New Techniques Page: Guide to Image Sharpening

[McQ]

Excuse me Sean if I am wrong but I would like to know if your statement
"Sharpening is irreversible; also save unsharpened originals whenever possible."

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, smart objects are a nice workaround, but technically speaking, sharpening is never really applied to the original image when using a smart object (except in on-screen previews or converting the file to a non-PSD file format). Think of smart objects as files which include a set of instructions that are attached to the original image data and followed when needed, but that never actually modify this data. Unfortunately, sharpening is currently still an irreversible process when it is applied to the image data itself.

[Antonio Correia]

Thanks for the feedback. Yes, smart objects are a nice workaround, but technically speaking, sharpening is never really applied to the original image when using a smart object (except in on-screen previews or converting the file to a non-PSD file format). Think of smart objects as files which include a set of instructions that are attached to the original image data and followed when needed, but that never actually modify this data. Unfortunately, sharpening is currently still an irreversible process when it is applied to the image data itself.

Thank you Sean

[Lily Quartz]

At the Bottom of the page:

The light sharpening halos are often more objectionable than the dark ones; advanced sharpening techniques sometimes get away woth more aggressive sharpening by reducing the prominence of the former.

It is pretty minor but just thought I would point it out

[canonite]

Very interesting and useful article. I mainly use the Unsharp mask, but sometimes only sharpen in RAW and not do any further sharpening unless I decide to print or email images. But I am surprised that there was one website with tutorials where the advice was to use higher values of pixels when using unsharp mask, but less percentage effect and very low threshold values! I tried that with some jpeg images and was surprised at how good the sharpening looked in 6in X 4 in prints! And no halos! That is the only "expert" who is very different from all others who say to stay in the 1- 2 pixels range.

Appreciate comments on this. I do not think it would be fair to state the site, as it now only sells all the tutorials done previously, and there is no live tutorial.

[McQ]

Thanks for sharing your experience with this. Using a large radius and low percentage with USM is often referred to as local contrast enhancement or "clarity." That is talked about on a lot of sites, including this one. It often serves a different purpose than fine detail sharpening though.

[xpatUSA]

An excellent article. I always learn from CiC articles, and the dynamic examples are a joy to behold.

I wonder if, when we mention ACR, PS, PSE, etc, we could add the version, when it is significant?

Inspired by this thread, for example, I looked for but could find no trace of "chromatic aberration correction" in my PSE 6 nor in my ACR 4.2

best regards,

Ted

[northlondon43]

I enjoy these forums but as someone who has only worked with PS10 for the last few months I have to say that 80% of the tutorial meant absolutely nothing to me...but I'm guessing it's aimed at much more experienced photographers
Adrian

[Donald]

I enjoy these forums but as someone who has only worked with PS10 for the last few months I have to say that 80% of the tutorial meant absolutely nothing to me...but I'm guessing it's aimed at much more experienced photographers
Adrian

Adrian

I'm quite sure Sean's (McQ's) intention in developing the tutorial would have been to make it accessible to people such as yourself. Image sharpening is one of the first things we need to try and get on top of as we move along the learning curve.

There are 5 tutorials that come under the sub-section of 'Sharpening, Noise and Detail'. If you haven't done so, maybe studying 'Understanding Sharpness' would be a helpful stepping stone to re-visiting 'Guide to Image Sharpening'.

Everything in that tutorial is accessible to you as a user of PSE10. Stick with it, because once you understand and master sharpening, you've made huge strides in terms of your photographic development.