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This lesson demonstrates Photoshop’s sharpening filters; it is good practise to complete any photo manipulation - or resizing - with a sharpening tool - or filter.
Which Sharpen Filter?
Individual photographs have unique out of focus problems; the solution therefore is to work your way through Photoshop’s Sharpen filters and find one that
works.
To help eliminate white halos; prior to applying a sharpening filter; from the top
menu, choose Mode then choose Lab Colour. Now, from the Channels palette; highlight Lightness to isolate the channel, and your photograph will be converted to greyscale.
 
Continue with this lesson, sharpening your image as normal. After you have applied the sharpening filter, from the top menu, choose Image then choose Mode then click RGB Colour.
1/
Most of Photoshop’s sharpening tools/filters can be found from its top menu bar, from Filter then Sharpen.
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Additionally, there are many third-party sharpening filters, such as the following Nik Sharpener Pro - screen capture.
2/ Sharpen
The Sharpen Filter adds moderate focus and this improves clarity. This is a one step filter.
3/ Sharpen Edges
The Sharpen Edges filter (also one step), finds the areas in the image where significant colour changes occur and sharpens them. The Sharpen Edges filter sharpens edges while preserving the overall smoothness of the image.
4/ Sharpen More
The Sharpen More tool - this one step filter adds stronger focus and improves clarity - it applies a stronger sharpening effect than the Sharpen filter.
5/ Smart Sharpen
The Smart Sharpen filter works similarly to the Unsharp Mask filter; however, it is more advanced - allowing you to specify a Remove setting.
Additionally, you are able to specify the strength of sharpen in the shadow and highlights area, providing more control over sharpening halos.
Experiment with the Smart Sharpen editor and find what works best for your
photograph.
6/ The Unsharp Mask
The Unsharp Mask is named after a technique found in photography where a blurred and in-focus image (of the same subject) are combined to create a sharper image.
When you blur an image, Photoshop looks at all of the images pixels - takes their values, and then compares them to the values of the pixel. It then works out an average to create the new pixel value. The Unsharp Mask does the reverse, it looks at the value of the pixels around it and works out how it can subtract - so that it stands out more. Experiment with the Unsharp Mask editor and find what works best for your
photograph.
7/ The Sharpen Tool.
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The Sharpen Tool is found amongst the left-side toolbar, and is ideal for sharpening areas of images, rather than the whole image. Applying this tool focuses soft edges - increasing clarity. Be careful, as over sharpening leaves a grainy look; however, you can avoid over sharpening by setting a lower Strength value in the options bar. It is best to make the sharpening subtle and increase it as necessary by applying it (repeatedly) over an area - slowly building sharpness.
Now you know the range of Photoshop’s sharpening filters, spend a little time practising (on a duplicated image), discovering how they improve the clarity and focus of individual photographs.
Wendi E M Scarth. Top of Page - Home.
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