Where should you start with sharpening and noise reduction in Lightroom?
Enter your sensor size, megapixels, ISO, subject and output to get starting ranges for the Lightroom Detail panel. Each slider comes with a plain explanation.
How the tool works
The ranges are rules of thumb, not laws. They use simple tiers: six ISO bands for noise reduction, a shift for sensor size because smaller sensors collect less light overall, a subject adjustment, and a pixel pitch tier for sharpening radius. Your camera and lens will differ, so treat the result as a place to start and then adjust.
Lightroom defaults are Amount 40, Radius 1.0, Detail 25 and Masking 0 for sharpening. Always judge at 100 percent zoom. Hold Alt (Option on Mac) while dragging Masking to see where sharpening is applied. Sharpening smooth sky raises noise and banding, so raise Masking until only edges such as the horizon, trees and rocks are sharpened.
Capture sharpening in the Detail panel is a first stage. Output sharpening is applied separately when you export for screen or for matte or glossy paper, so avoid over-sharpening here to make up for it. High ISO needs stronger noise reduction, but too much luminance reduction gives a plastic look and too much colour reduction bleeds colour across fine detail.
Questions
What are the default Lightroom sharpening settings?
For raw files, the defaults are Amount 40, Radius 1.0, Detail 25 and Masking 0.
How much noise reduction should I use at high ISO?
It depends on the camera. As a rule of thumb, ISO up to 400 needs little, around ISO 3200 to 6400 needs a moderate amount, and above ISO 12800 needs a lot. Check at 100 percent and stop before textures look plastic.
Why use masking when sharpening a sky?
Masking limits sharpening to edges. A plain sky has no real detail to sharpen, so sharpening it only makes noise and banding more visible.
More photography tools: Photo export settings helper, Landscape editing workflow checklist, Print size calculator