Photohop Tip of the Week #9: Sharpening – part 1
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Digital photos often can look less sharp SOOC than a film counterpart. They can look a little soft or have a light haze.
Over the next few weeks, I will explain some sharpening techniques and de-hazing/de-fogging as well.
A few sharpening methods used by photographers and retouchers are:
- Unsharp Mask
- High Pass Sharpening
- Lab Sharpening
- Smart Sharpen
- and there are more too
Most people find their favorites and stay with those. Over the next few weeks I will tell you more on each.
***********************************************************This week we will discuss what I usually start most photo editing with – Getting rid of digital haze – DEFOGGING!
To defog a photo, go under your filter menu to sharpen (UNSHARP MASK).
Here is the dialog box you will see.
Enter 14-20 for amount, 40-60 for radius, and 0 for threshold. I usually use 14/40/0 but sometimes do 20/60/0.
There are times where I do not do this. If yu take a photo at high ISO and have a lot of grain, this will enhance the grain (not usually an effect you want). BUT if you have a well shot picture without artifacts, this will give it a little lift.
Defogging is subtle. This is just one step in the editing process. It is not meant to do everything, just lift the haze.
Next Post: Photohop Tip of the Week #10: Sharpening – part 2
What, if any, is the difference between doing this, and changing the contrast? I tried to do this the way you described, and it definitely worked, but looks like it you just upped the contrast a bit, it would do the same.
Amy, this in part does increase contrast and help with that “fog” digital pictures get. But has less tendency than brightness/contrast to clip highlights and shadows. I use both in my editing, but start with this.
Thank you for explaining this! Can you elaborate a little more on what exactly the amount, radius and threshold are affecting?
Great tutorial!