should it be done in this order ,or should you crop then sharpen . Thanks in advance for any help.

[Jim Ford]

A big factor determining the degree of sharpening is the viewing size and media on which it is to be viewed (monitor/print), therefore you should crop before sharpening. In fact sharpening should be pretty well the last thing you do.

Jim

[Naturenutz]

Thanks for the quick reply jim

[Geoff F]

The only alternative method is if you have a poor quality photo when sharpening in two stages, before and after cropping works better, particularly if you are resizing after cropping.

A little 'capture sharpening' is sometimes applied before starting any editing; if it hasn't been already applied automatically by the camera at the time of shooting. Say Unsharp Mask at 200% at 0.3 radius approx. Raw shot photos for example will be unsharpened.

Otherwise, sharpen last.