Try this: Open Happy family.jpg from the Lesson 07
folder inside Lesson Files-PsCS5 1on1. Then press
Ctrl+J (or �-J) to copy the image to an indepen-
dent layer. Now choose Filter→Other→High Pass. Or if you
loaded dekeKeys, press Shift+F10. Pictured below, the High
Pass dialog box contains a single option, Radius. Change this
value to 4 pixels, the same Radius you applied in the exercise
using Smart Sharpen. Then click OK.
Still looks terrible. But what you’re looking at are the very
same light and dark halos that Smart Sharpen creates. To
apply those halos to the original photograph, go to the Lay-
ers panel and choose Overlay from the top-left pop-up menu.
Just like that, Photoshop drops out the grays, blends in the
edges, and makes it all better. The result is almost exactly
what you’d get if you applied the Smart Sharpen filter with
a Reduce setting of Gaussian Blur, a Radius of 4 pixels, and
an Amount of 200 percent. (In other words, the current High
Pass layer has more than twice the effect of a default applica-
tion of Smart Sharpen.) You can now freely adjust the Amount
by reducing the top layer’s Opacity setting until you’re satis-
fied. To my eyes, an Opacity setting of 80 percent looks just
fine, as shown below.Looks like a big mess of gray, right? But tenuous edges are in
there. To bring them out, press Ctrl+L (or �-L) to display the
Levels dialog box. Change the first and third Input Levels
values to 75 and 180 brightness levels, respectively, as in the
figure below. Then click OK.
Why go through all this just to get the same effect we achieved
in the exercise? Because now you have a floating layer of sharp-
ness whose Amount you can change at any time by adjusting
the layer’s Opacity setting. This means you can change your
mind well into the future, as opposed to being locked into
the static result of Smart Sharpen. And because the layer is
separate, you even have the option of limiting the area that you
sharpen by adding a layer mask. It’s an unusual approach—
especially in light of smart filters (which we’ll discuss in Les-
son 11)—and it takes a bit of experience to get it down pat.
But given the importance of sharpening in digital imaging,
having a versatile filter like High Pass at your disposal helps.Using Blur to Sharpen 225