AMOUNT
Amount sets the strength
of the sharpening effect.
When you apply sharpening,
you’re simply heightening
the contrast in edges where
light pixels meet dark pixels.
By increasing Amount, the
light side of the edge gets
brighter, while the dark
side gets darker. To judge
the right setting, it can
help to over-sharpen first
by dragging it to 100, then
move it backwards until it’s
at an acceptable level.DETAIL AND MASKING
Detail controls how much
fine edges get sharpened.
A high Detail setting is good
for emphasizing texture.
Masking lets you restrict the
sharpening effect in detail-
less areas. Alt-drag the slider
across and you’ll see areas
in black begin to appear:
these areas will be protected
from sharpening. Here we
can sharpen the detail on
the owl feather without
affecting the smoothness of
the out-of-focus background.
RADIUS
Sharpening is effectively
contrast change along edge
details. Radius determines
the distance from the edge in
which the change in contrast
occurs. (Hold Alt as you drag
the slider to see this appear
in the image.) As a broad rule
of thumb, highly detailed
images like landscapes
require a fairly low Radius
setting, while images with
lots of smooth details like
portraits typically require
a higher Radius setting.PHOTOSHOP ANATOMY
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