Sharpening

[mdm]

Can anyone recommend a book on the principles of sharpening, more than just a mindless photoshop how to? Perhaps more relevant to scanned film than to digital camera files.

Thanks
David

[Mark Stahlke]

Real World Image Sharpening is probably the bible on image sharpening. There's a lot more to it than "just a mindless photoshop how-to".

[mdm]

Thanks. Bless the Kindle.

[Peter De Smidt]

I agree with the recommendation of RWIS.

I usually make a combined image on top of the layer stack. ctrl+Alt+shift+E. I change the layer's mode to 'luminosity", and use Smart Sharpen on it. Many times I mask areas of the image that I don't want sharpened.

[bob carnie]

I prefer Dan Margulis take on sharpening, he teaches sharpening at extreme levels and then using opacity to media .
I use various sharpening techniques on layers and in some cases use different methods for different areas of the image.

Poor sharpening is the cause of most bad images we see.
Lack of sharpening is not good, each image benifits sharpening.

unless you are working with a soft portrait in fog or something where you would even consider adding blur.

[Ken Lee]

Beautiful subject + large format + good sharpening =>

[sully75]

I use high pass sharpening, which is quite easy.

When you are done with your adjustments, I duplicate all layers, than merge all the duplicates. Go to filter -> other -> high pass. Then change the layer style on that layer to "hard light". Adjust the amount of sharpening with the opacity on that layer, usually 20-30% is best.

It's very easy and works quite well to me. Better than anything else I've tried.

[bob carnie]

Blending mode Hard Light, what is the difference between the different modes, ie soft light, or lets say just normal?

I use high pass sharpening, which is quite easy.

When you are done with your adjustments, I duplicate all layers, than merge all the duplicates. Go to filter -> other -> high pass. Then change the layer style on that layer to "hard light". Adjust the amount of sharpening with the opacity on that layer, usually 20-30% is best.

It's very easy and works quite well to me. Better than anything else I've tried.

[sully75]

Blending mode Hard Light, what is the difference between the different modes, ie soft light, or lets say just normal?

No clue. It just works good. I can't remember where I got it from, it might have been in the Online Photographer by Ctein, but I'm not sure. I generally don't like much of anything he has to say but if he did this one I owe him one.

Just try it. I honestly think it works really well. I've tried a fair amount of other things and find this to be at least 90% of everything else if not more and much simpler. You can set up an action to do most of it.

[mdm]

Thanks, I will check Margulis out too.