Selective Sharpening Tutorial

Rohirrim · September 1, 2005

Sharpening images is often a double edged sword. Yes, we can get a sharper image, but often times we can end up with unwanted noise.

Selective Sharpening is an easy technique that can help you sharpen areas of your photo without added unwanted noise to the rest of your image. It seems it's most often thought of for portraits but can be used very effectively for wildlife images.

I have added the Medium size images to this tutorial, but the effects are much more dramatic and easier to see with the original size. If you would like to follow along the originals can be found at the below links.
Original Unsharpened Image
Sharpend Image- No Mask- look for the unwanted digital noise in the background.
Final Image

This is the Medium Version of the image for this tutorial.
Unsharpened Image:

Open the photo you'd like to selectively sharpen in Photoshop
Sharpening should be the last step, after adding contrast, boosting saturation etc.
Duplicate the layer: Layer...New...Layer via Copy (ctrl+j)
Should look something like this in your layer window:
Now sharpen this layer using whatever technique you usually use for sharpening. (USM, Smartsharpen etc.) Remember to zoom your image to 100% so you can see the effect better.
For this tutorial I will stick to Unsharp Mask to keep it simple. I usually find values of 50-200 for Amount and 0.1-2.0 for Radius work well for Wildlife. There is no magic number that works for all images. You have to experiment to see what works best for your image. For this image I used an Amount of 200 and a Radius of 1. These are a little high, but its easier to see the effect with these values.
You can often get away with using 0 for the Threshold using this method.
You will probably see a fair bit of digital noise in the background of the image (don't worry yet!)
Image sharpened without a layer mask:
Now you'll need to add a layer mask to this sharpened layer. Don't panic :oogle yet, it's not that hard. Choose the following from the layer menu: Layer...Layer Mask....Hide All. (or press and hold the alt key and then click the layer mask option at the bottom of the layer window.)
This has added a Mask to your sharpened layer that hides the layer. Kind of like putting masking tape over the layer. The layer below this layer is now visible, because the layer above it is "masked". The Black color to the mask means everything is hidden on that layer. Black= Layer Masked (invisible) White= Layer Unmasked (visible). 50% Grey=%50 Masked (you can vary the intensity of the mask with darker/lighter grey)
Your Layer menu should look something like this:
Now choose a soft edged brush. Make sure that White is selected as your foreground color. By painting with a white brush to parts of the masked layer, we will remove parts of the mask.
Make sure the layer mask is active by clicking on it, then paint with the white brush on the layer. Only paint on areas that you want sharpened. It may only be the eyes or the whole critter. Play around to see what looks best. You can always paint with a black brush to cover up areas that you decide you don't want unmasked.
Your Layer window will now look somethign like this:
The area that is white is visible, the area that is black is hidden so that the layer below is now visible through the black.

The final image:

I hope you find this tutorial helpful and if there are any questions, or areas that are not clear to you, please ask.

Regards,

ginger_55 · September 1, 2005

Thanks, Steve. Very valuable info for me, I bookmarked it.

ginger

GraphyFotoz · September 1, 2005

Question
Any idea how to save this tip as a HTML file to add to my Tips Helps in CS2?

(Area where you can make your own help files in CS2)

TIA

jwear · September 1, 2005

Steve

now i can really mess up something

thanks very well done

Rohirrim · September 2, 2005

Karz wrote:

Any idea how to save this tip as a HTML file to add to my Tips Helps in CS2? <img src="https://us.v-cdn.net/6029383/emoji/headscratch.gif" border="0" alt="" >

(Area where you can make your own help files in CS2)

TIA

Try copying the following and pasting into any text editor like Notepad. Then save the file as yourname.html. This should save the file as an html file on your hard disc. The picture files are still on-line, but should show up as long as you're connected to the internet. I made this up quickly this morning. I may try and "fancy" it up a bit and look for errors.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
  <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd">
  <html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
  <head>
  <title>Selective Sharpening Tutorial</title>
  <meta name="generator" content="NoteTab Pro 4.95" />
  <meta name="author" content="Steve Ting" />
  <meta http-equiv="Content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" />
  <meta name="keywords" content="Photoshop, Sharpening" />
  </head>
  
  <body>
  <div>
  <h3>Selective Sharpening Tutorial</h3>
  
 <p>Sharpening images is often a double edged sword. Yes, we can get a sharper image, but often times we can end up with unwanted noise.</p> 
     
 <p> Selective Sharpening is an easy technique that can help you sharpen areas of your photo without added unwanted noise to the rest of your image. It seems it's most often thought of for portraits but can be used very effectively for wildlife images.</p>
     
  
 <p> I have added the Medium size images to this tutorial, but the effects are much more dramatic and easier to see with the original size. If you would like to follow along the originals can be found at the below links.</p>
   <ul>
 <li><a href="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329126-O.jpg" target="_blank">Original Unsharpened Image</a></li>
 <li><a href="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329092-O.jpg" target="_blank">Sharpend Image- No Mask</a>- look for the unwanted digital noise in the background.</li>
     <li><a href="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329084-O.jpg" target="_blank">Final Image</a></li>
   </ul>
     
     
  
  <p><strong>Below is a Medium Sized Unsharpened Version of the image for this tutorial.</strong><br />
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329126-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
  
  <h3>Selective Sharpening Steps</h3>
   <ol>
  <li>Open the photo you'd like to selectively sharpen in Photoshop</li>
 <li>Sharpening should be the last step, after adding contrast, boosting saturation etc.</li><li>Duplicate the layer: Layer...New...Layer via Copy (ctrl+j)</li>
  <li>Should look something like this in your layer window:</li>
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329063-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 <li>Now sharpen this layer using whatever technique you usually use for sharpening. (USM, Smartsharpen etc.) Remember to zoom your image to 100% so you can see the effect better.</li>
 <li>For this tutorial I will stick to Unsharp Mask to keep it simple. I usually find values of 50-200 for Amount and 0.1-2.0 for Radius work well for Wildlife. There is no magic number that works for all images. You have to experiment to see what works best for your image. For this image I used an Amount of 200 and a Radius of 1. These are a little high, but its easier to see the effect with these values.</li>
  <li>You can often get away with using 0 for the Threshold using this method.</li>
  <li>You will probably see a fair bit of digital noise in the background of the image (don't worry yet!)</li>
  <strong>Image sharpened without a layer mask:</strong><br />
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329092-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" />
 <li>Now you'll need to add a layer mask to this sharpened layer. <b>Don't panic</b> <img src="http://www.dgrin.com/images/smilies/Oogle_anim.gif" border="0" alt="" title="Oogle" class="inlineimg" /> yet, it's not that hard. Choose the following from the layer menu: <b>Layer...Layer Mask....Hide All</b>. (or press and hold the alt key and then click the layer mask option at the bottom of the layer window.)<br />
 <p>This has added a Mask to your sharpened layer that hides the layer. Kind of like putting masking tape over the layer. The layer below this layer is now visible, because the layer above it is &quot;masked&quot;. The Black color to the mask means everything is hidden on that layer. Black= Layer Masked (invisible) White= Layer Unmasked (visible). 50% Grey=%50 Masked (you can vary the intensity of the mask with darker/lighter grey)</p>
  <p>Your Layer menu should look something like this:<br />
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329062-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
 <li>Now choose a soft edged brush. Make sure that White is selected as your foreground color. By painting with a white brush to parts of the masked layer, we will remove parts of the mask.</li>
 <li>Make sure the layer mask is active by clicking on it, then paint with the white brush on the layer. Only paint on areas that you want sharpened. It may only be the eyes or the whole critter. Play around to see what looks best. You can always paint with a black brush to cover up areas that you decide you don't want unmasked.</li>
  <p>Your Layer window will now look somethign like this:<br />
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329068-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
 <li>The area that is white is visible, the area that is black is hidden so that the layer below is now visible through the black.</li>
  </ol>
  <p><strong>The final image:</strong><br />
  <img src="http://rohirrim.smugmug.com/photos/34329084-M.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></p>
     
 <p> I hope you find this tutorial helpful and if there are any questions, or areas that are not clear to you, please feel free to contact me at <a href="mailto:scting@charter.net">scting@charter.net</a>.</p>
  </div>
  </body>
  </html>

Hope this helps,

GraphyFotoz · September 3, 2005

WOW Thanx!!!

Rohirrim wrote:

Try copying the following and pasting into any text editor like Notepad. Then save the file as yourname.html. This should save the file as an html file on your hard disc. The picture files are still on-line, but should show up as long as you're connected to the internet. I made this up quickly this morning. I may try and "fancy" it up a bit and look for errors.
Hope this helps,

Many thanx kind Sir it worked!!

It's now in my Special Help Files area of CS2.

Glad you know all that HTML code stuff. I know VERY little HTML.
I DO know it can cause you to say some nasty things tho!

Selective Sharpening Tutorial

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