sharpening

Advanced Sharpening Techniques (or "Close to the Edge"), Part Deux

Submitted by LouBrz on 26 July 2011 - 12:15am.

In the previous article, we looked at the application of two mainstay sharpening commands in Photoshop: Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen. These commands may sometimes seem like magic, but under the hood they're performing three practical jobs: edge-detection, blurring, and masking. You already know about blurring and masking, and in this article, you'll see how to use the edge-detection capabilities of the Emboss and High Pass filters to create hand-tuned sharpening effects that can take you further than Smart Sharpen and USM in certain special cases.

sharpening lead

We'll also look at how a Remove option called Motion Blur can address camera shake, along with a little-known sharpening tool that Adobe fixed without fanfare in Photoshop CS5.

This article is based on Chapter 15, Sharpening Details, from Deke's comprehensive video course Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced for lynda.com. Read more » 

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Add the Definitive Edge with Sharpening

Submitted by LouBrz on 28 June 2011 - 12:15am.

Photoshop is adept at detecting "edges." By which I mean, areas in your photographs where luminance levels shift rapidly. When Photoshop spots an edge, it can enhance its contrast, giving the impression of greater sharpness. What sharpening can't do, of course, is go back in time and readjust the focus in your camera. In other words, it can't fix blurry images. But, what sharpening can do is take a well-focused image and make it look even crisper. In this in-depth article, we'll look at the fundamentals and core techniques of sharpening.

photoshop sharpening lead

It might surprise you to know that there are five Sharpen commands in Photoshop's Filter menu alone---not to mention related filters such as High Pass and Emboss---making sharpening the most predominant filter effect in the application. Photoshop's wide array of sharpening options gives you an enormous range of control and flexibility.

In this article, we'll look at the fundamentals and core techniques for sharpening images---specifically, how to apply the right amount of sharpening while minimizing noise and other artifacts.

This article is based on Chapter 15, Sharpening Details, from Deke's comprehensive video course Photoshop CS5 One-on-One: Advanced for lynda.com. Read more » 

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Martini Hour 093, In Which We Release You From Your Bad Photoshop Habits

Submitted by colleen on 2 December 2010 - 12:15am.

Stop it people. (Don't stop listening to Martini Hour, there are so precious few left. But do stop doing these things that you don't need to do in Photoshop.) Whether it be laziness, or convention, or excitement over tools or techniques to the point of employing them past all earthly reason, this week's show comprises a list of bad habits that Deke and I have collected in our travels (and Deke admits to having occasionally collected based on personal experience). Inspired by this blog post of things photographers can stop shooting already (sunsets, homeless dudes, . . .) we delightfully discuss our candidates for the things you are free stop doing in Photoshop. With our blessings. Not to mention, our insistence. 

Martini Hour 093: The Photoshop Bad Habits Show

Here is our list of "don't do"s: Read more » 

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Photoshop Top 40, Feature #5: The Sharpen Filters

Submitted by deke on 16 March 2010 - 12:15am.
Feature #5: The Sharpen Filters

About a dozen years ago, I engaged in the only cosmetic surgery of my life (so far!), LASIK. It corrected my far vision. But now that my aging crystalline lens is as impliable as a piece of beef jerky, I require reading glasses. And there's not a thing Photoshop can do about it.

Photoshop is similarly incapable of correcting a photograph that was captured or digitized out of focus. Consider the following examples. In the first, the image is simulated to be out of focus using Photoshop's powerful (but not Top 40) Lens Blur filter. In the second, I slather on a heaping helping of the Smart Sharpen filter with little evidence of positive transformation, not to mention lots of clipped highlights and shadows.

sharpened blurriness

Compare that to the same image as it was actually captured by Jason Stitt of the Fotolia image library. With accurate focus at its disposal, the Smart Sharpen filter is capable of rendering tactile detail, even with a tiny Radius value (the number after the slash below).

sharpened focus Read more » 

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Martini Hour 015, in Which Colleen Attempts to Represent Deke's Adoring Masses All By Herself

Submitted by colleen on 19 May 2009 - 1:08am.

This week, Deke and I solve crimes and unveil mysteries around Photoshop sharpening previews and InDesign's missing features. And as you can see, we look quite good doing so---thanks to this week's visualization, courtesy of Matti Alhoniemi's submisison from our Martini Hour Mashup contest. By the way, we really love Matti's work on this image, both for its beautiful craftsmanship and because it makes us look hot and smart without our even trying or having to rent costumes. That, my friends, is Photoshoppery put to its intended use.

Here's what we specifically uncover this week: Read more » 

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