How do You sharpen an image?

I rarely use anything but Lightroom for sharpening.

Most of my photos are high ISO and I usually leave the sharpening slider at 25 (default) or at most up to 30. Low ISO photos can get up to about 35-40 or in some extreme cases up to 45-50. I don't remember ever using anything higher than that.

I use the masking slider. For low ISO photos it's usually at about 10-30, more often closer to the latter. For high ISO photos (most photos) it's usually at about 50-70.

The exact parameters depend on the specific photo.

This is what I do most of the time.

It depends on the subject, doesn't it? You might have said what you shoot the most of?
Sometimes I use this along with sharpening: A few words on SHARPENING:

Are you talking about landscapes or portraits - because what I use won't probably work well on portraits. I use a combo of different things. I do not use any filter built into photoshop. I use a combo of TK actions and Nik - depending on the image. For print, I use Nik mostly

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17035251
It depends on the subject, doesn't it? You might have said what you shoot the most of?
Sometimes I use this along with sharpening: A few words on SHARPENING:

I certainly hope what I shoot has no effect on how YOU sharpen.

HBOC wrote in post #17035870
Are you talking about landscapes or portraits - because what I use won't probably work well on portraits. I use a combo of different things. I do not use any filter built into photoshop. I use a combo of TK actions and Nik - depending on the image. For print, I use Nik mostly

Well since I asked what you do I'm deducing from this that in this case we are talking about landscapes.

if I dont intend to print large (99%) of photos, I'll use a preset named "faux sharpen"

it's really a combination of clarity slider, vibrance, and black levels to make a photo appear sharp/contrast.... in the end, that's what sharpening is all about. If I intend to print a little bigger, then I'll play with the masks in lightroom. If I intend to do a poster, then I'll go to photoshop, and layer masks, brush in some sharpened areas, clean up some noise with another masking layer, the full nine yards.

High pass filter.

travisvwright wrote in post #17037518
I certainly hope what I shoot has no effect on how YOU sharpen.

So you sharpen everything the same way & amount? I don't, which is why I asked because there's no "consistent basis".

carshop wrote in post #17035009
High Pass filter in Photoshop
http://www.photoshopes​sentials.com …diting/sharpen-high-pass/

forgive a relative new comer to PE ( I'm using Elements11)

OK followed that tutorial down to the bottom, all cool
but it didn't tell me what to do with my layer I created to add those changes to the background layer ? or don't I ?

cheers
Dave

PhotosGuy wrote in post #17039466
So you sharpen everything the same way & amount? I don't, which is why I asked because there's no "consistent basis".

^^ agreed
there is no standard amount of sharpening for all pix. some need lots, some need little, some need none

Dave

Davenn wrote in post #17043298
forgive a relative new comer to PE ( I'm using Elements11)

OK followed that tutorial down to the bottom, all cool
but it didn't tell me what to do with my layer I created to add those changes to the background layer ? or don't I ?

cheers
Dave

You simply have the "created" layer sitting at the top of the stack. I use Shft/Ctrl/Alt/E to produce a new layer with all visible processing added to the layer. I usually then change the blend mode, and it is the blend mode that does the "work" of sharpening for us. As the article says Overlay is your average amount of sharpening with hard or soft being either side of that. I usually just set the radius to 5 in the High Pass filter, and then just use the opacity slider for the layer to set the amount of sharpening that I want/need. To give an example of the relative amounts of sharpening applied, I find that with a radius of 5 I often end up using opacities of between 20 and 35 when using the Overlay blend mode. With Soft Light mode I find I get a similar result using between 70 and 80% opacity.

Although the HP Filter Sharpening method is an edge sharpening one it will still pick up and sharpen noise in smooth backgrounds, such as the sky, especially as the blue channel is usually very noisy. In situations like that I would still be inclined to apply a mask to large areas of smooth colour.

Alan

BigAl007 wrote in post #17043392
You simply have the "created" layer sitting at the top of the stack. I use Shft/Ctrl/Alt/E to produce a new layer with all visible processing added to the layer. I usually then change the blend mode, and it is the blend mode that does the "work" of sharpening for us. As the article says Overlay is your average amount of sharpening with hard or soft being either side of that. I usually just set the radius to 5 in the High Pass filter, and then just use the opacity slider for the layer to set the amount of sharpening that I want/need. To give an example of the relative amounts of sharpening applied, I find that with a radius of 5 I often end up using opacities of between 20 and 35 when using the Overlay blend mode. With Soft Light mode I find I get a similar result using between 70 and 80% opacity.

snip

Alan

Hi Alan
Thanks for the reply

I went through all the steps, did all those changes on the new layer that was created, no problems
But when I got to the bottom of the list ( tutorial) nothing there to tell me what to do with the layer I had created and how to "recombine?" that with the original background layer to get a final sharpened image


EDIT: reading the start of your post again ....

yes ... so I have the BG layer at the bottom and the layer 1 above it that I do those adj steps to

so is this action creating a 3rd layer that is the combination of the original ( BG) and layer 1 layers ?

if so, it would have been helpful for the tutorial to have told me that, haha

cheers
Dave

Davenn wrote in post #17044416
Hi Alan
Thanks for the reply

I went through all the steps, did all those changes on the new layer that was created, no problems
But when I got to the bottom of the list ( tutorial) nothing there to tell me what to do with the layer I had created and how to "recombine?" that with the original background layer to get a final sharpened image


EDIT: reading the start of your post again ....


yes ... so I have the BG layer at the bottom and the layer 1 above it that I do those adj steps to

so is this action creating a 3rd layer that is the combination of the original ( BG) and layer 1 layers ?

if so, it would have been helpful for the tutorial to have told me that, haha

cheers
Dave

Sorry I put that in for a situation where you may have an image with several different layers, but you do not want to flatten them before doing the High Pass Sharpen. The Shft/Ctrl/Alt/E combo is a quick way to generate a layer that is identical to those that you can already see. You basically have to start the process with two identical layers. I think that can be one of the hardest bits to get across.

So at the simplest you have a background Layer and above that you have the Background Copy Layer. You set the top layer to the blend mode Overlay. At this point the image will appear to become very contrasty/over saturated and bright. Still with the top layer selected you then run the Filters/Other/High Pass. I would simply set the radius to 5.0 to start with. The image should then look pretty much as it did before. If you then click the eye icon on the layers list as you switch the Background Copy (the top one to which you applied the processing) layer view off you will see that some of the edges become less sharp. Click the view back on and it will seem to jump back to being sharper. I usually find that using a value of 5.0 for the radius will actually be a bit too much. You can adjust the intensity of the sharpening by reducing the opacity of the layer using the opacity slider. Should you find that using a value of 5.0 in the HP filter is not enough then you will need to start again and use a higher value for the HP filter radius.

You can chose to leave the image with both (all) layers, or simply flatten it if that is what you want to do. Of course if you are going to keep the layers intact then you will have to save as a .PSD or TIFF file.

Alan

Play with the Masking slider, especially with High ISO images. The higher the masking, the more the sharpening is on just edges and the less it affects noise within solid surfaces of the image. When I shoot sports at ISOs 6400 or more, the masking slider is usually above 80% somewhere. Radius for me depends on the camera body and pixel density. Amount depends on image context. You can also use an adjustment brush to paint on the sharpening where it is needed versus the entire image.

Hi Alan....

BigAl007 wrote in post #17044685
...............
So at the simplest you have a background Layer and above that you have the Background Copy Layer. You set the top layer to the blend mode Overlay. At this point the image will appear to become very contrasty/over saturated and bright. Still with the top layer selected you then run the Filters/Other/High Pass. I would simply set the radius to 5.0 to start with. The image should then look pretty much as it did before. If you then click the eye icon on the layers list as you switch the Background Copy (the top one to which you applied the processing) layer view off you will see that some of the edges become less sharp. Click the view back on and it will seem to jump back to being sharper. I usually find that using a value of 5.0 for the radius will actually be a bit too much. You can adjust the intensity of the sharpening by reducing the opacity of the layer using the opacity slider. Should you find that using a value of 5.0 in the HP filter is not enough then you will need to start again and use a higher value for the HP filter radius......

Yes I understand all that followed the tutorial and all that part was good
I had no problem in doing the steps on the new layer I created

This is the bit that needs clarifying and where I'm having the problem understanding .... not sure what you mean by "or simply flatten it "

In his tutorial, you can see that the original BG layer is locked, so I'm assuming any alterations done on the created "layer1" don't affect the locked BG layer ?

sooooo .... after going through the adj steps on the layer 1, what is being saved as the final "rendition" layer 1 ? a recombination of layer1 and BG layer ?

This is the bit that I'm struggling to understand

cheers
Dave

Davenn wrote in post #17044858
Hi Alan....


Yes I understand all that followed the tutorial and all that part was good
I had no problem in doing the steps on the new layer I created

This is the bit that needs clarifying and where I'm having the problem understanding .... not sure what you mean by "or simply flatten it "

In his tutorial, you can see that the original BG layer is locked, so I'm assuming any alterations done on the created "layer1" don't affect the locked BG layer ?

sooooo .... after going through the adj steps on the layer 1, what is being saved as the final "rendition" layer 1 ? a recombination of layer1 and BG layer ?

This is the bit that I'm struggling to understand

cheers
Dave

So after you make your duplicate of the background layer and do all your adjustments such as the HPF. You right click on the duplicate layer and select either merge down or flatten image from the options. This will allow you to easily save the image as a JPEG and not a copy. Does his clear it up for you a bit more?