Photoshop_User_February_2017

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photoshop user

› february 2017

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ALL IMAGES BY MARTIN EVENING

Step One: I opened an image and resized it to 1000

pixels along the widest edge. To prepare it for screen

output sharpening, I duplicated the Background layer

and set the layer Opacity to 50%.

Step Two: I then went to the Filter menu and chose

Other>High Pass. In this instance, I applied a Radius

value of 1.0, but you can vary this and use a bigger

Radius setting for screen images that are resized

smaller than 1000 pixels.

Step Three: Having done that, I changed the layer

blend mode to Overlay. If you want to edit the image

sharpening, you can adjust the Opacity slider to make

the sharpening effect stronger or weaker.

To sum up, capture sharpening is an inescapable

part of any digital photography workflow. If you do

nothing and leave the camera sharpening settings as

they are, or stick with the Camera Raw default set-

tings, everything you shoot is pre-sharpened automati-

cally. Since each image will have individual sharpening

requirements, it makes sense to learn how to use the

Detail panel sliders to apply an optimum sharpening

setting based on the image content. Some photos

need more than a global pre-sharpen, and will benefit

from localized sharpening. This is where knowledge of

how to use the Adjustment Brush in Camera Raw, or

the Photoshop techniques discussed here can be use-

ful for adding extra sharpness where it’s needed most.

Output sharpening is necessary to counteract the

softening effects of the print process. This should be

carried out last of all once the output size and pixel

resolution are known and the image resized. The

easiest way to do this is to print via Lightroom and

enable the print sharpening via the Print Job panel in

the Print module. If you use Photoshop to print, there

are dedicated sharpening plug-ins you can get that

will calculate what the optimum sharpening should

be. Or, you can follow the Photoshop output sharp-

ening steps described here.

With image sharpening, there’s a fine balance between

the need to overcome the softening aspects of digital

capture and the output processes, and the destructive-

ness caused when you add sharpened edges to an

image. Going beyond the defaults and developing the

skills to customize the capture and creative sharpening

can help you achieve cleaner, sharper images. n Discuss this Issue