Sharpness in final render.

[Ray x]

Hello All, I am still in the process of learning Keyshot so have attached a couple of Pics of a model that was rendered.   my problem is,  The image is not as sharp as I would like.  I gave them  1 hour render time using Raytracing and no Downscale.   I am obviously doing something amiss,  [ Probably many things ].   The model was done in Solid edge,  I would just like to have sharper final images... so could any of you more learned folks offer some advice.   I could take it into Photoshop and sharpen things up a bit,  but I should not need to.  I would prefer to get it right in Keyshot.
Regards,
Raymond.

[RRIS]

Use custom control in your render settings, there you can influence anti-aliasing and pixel-blur.
Additionally, you can consider rendering at a higher resolution and then downscaling your render.

[sloanelliot]

+1 on both, especially rendering at 2X and then downsizing, I almost always do that just because of the added detail/control afforded at higher resolutions. I agree it'd be nice to have perfect render right out of Keyshot, but even with photography, that's very rarely the case. A little post goes a long way.

Your lighting also seems a little washed out / dim (maybe you're just using HDRI alone?); sometimes just adding an area light or sharp/bright/small pin or two strategically can really create some nice, fine highlights and shadow detail that otherwise might be washed out with the HDRI alone..

Nice models.

[mattjgerard]

I would agree on the lighting aspect. Soft edged HDR's can make the whole image appear unsharp. Also backlighting adds a lot to the outer edge sharpness, and adds that nice lighter outline to the product. Helps it pop off the background and gives the edges a nice defined highlight.

[Ray x]

Hi RRIS, sloanelliot,mattjgerard,  Many thanks for all you advice on this, I have attached a render that was done at 2560x1828 and set the Antialliasing at 2 and pixel blur at the minimum. seems to have sharpened things up a bit.  Could anyone explain what the procedure is for downscaling my render.  I am fully at ease with Solid edge but fairly new to the render game. all part of the learning curve. also Denoiser was off on this render.  The Helical gears / Hydraulic clutches ect are inside the model but will have to get to grips with the outside first before I have a go at the internals.
Many thanks,
Raymond.

[sloanelliot]

Yeah I'd definitely leave Denoise off in this context, I'm honestly not super stoked on its results in general. The "Dust & Scratches" approach in Photoshop for denoising is a lot better (you can do a search on this forum, there are a few posts about it).

On downscaling, really it's just a matter of opening it in Photoshop and changing the image size (down by 50%) "Image" => "Image Size..." and then usually selecting "Bicubic (Sharper Reduction)" as your algorithm. BUT, before you downsize, you can play with some simple adjustments (levels, curves, sharpening, etc.). Sometimes Photoshop's sharpening is too harsh and has less control than Lightroom's, but you can duplicate your image, sharpen it, and then take its opacity down by 50% to lessen the effect before flattening and downsizing. There are some more advanced means of sharpening involving frequency separation, HDR toning, etc. that can create some amazing results....so when you're feeling extra motivated, definitely take a look at those!

[Ray x]

Hi Folks,  Now seem to be getting to grips with the Sharpness issue, through the good folks on here.   The attached region render is as it came from Keyshot, and 1 from the internals,   so maybe no need to put any into Photoshop.  One thing I have noticed is that when I select Region Render the final image is not all that is shown in the render box.  Would that be related to Image size  not being the same as my  Render resolution?