When an image is to be both sharpened and have noise removed should the sharpening software run before or after the noise removal software or does it matter? Thanks.

Most people say that Sharpening should be the very last thing that you do to an image, and that the level of sharpening should be appropriate for the output e.g you need a different sharpening level for a large print, than for a small web image.

Personally, I always leave my corrected master images unsharpened, and then apply sharpening when I know what the image is going to be used for.

Hope that helps

That is good advice, Mark.

The noise removal software I use, Neat Image, removes the noise and then can sharpen if you choose to do so, but it only does it after it removes noise. Also in most of the books I have read about digital photography finishing people like Scott Kelby recommend that you sharpen very last thing, just like Mark is suggesting.

Mark, Any suggestions on where the best place to check out Neat Image? I also have always understand that sharpening should be the last step in any photo retouching.

Cheers,
Eugene