Tried High-Pass Sharpening on a couple of images

and used methods discussed here by members kind enough to share their knowledge. I only have Photoshop Elements v7 to process images after correcting things like WB, exposure, clipping etc. in ACR, then over to PSE7 for a few more corrections. Here's a quick overview to create the high-pass sharpening:

1. Create a duplicate layer
2. Set high-pass filter
3. Remove color
4. Create an adjustment layer for levels and make adjustments so I'm not sharpening noise
5. Flatten these two layers
6. Set the combined high-pass & adjustment layer to 'softlight'
7. Adjust blend to around 60-70%
8. Flatten image and save

Here's what came out and trust me ... these were NOWHERE near this detailed using USM at my standing 120%, 0.7 radius at level 3. The two images that follow are probably nothing close to some of the 'bleeding-edge' sharp images we see at POTN, but it's a step in the right direction for sharpening up my work.

1. Image taken handheld with a 135L. Detail on water drops really came to life.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …erphotography/6​215113944/

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …erphotography/6​214597813/

Now that's plenty enough sharp for me!!!

This process did seem to help me. I like to say that though my lenses are great, I have a soft eye when it comes to taking pics, yet my main goal is to take a tack sharp pic! My eye's are bad and it's been the biggest struggle for me to find a resolution.

I ran this silly pic through your process just now. I am amazed at the difference! Thanks!

Snyderman-nice job on the first pic. would you mind posting the original SOOC?

snyderman wrote in post #13209215
For those wanting to see details on how to do this, this link, (thanks to digital paradise) is where what I used came from:

dave

Hi Dave,

So just to be clear you used the "smart sharpening" technique and massaged it for High Bypass?

Tony

High pass if effectively what some of the sharpen filters use, but when you do it on a separate layer you effectively have more control than doing it on the whole image.

snyderman wrote in post #13209215
1. Image taken handheld with a 135L. Detail on water drops really came to life.

These are very sharp hey! What about posting the before pics as well?

awesome!

Hi,

How do you do step no.3 (remove color)
is that possible to do screen shot??? I tried to do your way to my picture, but it seem I cant see any diference from my original image.

Thanks

Same question.

Shift+Cmd+U (Image > Adjust > Desaturate)

Thanks.

General_T wrote in post #13222554
Hi Dave,

So just to be clear you used the "smart sharpening" technique and massaged it for High Bypass?

Tony

Hi Tony:

Sorry so late responding to your question. The simple process was duplicate layer, set to high-pass, choose soft light, blend at around 50-60%. Flatten layers then added a touch of USM. Really simple.

dave

This is not working for me. I select the high pass filter #2 and then remove colour as instructed. I see no change. I then create the adjustment layer but do not see that there is much to work with. Then when I flatten both images it remains grey just like the Hi Pass filter and there is no option to select soft light as becomes greyed out.

I am doing this all on the background copy because the instructions do not say to do otherwise.

teblung wrote in post #13233615
Hi,

How do you do step no.3 (remove color)
is that possible to do screen shot??? I tried to do your way to my picture, but it seem I cant see any diference from my original image.

Thanks

In Elements, the command to remove color from the layer can be found in the Enhance menu. Choose adjust color, then remove color. I do this step after dup layer after using the high-pass filter. It picks up a lot of color and removing it doesn't add any additional saturation to the layer.

dave

Original image: RAW file saved down to .jpg only.

IMAGE LINK: http://www.flickr.com …erphotography/6​237198321/