IMAGE SHARPENING WITH THE DETAIL PANEL
5 The Amount slider controls the degree by which the edge
contrast is increased, while the Radius slider controls the
distance from the edge that the contrast increase is applied.
Keeping the Amount at 150, increase the Radius and watch the
effect. Thick lines appear around the edge detail as the contrast
area is increased.
6
The best way to apply sharpening is to make use of
the split-screen comparison feature, and to carefully
adjust the sliders. Start by slightly increasing the radius to
1.5 and then move the Amount slider to see if it improves the
appearance. For most photos shot on a DSLR with a good
lens you won’t need to apply much additional sharpening.
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There is another alternative to help you judge the effect
of the sharpening that you’re applying. If you hold down
the left ALT key on your keyboard while adjusting the Amount
slider, the image turns monochrome, whilst with the Radius
and Detail sliders it shows just the edges that are affected.
This special preview helps to show the effects more clearly.7 Another good way to compare the before-and-after
effect of sharpening is to use the preview toggle switch
in the top left of the Detail panel. All the Develop panels have
this feature but it’s most useful in this case. Click the switch
on and off a few times to see the effect with and without
sharpening or noise reduction applied.
10 The final slider is Masking. This removes the sharpening
effect from some areas of the image. Again, hold down
the left ALT key whilst moving the slider to see a monochrome
preview. The effects of the other sliders will only be applied in
the white areas of the image, so by adjusting the mask you can
reduce the emphasis of unwanted effects.8 The third slider in the sharpening tab is Detail. Increasing
sharpening can cause image noise to become more
exaggerated, and the Detail slider lets you strike a balance
between sharpened edges and visible noise. Try increasing
the Detail slider all the way to 100 and back to zero to see the
effect that this has on your image.http://www.bdmpublications.com 81