Sharpening your images is a necessary evil, especially when it comes to digital photography, there’s just no work around. There are several ways of doing this, but first let me say that sharpening is often overdone. Seriously overdone. When I see the amount of eye sharpening—and especially in child photography—some people do, it makes me cringe. It looks awful to me and screams fake when you practically crystallize a child’s eyes. Ewww. Yuck. So unnatural. Don’t do that, will you!
That’s not what I want in my photos; I want to enhance my photos, put the emphasis on those parts that naturally draw your eye.
High Pass Sharpening:
The most conventional way of sharpening your photos is by using the unsharp mask filter. It probably won’t surprise you that’s not my way. Being the control freak that I am, I prefer to sharpen on a separate layer by using a high pass technique. It gives me a lot of control. Here’s how I do it.
I like the photo as is, but I just want accentuate the eyes, hair, mouth and the lines near the cheeks a little more. Nothing major.
Press CTRL-J to duplicate your background layer (or via menu: Layer >> New >> Layer Via Copy). Rename the layer to something like Sharpen.
From the top bar menu choose Filter >> Other >> High Pass
This will bring up the High Pass box. Your photo will turn gray and appear embossed. Don’t panic, I got your back! Let’s set the radius. The higher you go, the sharper the photo will be. I usually stay somewhere between 0.5 and 1.0, with 0.8 being my lucky number, but you’ll just have to play with it a bit to see what works for you.
Your photo is still gray, so we have to set the layer mode to Overlay.
There. Instant sharpening! Depending on how low or high you’ve set the radius, the sharpening will either be very noticeable or more subtle. I lean towards subtle.
Now if you wanted to sharpen your entire photo, you’re all set now. I never do, though; I sharpen selectively. So I’m adding a layer mask.
Click the layer mask icon in your layers palette.
The layer mask is white, meaning the sharpening is visible and you can selectively remove parts by painting on them with a black brush.
I prefer painting the sharpness back in myself. So I press CTRL- I. This will invert the sharpness… hide it, so to speak. The layer mask is now black in stead of white.
Make sure you have your brush tool selected and your foreground color is set to white.
You can set the brush opacity and flow, I’m using 25 – 25. That way I can slowly build up the sharpening, which works better for me than going in full force.
Now start painting the sharpness back in on the parts that can use it. Like the hair, eyes, nose, cheek structure etcetera ectetera.
Or you can paint the sharpness back in using the full brush opacity/flow and decrease the layer opacity in the layers palette. Whatever you prefer, either way works. That’s it, you’re done.
Cheat Sheet:
* Press CTRL-J to duplicate your layer
* Rename your layer
* Choose Filter>>Other>>High Pass from the top menu bar
* Set the radius
* Set the layer mode to Overlay
Optionally:
* Click on the layer mask icon in the layers palette
* Press CTRL-I to invert the layer mask
* Use a white tool brush (Opacity/Flow 25) to paint the sharpness back in
Because I’m really sweet and all that (grins), I took the liberty of creating an action for you. It’s a 0.8 sharpener with an inverted mask so you can start painting in that sharpness straight away. Have fun with it!
You can download it right HERE!
Tags: adobe photoshop, free action, high pass, kayotic darkroom, photo editing, photoshop tutorials, sharpening
July 10th, 2009 at
Thank you for the plugin! I agree, it’s easier to sharpen on a layer so you can adjust it later if you need to. This is very helpful.
July 10th, 2009 at
Your actions are so awesome! I love your blog.
July 10th, 2009 at
I forgot to add that your son is gorgeous, just like his Mama!!!
July 10th, 2009 at
@Michelle:
You’re not trying to make me blush, are you now :)
July 10th, 2009 at
Great tutorial on sharpening!! I totally agree that subtle adjustments are so much better. I’ve seen lots of photoshopped photography that looks way too fake. You can really overdo it very quickly. This technique, however, is the perfect tiny accent to an already gorgeous photograph!
July 10th, 2009 at
I so agree with the over-sharpening of photos.
I see this on SO may websites and I think the children
look like aliens. Thank you for bringing attention
to this so often abused step in editing. I love that
you always keep your photos “natural” looking.
And thanks so much for the action!
July 10th, 2009 at
@Julie:
If I’d make his eyes look that unnatural in my photos, I’d be afraid people would ask me what the heck happened to his eyes when they first meet him :)
It really is over sharpened a lot of times. But I also think a lot of people tend to go way too far on the saturation. To each their own, I guess, it’s definitely not my thing.
July 10th, 2009 at
You know that you revealed the whole new world for me, right? :) Thank you so much for such a great tutorial!
And where can I see any examples of over sharpened photos, please?
July 11th, 2009 at
@Yulita:
If you want to see some examples, just google something like ‘how to make eyes pop in photoshop’, and you have a more than good chance of running into some serious oversharpening.
July 12th, 2009 at
I need these kinds of tutorials thank you so much..I dont know enough to make sense of sharpening on my own…your site is going to be so valuable to me. Thanks for sharing!
July 14th, 2009 at
@Kay: Thanks, Kay! I found what you mean as oversharpening. And you’re right, it’s so unnatural.
July 14th, 2009 at
Such perfect timing. A friend of mine was just trying to explain to me how to do this in an email and I had no idea what she was talking about. This is so much better! Thank you!
July 28th, 2009 at
I have so much to learn. I’m dropping you onto my Google Reader list. Thanks for sharing your photoshop techniques. I only have Elements but most of these will work there too.
August 18th, 2009 at
Muy interesante blog de dise