Pictures look too crisp with no hugs

[Politis]

OK, I'm gonna be real subjective because I appreciate that many of you are kinda professionals and know about MB Pro and pictures. I find that my pictures - including those I download from the internet or scan - look very (too) sharp. There is no 'hugging' between surfaces, no organic blur where there should be.
OK, clean lines are good but here we are talking Switzerland to the last pixel. By the way, I open my pics on the software that came with my MB Pro, anti-glare 15. How can I make all those surfaces divided by sharp lines 'kiss and make up'?

 

[thegreatdivorce]

What resolution are the photos you're looking at?

 

[Politis]

What resolution are the photos you're looking at?

They vary between 300k to 5MB. I think the lower resolution are less sharp for perhaps obvious reasons, but the MB picks are too sharp (in my opinion).

 

[mikeo007]

Are you perhaps used to some other software that does some anti-aliasing on the images as it displays them? I'm pretty sure preview just does a pixel-to-pixel representation of the image, I'm not aware of it performing any "sharpening". It could also be the LED backlight that you're not used to...I find it really over-emphasizes jaggies in pictures and 3d games.

 

[thegreatdivorce]

I edit mostly on my Mac Pro, but I'm actually going through a full shoot on the MBP right now, and the photos look appropriately sharp. Nothing out of the ordinary (i.e. they look good and sharp, but not jagged). Using Photomechanic/LR3/CS5.

I've found that Preview does an adequate job, at best, of rendering things.

 

[Detrius]

Preview.app DOES antialias photos. If you're saying Preview does well, then that's a hint at what you're expecting. Perhaps the other programs you're using either don't antialias, or they have antialiasing turned off.