Selective Sharpening

There are several different ways of selectivly sharpening an image, which in particular if any are you refering to?
My favorite method is PK sharpner (a photoshop script) this offers a sharpening brush option.
A free way of getting a similar effect is to duplicate the layer, and sharpen that, then add a layer mask (hide all) and paint back in the bit you want sharp, say the eyes in a portrait or whatever, you can "tweak" the result with the layer opacity. Wayne
 
swanseamale47 said:
A free way of getting a similar effect is to duplicate the layer, and sharpen that, then add a layer mask (hide all) and paint back in the bit you want sharp, say the eyes in a portrait or whatever, you can "tweak" the result with the layer opacity. Wayne
Click to expand...

Pretty much do that except use high pass sharpening which increases local contrast to give the perceived effect of a sharpened image without the usual artifacts that are normally associated with over sharpening.
 
I duplicate the layer, use smart sharpen, and then erase bits with a 50% eraser if there are any funny looking bits to reveal the layer below.
 
If you are interested download a 15 day trail of Nik Sharpener from Nik Software (this is a plugin for Lightroom, Aperture and Photoshop) they even have a tutorial you can follow.
 
My Photoshop skills are very basic, but better sharpening is one of the things I am interested in because I am rarely happy with the vanilla USM results.

Previously I used to duplicate the background layer, blend with Luminosity mode, and use Smart Sharpening; but this involves erasing out areas you don't need to be sharpened. Can take quite while, and is no fun.

Recently I've started using Thom Hogan's selective sharpening technique by using an alpha channel mask to selectively sharpen only the edges. This seems to give good results with minimal labor :D
http://www.bythom.com/sharpening.htm#edge
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top