Introduction: Sharpening Photographs

Almost all the digital pictures we take need to be sharpened; this chapter covers the best way to do this.

1. Sharpening the Image

This image looks good, but if you look at the little details, there is a chance they could be clearer.

See how the lines are a little blurry? We can restore some of these lines to their original Hardness by sharpening the image.

Duplicate our layer and name the new layer “sharp” (remember to keep the original intact in case we make a mistake).

Apply Unsharp Mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask). Use the following settings: Amount 180% Radius 1.8 Threshold 4.

Go to Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask (Shft+Crtl+F).

Set Opacity to 80% and the blending mode to Luminosity.

2. Results

Checkout the results! Our picture looks great and we managed to restore some of the lost detail.

Before