Tips for All - Sharpening image in Photoshop


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sulhan

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May 11, 2002
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Hi All you people out there!!!!

Well here is one of the tips for all that i think is useful.

Tips: Sharpening image in Photoshop.

Ready??? Go!!!

Procedure....

0- Go to the top menu and choose:
[windows]->view layers .....make sure you do this first to enable viewing of layers - a floating small window with the "layer" tag on the top left corner

1- Open an image in photoshop - you should be able to see the image also appearing in the floating layers window.

2- Make a duplicate layer of this image by choosing :
[layer]->duplicate layer....-> then okay the form as default (or give it a new name ...up to you)

3- Then choose [Filters]->Others->High Pass
and select a value about 4 to 6 not more thanthat unless preferred. - This will give a ghostly version of the image with only the outline of the subject more prominant

4- Then on the layer floating window on the drop down menu which is default [normal].......click on the small downward arrow head and then selec "OVERLAY"

5- And Ai Ka Ram Bah!!!....you have a sharpened image.......

This method is a better choice to Unsharp mask as it gives les noise overall........go ahead and try it and experiment......

Toggle the effect by clicking on the "eye" on the layer to see the difference....

Have Fun...


Regards,
Sulhan




;)
 

I have been using a value of 2-3... anything more than that is too much even for a 6 megapixel file by camera takes..
 

Woo... I sure will be trying out this one, but for now, have to try finish my assignments... :p
Did you found this out yourself thru experiment?

thank you for sharing
 

Hiee...

As i've promised to share some tips by the ADOBE Photoshop engineers from the Nikon Road show.......so this was one of the tips....

Will share with you guys some more......on how to convert color to black and white without using the greyscale convert .....

soon!!!



regards,
me
 

Hi Sulhan,

Thanks for the wonderful tip on alternative way to sharpen an image.

Can you show us how to rectify an over or under exposed image.

Normally, I use the one-step Auto button but the result do not appear to be good.

Thank you
 

Hiee...

One way to rectify (what i normaly do)......is to take the photo again....heheheeh!!!!...juz kidding...


Well...i normally use the [Image]->adjustments-> Levels...

This will give you a pop up with a histogram like graph with three arrowheads......pointing to the top....one on the extreme left,right and center.

If image is too dark (e.g. cloudy overcast day).....move the right arrow to the left ....adjusting as you see the efects.

Adjust the highlights by moving the center arrowhead......

And then tweak the brightness.....accordingly by adjusting the left,then middle...to taste...


Try this out.....

Let me know if it works or not.....


regards,
me
 

Well, the unsharp mask's main strength lies in its flexibility. The high pass filter, while convenient, particularly for people unacquainted with the intricacies of the three variables of USM, will find it more friendly a tool to get to grips with simply because it only has one variable.

If you understand how to apply USM properly then grain will seldom be a problem as well. In fact with USM you can refine control accurately, and obtain the maximum amount of sharpening possible with the existing grain.

For the high pass filter, a setting of 4 to 6 is probably too much, halo-ing starts to get obtrusive.

Adobe has a series of excellent articles on USM.
 

Geat work sulhan, it really help to save some of my blur pic. :) :gbounce:
 

There's a good quicktime tutorial on tweaking the variables of Unsharp Mask here .
 

sulhan,

perhaps you cd teach me how to do borders with a bit of shadow?
I'm real new at Photoshop :(
 

Okay....Here we go...this is how we do it (Note: There are many other ways to do it)

What you want is a : BORDER + DROP SHADOW - (Based on Adobe Photoshop 6.0 and 7.0)

The steps:
1) Open up an image that you want to add the border to.
2) okay there are two approach to borders,

PART 1: BORDER

Note: Canvas as in the drawing paper canvas where the image sits on.
So Image can be smaller than canvas but not the opposite.

...a) Border that eats up into the photo (where canvas size remains but you create
a white border all round into the photo thus reducing the image size)

How we do it:

- Open the image
- Go to [SELECT]->all or press CTRL-A
- Then go to [EDIT]->Stroke
- A pop up menu will appear.
- Choose the width size 200px
(depending on your image size in pixels...e.g 1024 x 768 pixels....choose 200)
-Bring the mouse over the "Color" Box and click on it.......
this will launch the "Color Picker"
-Choose the border color you want ....then OK the menu - USE white as a start
-In the "LOCATION" box, choose CENTER
-In the "Blending" box, Choose Normal and OPACITY 100%
- OK the form.
- This will the create a brder to the size you selected and the with
the color of your choice.


...b) Border that grows from the image (image size remain but the canvas size increase)

How we do it:

- Open the image
- Go to [WINDOW]->Show Color
- Look at the pop up window you will see the two dioganally overlapping box to the
left of the "R" slider.
- The upper left one is for the Foreground Color and the
lower right one the Background color.
- Click on the Background Color Box. (we want this as the border color)
- Choose white.
- if you see, on the pop up Color window, you can toggle between the Foreground color and
Background color by clicking on the respective boxes.
- Then Go to [Image]->Canvas Size
- Then you will see a pop up menu with "CANVAS SIZE"
- in the "NEW SIZE" box, Change the units to Pixels.
- Again as an example, we use a 1600x1200 pixel image.
- Now in the Width and Height lets add a 200 pixels border all around.
- This translates to - Width 2000 (increased by 400 pixels)
and Height 1600 (also increased by 400 pixels)
- Leave the "Anchor" untouched.
- OK the form,
- Now you have a 200 pixel width of border all round.

Part 2: Drop Shadow

- Use the selection tool and select the image from the whole canvas using the
Rectangle Marquee tool (top left corner tool on the tool bar)
- Do a [EDIT]->Copy and [EDIT]->Paste (this will create a new layer of
the selected image over the original)
- Go to [Window]-> Show Layers
- You will see to images one the original background and another layer on top.
- Then go to [Layer]->Layer Style
- Choose Drop Shadow
- On the Layer Style pop up window, you will have the following,
for a start set as follows to get a feel.....to play with

----STRUCTURE----
o Blend mode - Multiply (default)
o Opacity - Set slider to 62%
o Angle -Set the dial to 30 degrees
o Distance - 26 pixels
o Spread - 32 pixels
o Size - 46 pixels
---QUALITY----
o Contour - no change
o Noise - no change
( all the above parameters can be tweaked to TASTE!!!!)
-Lastly you need to flatten the layers to form the desired image...
- Go to [Layer]-> Flatten Image

If you follow the steps above corectly, you should get
the Image + Border + Shadow that you wanted.

Happy Trying.......do get back to me if you have any probelm.

Regards,
Sulhan
 

Hi Sulhan,

tried. Not so successful so far.
Will try again tomorrow.

Really appreciate your detailed instructions.

Cheers

dark
 

Thank sulhan... Your tips are good... Preferred the first one but it crops away the sides... second did not turn out nice but will try different settings and perhaps it may work better next time ;PPP
 

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