My experience is that sharpening of the full RGB picture can interfere with the colours; this can be avoided by applying the unsharpen filter to the lightness channel only in Lab colour mode. As this requires a lot of mouse clicks I have programmed a function key to switch to Lab mode, select the lightness channel, apply the filter and then revert to RGB mode.
Edwin
Bruce, How about including a review of Nik Sharpener Pro in this article? Where does it replace Unsharp Mask and where does it complement it? Also, look out for typos and missing .JPGs--there are a few in this piece, e.g, figure 2a is incomplete.
Thanks, lad.
Thanks for the feedback. We have a review of Nik Sharpener Pro in the works: Keep an eye out for it in the coming weeks.
You'll be glad to know that Bruce Fraser was not responsible for the typos you mentioned. We haven't found a problem with Figure 2a. If you continue to have problems viewing it, please let us know.
Again, thanks for speaking up.
Mitt Jones
Senior Editor, creativepro.com
Submitted by Mitt Jones on Wed, 01/24/2001 - 10:09.
Would Bruce or anyone else please tell me why fractional radius values are used, since there is no smaller unit than the pixel and we are told to work at output resolution?
Submitted by Don Cooper on Fri, 01/26/2001 - 07:01.
Excellent article! Perhaps the best, plain-English explanations of Radius, Threshold, and Amount I've yet to come across. Will highly recommend this article to those trying to decipher the intracacies of image sharpening.
My only criticism is that the High Pass filter should have been defined and explained with equal clarity.
I have never quite known what to do with the Unsharp Mask filter and High Pass filter. But now, I know how to use these tools effectively on all or just parts of an image which is extremely helpful.
I am sorry to ask what may be a basic question for anyone who knows photoshop but I am a "traditional/Film" photographer who has been moving to digital (with great satisfaction I may ad) and who is learning the "trade".
In the article Bruce talks of painting the sharpening with a soft-edged brush and I got lost and was hoping that someone may be kind enough to explain.
Otherwise I tried the two pass approach and this is absolutely great combined with unsharpen. I am anxious to try the technique described in "Out of Gamut: (Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know about Sharpening in Photoshop but Were Afraid to Ask".
Unfortunately, most digital photographers have learned sharpening by fixed rules that specify exact values to use in Photoshop's filters, and therefore neither understand why professionals use the tools they do, or how they might be using them rightly or wrongly. Portrait and nature photographers have one thing in common: we hate seeing sharpening artifacts on large blocks of color. Any underlying noise in the image tends to bubble up to visible, and skies or skin tones with too much detail in them don't look as good as gently gradated ones.
sharpening on just the lightness channel
My experience is that sharpening of the full RGB picture can interfere with the colours; this can be avoided by applying the unsharpen filter to the lightness channel only in Lab colour mode. As this requires a lot of mouse clicks I have programmed a function key to switch to Lab mode, select the lightness channel, apply the filter and then revert to RGB mode.
Edwin
Very good
This is an excellent essay on image sharpening.
Good article but...
Bruce, How about including a review of Nik Sharpener Pro in this article? Where does it replace Unsharp Mask and where does it complement it? Also, look out for typos and missing .JPGs--there are a few in this piece, e.g, figure 2a is incomplete.
Thanks, lad.
Re: Good article but...
Thanks for the feedback. We have a review of Nik Sharpener Pro in the works: Keep an eye out for it in the coming weeks.
You'll be glad to know that Bruce Fraser was not responsible for the typos you mentioned. We haven't found a problem with Figure 2a. If you continue to have problems viewing it, please let us know.
Again, thanks for speaking up.
Mitt Jones
Senior Editor, creativepro.com
Excellent
Excellent
nicely done
useful info for me, a comparative novice at photoshop.
Why a Radius Value Below One?
Would Bruce or anyone else please tell me why fractional radius values are used, since there is no smaller unit than the pixel and we are told to work at output resolution?
Solid explanations of fairly complicated subject.
Excellent article! Perhaps the best, plain-English explanations of Radius, Threshold, and Amount I've yet to come across. Will highly recommend this article to those trying to decipher the intracacies of image sharpening.
My only criticism is that the High Pass filter should have been defined and explained with equal clarity.
Excellent article
This is information that I am currently using and have a need for.
hot stuff
more-more
Outstanding feature - useful and clear
Outstanding feature - useful and clear
Sharpening
Usual helpful words from an expert Bruce Fraser.
A very useful treatment of sharpening techniques
I especially liked the clear explanation of spot sharpening techniques. This is a tip that I will use again and again.
Concise and very easy to follow and understand.
I wish all "how to" articles were this well written and useful.
Great article on the uses of sharpening
I have never quite known what to do with the Unsharp Mask filter and High Pass filter. But now, I know how to use these tools effectively on all or just parts of an image which is extremely helpful.
Concise, useful, understandable
As a scanning newbie USM was beyond me. This helped enormously. Thanks.
Out of Gamut: (Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know about Sharp
I am sorry to ask what may be a basic question for anyone who knows photoshop but I am a "traditional/Film" photographer who has been moving to digital (with great satisfaction I may ad) and who is learning the "trade".
In the article Bruce talks of painting the sharpening with a soft-edged brush and I got lost and was hoping that someone may be kind enough to explain.
Otherwise I tried the two pass approach and this is absolutely great combined with unsharpen. I am anxious to try the technique described in "Out of Gamut: (Almost) Everything You Wanted to Know about Sharpening in Photoshop but Were Afraid to Ask".
Thanks,
JT
Unfortunately, most digital
Unfortunately, most digital photographers have learned sharpening by fixed rules that specify exact values to use in Photoshop's filters, and therefore neither understand why professionals use the tools they do, or how they might be using them rightly or wrongly. Portrait and nature photographers have one thing in common: we hate seeing sharpening artifacts on large blocks of color. Any underlying noise in the image tends to bubble up to visible, and skies or skin tones with too much detail in them don't look as good as gently gradated ones.