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Sharpening


L

Larry

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This is my first post, other than the question I asked which I don't think counts as a post. Came across this site a while back -- very nice site, and many tuts, including one called "Smart Sharp". Instead of using "unsharp mask", which we all know creates havoc at high resolutions, this process enables you to go up to 300, 400, even 500% sharpening without degrading the image. It really works well. Here is the url:

www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/smart_sharp.shtml

Larry
 
thanks Larry for that link and welcome - I am always sharpening up our images from our camera as they always turn out blured and with no buttons to change anything except flash on and off [confused] I guess until I read the book I will continue to sharpen them :bustagut:
 
That's a good link Larry, thanks. :)

That's actually an 'old' technique now -- at least to me it is. ;)
But it's become one of the best methods used now though. I highly recommend it.

If you want to get "creative" with your sharpening/blurring, try using Curves on the channel to create the mask. Or, try also using the "Trace Contour" filter, then apply either the Maximum or Minimum filter to the channel -- which one you use depends on the bg colour of your channel.

And... you could also apply some of the other filters to create an even more interesting selection to work with -- like the filters under the Artistic menu. :)
 
Thanks Larry! You taught me something new! ;)
 
interesting..i'll try it...can you post your results...a comparison?...its seems like the images always looks great on the monitor but when printing them out...thats a diff story
 
Just start off creating your document using a much higher resolution than the default 72 mrdinh.

Try 300dpi.

But even that will not always guarantee good results. Sometimes you'll have to zoom in to problem areas and tweak things a bit.

TIP: when applying sharpening to an image, in part or as a whole, switch to CMYK colour mode and apply the filter to the Black channel. Then switch back to RGB. Or... just stay in CMYK if you like.
Sharpening in this way will avoid the typical over-sharpening artifacts that can happen while in RGB mode.

TRICK: Create a duplicate of the layer you want to sharpen. Apply your sharpening to the dupe layer. Then set this layer to either Lighten or Darken blend modes. You can also create 2 duped layers and set one to Lighten, the other to Darken. Try it! ;)
And as well... you can thereby add a Layer Mask to either of these layers and make the sharpening applicable to only specific areas of an image/photo, instead of the whole thing.
 
I always have great results with high pass filtering. I never use sharpen or unsharp mask, other then to create some special effects.
 
I agree G... the Highpass filter is a great method.
It's just not a filter that i'd introduce to someone just beginning.
 
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