Sharpening question

[Lhrusovsky]

I have to admit, I'm confused. I seen numerous posts regarding sharpening a photo and each is different that the previous. My question is there a standard way to sharpen a photograph. I'm looking for a down and dirty way to sharpen. Is there such a way?

Larry

[DonCoon]

Not that I've seen. There seems to be as many procedures as there are users :)

Also the amount and type of sharpening varies significantly by the composition and type of shot. For example, never sharpened the facial skin of a middle aged woman but do sharpen the eyes, mouth an nostrils. Maybe even blur the skin slightly.

A landscape shot will be sharpened differently that a portrait. Things different than people or animals, etc., etc.

I'd advise visiting as many "how to sharpen" sites as possible and form your own conclusions --- which you'll change anyway over time. Wish there was a textbook procedure but I haven't found one yet.

Somewhat reminds me of an old joke. The President asks his aides to exhaustively search the world for an economist who really knows how the economy works. After months of research they return with the answer. "Mr. President, we found four esteemed economists who claim to know exactly how the economy works!".

The President responds, "Great! What's their consensus?"

"Well sir, they don't seem to agree."

[w10d]

There are endless ways to apply sharpening to images, in part because Photoshop's Unsharp mask sharpening routine has seen little modification over the years and people have developed ways of 'refining' it.

Golden Rule: Always apply sharpening while looking at a 100% view of the image, even though you will probably only see part of the image at this magnification, (choose an important bit!). Views at less than 100% will be displayed by a single monitor pixel representing more than one image pixel. As sharpness is determined by the difference in values between ajoining pixels, it will be difficult to accurately judge levels of sharpness if 4 pixels have been merged into one screen pixel.

Look carefully at the sharpening effect you are applying: Sharpness is introduced by increasing contrast between pixels, over doing it can result in 'halos' appearing at edges. One way to reduce this effect is to sharpen on a top layer, then use the 'blend if' sliders to cut out the lightest or darkest parts of the layer. (Option click the slider to allow a smooth blend).

If you are having a problem with colour artifacts when sharpening (more a problem with scans), you can sharpen on a top layer and select luminosity as the blend mode, or fade the USM using luminosity (only possible immediately after applying it). As you can see layers can be very useful when sharpening - also allowing you to mask areas you don't want to sharpen, (after the event).

Some people like to sharpen in 3 passes, at different points in the workflow, with the final pass being applied according to output requirements.

Finding a favourite way to sharpen is as personal as taking a photo; find what works for you, always experiment with new techniques, but above all watch what you're doing.