Photoshop Elements >
Sharpening >
Introduction
Without sharpening—digital photographs look slightly out-of-focus.
There are three reasons for the softness.
Reason #1
The low-pass filter that's in front of your camera's sensor degrades
the photograph.
Reason #2
The software that determines pixel color and brightness (luminance)
is not 100% accurate.
There are always some mistakes.
These mistakes make the photograph look less sharp.
Reason #3
As you know, digital photographs are made from square pixels.
Pixels don't look as sharp as the dye clouds in color negatives.
Where the dye clouds nestle together, the pixels jut back-and-forth
into each other.
To remedy the softness, digital photographs need sharpening.
Sharpening
Let's sharpen the flower photograph below.
We'll look at the highlight on the dew drop.
Cursor Pointing at the Highlight on a
Dew Drop
Here's an enlargement of the highlight on the dew drop.
Unsharpened
The photograph was sharpened below.
Note how the contrast has increased along the edges between the bright areas and the dark areas.
Sharpened
A Little Art History
Sharpening isn't new.
Pigment artists have used various techniques over the centuries.
For example, Canaletto better defined the architecture of Venice
by using narrow black lines along the edges of buildings in his
paintings.*
Grand Canal, Looking Northeast
From Palazo Balbi toward the Rialto Bridge
In the painting below, you can see how El Greco used "sharpening"
by placing black around the hand of Christ.
Christ Carrying the Cross By El Greco
Detail
JPEGS & Sharpening
You may not have noticed any softness in your photographs if
they're saved using the JPEG file format.
If so, your camera is probably sharpening them automatically.
You can modify this automatic sharpening somewhat to fit the
subject matter of your photographs.
For example, if you're photographing a headshot for an actor
friend with a poor complexion, you may want to decrease sharpening.
Or, if your photographing the subtle color variations in a stone
countertop for a brochure, you may want to increase sharpening.
Check the menu on your camera.
Methods
Quick Fix Sharpening
If you use Quick Fix, try the sharpening
Go to Quick Fix Sharpening.
Adjust Sharpness
Beginners may want to start with this method, although the High-pass
Filter Sharpening below is easy as well.
Go to Adjust Sharpness.
High-pass Filter Sharpening
High-pass Filter Sharpening has several advantages over
other sharpening methods.
Go to High-pass Filter Sharpening.
Unsharp Mask Sharpening
The Unsharp Mask sharpening method is the most popular
sharpening method, even though it has some disadvantages
compared to High-pass Filter Sharpening.
Go to Unsharp Mask Sharpening.
Selective Sharpening
You can apply sharpening to parts of a photograph.
For example, you could add sharpness only to the eyes, nose,
and mouth, on a headshot.
By doing this selective sharpening, blemishes and wrinkles
won't be emphasized by the sharpening.
If you already know how to use the methods below, jump to the
selective sharpening tutorials for each method.
Go to Selective High-pass
Filter Sharpening.
Go to Selective Unsharp Mask
Sharpening.
Theory
1 - How Unsharp Mask Sharpening
Works
2 - Unsharp Mask Sharpening
Math
3 - Colors, Too
More
Experiment with
Gray Boxes
Sharpening Methods Compared with Step Wedges
* Mitchell, W. (1992). The reconfigured eye. Cambridge, MA: MIT
Press.
