How to sharpen images in Photoshop - Post-processing techniques for sharpening. Filters group sharpening in Photoshop
Let's take a closer look at the retouching tools: Blur, Sharpen, Smudge.
Under retouching
Blur(blur), Sharpen(sharpness), Smudge(lubrication). To work with these tools, you need to move the mouse pointer to a place in the image,
which requires correction, and by clicking the left mouse button, make changes. The radius of the tool depends on the selected brush size in the Options palette. All three tools have the ability to customize the blending mode ( Mode) and impact force ( Strength).
Tools of the Eraser group. are intended for deleting a selected fragment of an image. There are three types of erasers in Photoshop: eraser(rubber), Background Eraser(elastic band for background), Magic Eraser(“magic” elastic band).
Retouching tools: Blur, Sharpen, Smudge.
Under retouching refers to editing an image in order to improve (or change) its quality, for example, sharpening, reducing sharpness (softening), etc. There is a group of tools for this: Blur(blur), Sharpen(sharpness), Smudge(lubrication). To work with these tools, you need to move the mouse pointer to the place in the image that requires correction, and click the left mouse button to make changes. The radius of the tool depends on the selected brush size in the Options palette. All three tools have the ability to customize the blending mode ( Mode) and impact force ( Strength).
- Blur (blur)- used to soften sharp edges in an image.
- Sharpen (sharpness)- on the contrary, it increases the contrast of the edges, and therefore the sharpness of the image. You need to be careful with this tool - if you apply it several times in a row to one area of the image, simply colored dots may appear that do not correspond in any way to the contents of the image.
- Smudge- an interesting tool that simulates the effect of smearing wet paint with your finger, it captures the color and mixes it with surrounding colors as you move. It has an option in the settings Finger painting(finger painting), which when activated, adds a primary color to the image where the tool is applied. It is not available in the Blur and Sharpen tools.
The picture shows the action of the Smudge tool. When processing the top part of the image, the Finger Painting option was enabled.
Comment. The sharpen and blur tools do not work with black and white and indexed images.
Eraser tool group.
These tools are designed to remove a selected portion of an image. There are three types of erasers in Photoshop: eraser(rubber), Background Eraser(elastic band for background), Magic Eraser(“magic” elastic band).
- eraser. A simple eraser is designed to remove part of an image, regardless of color. Its settings include: options Mode, Opacity, Flow, airbrush mode - see the section of the first lesson "Brush"; option Erase to history- when this checkbox is enabled, the eraser restores the just erased image. You can also choose what shape the eraser will be: Brush - brush, Pencil - brush with hard edges, Block - square.
- Magic Eraser. The "magic" eraser removes part of the image of the same color or similar colors, depending on the settings. You have already encountered all the settings before with the PaintBucket tool. (The principle of operation is similar to the PaintBucket fill tool, only it deletes instead of filling.)
- Background Eraser. Background eraser - removes everything, but leaves the background set to the main color when the option is enabled Protect Foreground Color. In settings Limits(Borders) you can choose the method of action of the rubber band:
- Discontiguous - deletes everything,
- Contiguous - removes adjacent similar colors and shades,
- Find Edges - leaves intact image fragments with contrasting colors (a sharp transition from one color to another).
Option Sampling- sets the color selection method.
(Optional) If your image contains multiple layers, select the layer containing the image you want to sharpen to work with. The Sharpen Mask filter can only be applied to one layer at a time, even if the layers are linked or grouped. Before you apply the Sharpen Mask filter, you can merge the layers.
Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Make sure the View option is selected.
Note.
Click and hold down the image in the preview window to see the image without adjusting sharpness. You can drag and drop to see different parts of the image in the preview window, and the “+” or “–” buttons control the image scale.
Although the Sharpen Mask dialog box has its own preview window, it's best to move the dialog box so that the results of the filter are visible in the document window.
To determine the number of pixels processed by the filter around edge pixels, drag the Radius slider or enter a value. The larger the radius value, the wider the edge effects spread. The wider the edge effect spreads, the more the increased sharpness will be visible.
The radius value may vary depending on the user's taste, as well as the size of the final reproduction and the output method. For high-resolution images, radius values of 1 and 2 are usually recommended. A smaller value increases the sharpness of the pixels of only the outlines themselves, while higher value sharpening covers a wider area of pixels. This effect is not as noticeable in print as it is on screen because the two-pixel radius takes up less space on a high-resolution printed image.
To set the degree to which pixel contrast is increased, drag the Effect slider or enter a value. For images that are printed at high resolution, values between 150% and 200% are generally recommended.
Set the difference by which the pixels in question will be recognized compared to surrounding pixels as edges for subsequent filter processing. To do this, drag the Threshold slider or enter the appropriate value. For example, a threshold of 4 means processing all pixels whose tone values on a scale from 0 to 255 differ by 4 units or more. Thus, adjacent pixels with values of 128 and 129 will not be processed. To avoid noise or posterization (for example, in images with skin tones), it is recommended to use an edge mask or try to find a threshold value between 2 and 20. The default threshold value (0) sharpens the entire image.
Having a blurred background in a photo makes it easier to focus on the main subject. When using the bokeh effect (bokeh - blur or fuzziness) in photo processing, you should always remember a few rules. Objects in the image that are closest should remain fairly sharp and clear. In turn, those objects located further away should be more fuzzy.
In a programme Adobe Photoshop There is a huge list of different blur filters, which include such as “Gaussian Blur”, “Motion Blur” and a number of others. In newer versions, starting from CS6, these filters have more big amount all kinds of effects.
One of the most simple ways To blur the background in Photoshop is to use a tool called the "History Brush".
It is used as follows:
Eraser
The principle of operation of this method is almost the same as the previous one, but there are some exceptions:
Adjusting eraser parameters: “Size” and “Hardness”. You can select a ready-made preset from the samples at the bottom of the window: 
Result: 
A mask is a tool that all Photoshop professionals use. Thanks to its use, you can do more accurate and quality work. When it is activated on the work area next to the thumbnail of the main image appears additional small window. She represents black and white image, in which visible areas are indicated in white and invisible areas in black. This allows, in case of errors or inaccuracies, to easily eliminate them by painting the damaged area with the desired color. 
To make a blurred background using the mask method, you need to:
Radial and ray blur
Among the Photoshop filters, we can highlight such effects as “Radial” and “Radiation”. Depending on the settings, this filter can simulate a circular blur or blur from the center of the image to its edges, which will create a certain movement effect.
Radial
Instructions:
Radial
When creating blur in the form of rays, the scheme of actions is almost the same:
One of the most popular filters for shading the background. To adjust the strength of the effect, move the radius slider to the right or left.
We use the Gaussian filter:
other methods
In addition to the above, you can use a number of other methods that will blur the background in a photo.
Blur Tool
The tool allows you to blur the background; to do this you need to do the following:
Pen tool
To make your work more accurate, you can additionally use the Pen tool. 
Instructions:
Quick Selection feature
Thanks to this method, you can blur the background from behind around the main subject in the photo, while avoiding the so-called ghosting.
In this photo retouching tutorial, we'll look at the Field Blur effect, the first of three new blur effects in Photoshop CS6. Field Blur, along with Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift (other new blur effects) are located in the Blur Gallery, which appeared in Photoshop CS6.
Each of these effects blurs the image different ways, but as we can learn from these lessons, field blur, aperture blur and Tilt Shift have one common feature- they allow us to have a lot of control over the blurring process because they don't apply uniform blur throughout the entire image. On the contrary, these effects help us fine-tune the degree of blur in separate parts images without using a layer mask, which greatly simplifies the task.
In this tutorial we will study field blur in detail. Here's the photo I'll be working with:
Original image
Before we continue, let's take a look at the Layers panel, where you can see that I'm currently working with a copy of the original image. I created a copy of the layer by pressing the keyboard shortcut Crtl+J / Command+J and thus duplicating the background layer. In this case, the original image on the background layer will remain untouched, and I will blur the copy on layer 1:
Work with a copy of the image (layer 1) to avoid changes to the original (background layer).
Selecting the Field Blur effect
To use the Field Blur effect, go to the Filter menu bar at the top of the screen, select Blur from the list and then Field Blur:
Select Filter > Blur > Field Blur.
Blur gallery
After selecting the “Field Blur” effect, a new blur gallery appears on the screen, temporarily replacing the standard interface in Photoshop CS6.
The Blur Gallery consists almost entirely of a preview area where we work with the image, and if you look in right side screen, you can see several panels. The top panel is called the Blur Tools panel, where you can find options for controlling the field, iris, and tilt-shift blur effects.
Below is the Blur Effects panel, with more options for adding bokeh effects to your blur. We won't be exploring the Blur Effects panel in this tutorial because we won't need to add any additional options to the basic blur effect.
Because I selected Field Blur in the Filter menu bar, options for field blur automatically appeared in the Blur Tools panel:
Blur gallery in Photoshop CS6 with the Blur Tools panel, where you can see the options for field blur.
Working with pins
If we look at the image in the preview area, we'll notice two things.
First, the entire image is completely uniformly blurred, and this is similar to applying more traditional Photoshop blur effects, such as Gaussian blur.
Secondly, and more interestingly, we can notice a strange circular icon. This icon is called a "pin" because we "pin" it to the image. Photoshop defaults to the initial pin for us, but we can add additional pins in various places in the image. Why do we need this? We'll find out soon:
Photoshop defaults to the initial pin for us.
The initial pin that the program adds actually controls the amount of blur that will be applied to the image. How does this happen?
The pin's outer control ring acts like the volume control on a tape recorder. To increase the music volume, we turn the knob clockwise, and to decrease the volume, we turn it counterclockwise.
In our case, instead of adjusting the volume, we adjust the degree of blur, but the principle of operation is the same. We just need to turn the knob. Hover your mouse over the outer control ring, then, while holding down the mouse button, rotate the ring clockwise or counterclockwise.
Turning it clockwise will increase the amount of blur, while turning it counterclockwise will decrease it. Photoshop will show you a preliminary result of rotating the ring:
Click on the outer ring and rotate it to adjust the amount of blur.
Blur slider
If using the "volume control" doesn't appeal to you, you can also adjust the amount of blur using more traditional way- moving the slider in the “Blur Tools” panel in the “Field Blur” section.
The slider and pin are tied to each other - changing one automatically changes the other. Therefore there is no difference in which tool to use. And just like with the pin, Photoshop gives you a preview of the result as you move the blur slider left or right:
You can use a pin or slider to control the amount of blur.
Here's what my image looks like in the preview area after setting the blur level to 18 pixels:
Initial blur effect.
Moving pins
So, at this point I managed to achieve the same level of blur throughout the entire image. But what if you need to change the degree of blur in a specific place in the image? For example, a girl’s eyes should not be blurred. They should remain clear. How can I reduce blur in the face area? With the new Field Blur filter, this is easy to achieve! All you need to do is add another pin!
Before I do that, I want to move my original pin to a different location. We can move the pins by simply clicking on their center and moving the pins around the image. I'll move the pin a little higher to get it away from the eye area:
Click on the pin and move it to the desired location.
Adding pins
To add a new pin, move the mouse cursor to the desired location. The cursor will turn into a pin icon with a plus sign next to it, indicating that you can add a new pin. In my case, since I want to change the amount of blur around the girl's eyes, I'll move the mouse cursor to the left eye:
Move the mouse cursor to the desired location.
Then just click on the mouse button and a new pin will appear! Note that the original pin is still in the image, but it does not have an outer control ring. This is because although both pins blur the image, we can only control one pin at a time, so the control ring appears on the selected active pin (the new pin I just added):
When two or more pins are added, the outer control ring appears on the selected pin.
After adding a new pin to the girl's eye area, I can remove the blur there either by rotating the control ring counterclockwise, or by dragging the blur slider in the toolbar to the left until the blur level is set to 0. I select the rotating ring option. The blur effect around and below the second pin has stopped working, while the area closer to the original pin above in the image is still blurry:
Each pin adjusts the degree of blur in various parts Images.
I'll do the same with the second eye, adding a third pin to the image and turning the outer control ring counterclockwise to remove the blur effect. Both eyes are now clear and sharp, just like in the original image, while the area around the top pin is blurred. As we add new pins, we start in to a greater extent control blur in different parts of the image:
Each new pin adjusts the amount of blur in the area around and below it.
So what if I want to go back and adjust the original pin differently? No problem! All you need to do is simply click on it and make it active, bringing up the outer control ring on the screen, and then rotate the ring (or move the slider on the toolbar) to increase or decrease the degree of blur in that part of the image.
It's important to note that we are not making permanent changes to the image as we work with the pins. Photoshop simply shows us the preliminary result of the blur effect:
Click on any pin to make it active again and make the necessary changes.
In my case, I add a fourth pin to the shoulder area to blur that area a little, and rotate the control ring clockwise to increase the blur effect. You can add as many pins to the image as you need to control the amount of blur as needed:
Let's blur the area in the lower left corner of the image by adding another pin.
And as another example, I'll add a fifth pin to the mouth area, then turn the control ring counterclockwise to bring back the original sharpness of the girl's lower face:
The field blur filter allows us to quickly and easily adjust the desired degree of blur.
Temporarily hiding pins
The only problem with working with pins is that they gradually clutter the image and it becomes difficult to see the blurring effect. We can temporarily hide pins by pressing and holding the letter H on the keyboard (from the verb hide). When the key is pressed, the pins disappear. By releasing the key, we return visibility to the pins:
Press and hold the H key to hide the pins and see the result of the blur.
You can also compare the processed and original images at any time by turning off the Preview option at the top of the blur gallery. When Preview is not selected, the original image appears. To return to your unfinished blur work, select the Preview option again by checking the box. You can also press the P key on your keyboard to quickly enable/disable the option:
Compare the original and processed images by turning on/off the preview option.
Removing pins
To remove an unwanted pin, make it active and press the Backspace/Delete key on your keyboard. If you want to remove all pins at once and start over, click the Remove All Pins icon at the top of the Blur Gallery (to the right of Preview):
Select Remove All Pins to remove pins from your image one at a time.
Applying a blur effect to an image
When you're finally done adding, moving pins and are happy with the result, simply click the "OK" button in the blur gallery or the Enter/Return key on your keyboard. This will apply the blur effect to the original image and exit the blur gallery:
Press OK to apply the blur effect.
And now we're done with the blur! For comparison, here's the original image again:
Original image.
And here's my final result, after adding a few more pins to the image:
Final result.
We did it! We learned how to easily blur the necessary parts of an image using the new Field Blur filter in Photoshop CS6!
Translation: Ksenia Rudenko
When you see a beautiful photograph of a natural or cityscape, the first thing you ask yourself is, “How did he manage to capture that shot like that?” Of course, the moment of shooting itself plays important role in creating any outstanding photograph. Is the exposure set correctly and will it produce a correct, well-balanced RAW file? Do I need to bracket to capture and then be able to process wide dynamic range? Should I use it? long exposure to create a sense of movement or soften it (this is where ND filters come in handy)?
There are too many variables on this list, and you're probably already familiar with most of them.
Once you have a RAW file ready to go, post-processing software gives you a ton of options to make it sharper and stand out.
Using the 4 techniques covered in this tutorial, you can get your photos razor-sharp and ready to print or share online!
In the lesson I will tell you how to give landscape photos best view. However, these techniques also work for most other areas of photography. Since it's already spring outside, now is the time to get outside and capture some beautiful scenery!
1. Sharpening in Lightroom
The full name of Lightroom is “Adobe Photoshop Lightroom,” so when I talk about sharpening, I'm technically explaining the Photoshop method. However, no matter what you call it, Lightroom has a very useful section in the panel Details(Details) of the module Develop.
Sliders should be used when the image is open at least in full 1:1 size. When making adjustments, you need to see their impact even on the smallest details.
Holding down the Alt key allows you to see the mask being created.
All sliders can also be used in conjunction with the Alt key. Top slider - Quantity(Amount) will show the photo in black and white. Radius(Radius) and Details(Details) will mute the colors so you can see the outlines, which will be sharpened. Slider Mask(Masking) switches to black and white, showing exactly where the sharpening is applied (see image above).
Sliders
Quantity(Amount) adjusts exactly what you might think - the total amount of sharpening applied. The further you move it to the right, the sharper the photo will become.
Radius(Radius) controls how far from the center of each pixel the sharpness increases. The lower the value, the thinner the radius of focus. The larger the radius, the thicker it is.
Details(Details) affects mainly other areas of the photo, not necessarily the edges (Radius is responsible for them). If there is a photo with a lot of textures, such as fabric or clothing, the slider Details(Details) will highlight them without creating an unwanted shine effect.
Mask(Masking) is nothing more than just a mask. If the slider is in the left corner, the mask is filled with pure white and the effect is applied completely. By holding down the Alt key and moving the slider to the right, you will see how the white outline remains only around some areas. If you drag the slider to the right edge, only the most obvious details will become sharp.
Even though it is very effective method, it is applied globally, and sometimes we need to sharpen only certain areas. This is where Photoshop comes to the rescue.
2. Unsharp Masking in Photoshop
Unsharp Masking(Unsharp Mask) is a function with a very ambiguous name. If you do not pay attention to the prefix “not”, this is a common tool for increasing sharpness. The way it works is to create a slightly blurred version of the original image and subtract it from the original to find the edges of objects. This creates an unsharp mask. The next step is to increase the contrast of the edges using the created mask. The result is a sharper photo.
Unsharp Masking Sliders
Quantity(Amount) is displayed here as a percentage and controls how contrasting the edges will be.
Radius(Radius) - the amount of blurring of the original to create a mask. The smaller the radius, the more small parts will be affected.
Threshold(Threshold) sets the minimum change in brightness to which sharpening is applied. Threshold also works well to sharpen only noticeable edges without affecting others.
Any sharpening operations should be applied at a minimum of full 1:1 or better. The ideal zoom for working in Photoshop is 200%.
3. Smart Sharpening in Photoshop
Most advanced Photoshop tool for working with sharpness - Smart Sharpen(Smart Sharpen). It has the most options and correct use you can get the best results for landscape and almost any field of photography. Landscape photography is a very difficult subject, as you often have to cope with both very close and very distant contours at the same time. However, each of them requires a separate approach. By working with masks in Photoshop, you can ensure that some areas are masked while others remain sharp. This is another advantage over its younger brother - Lightroom. But back to the topic!
Also in the tool popup window Smart Sharpen(Smart Sharpen) you can save and load presets so you don’t have to enter parameters every time.
Smart Sharpening provides the most options. With its help you can perfectly perform the finest corrections!
Slider Quantity(Amount) varies from 1 to 500%. In most cases you don't have to go beyond 100%. Of course, no one forbids you to go further, but you will get common artifacts in the form of radiance and an unrealistic appearance.
Radius(Radius) is measured in pixels and is responsible for the edges that Smart Sharpening will adjust. You can select from 0.1 to 64 pixels - a scale of 0.1 increments was created for maximum fine adjustment.
Noise reduction(Reduce Noise) is a very clear and excellent function. This is another reason for the power and popularity of Smart Sharpening. Now it becomes clear why Adobe created presets for this filter!
In line Delete(Remove) better install Low blur depth of field(Lens Blur), as this item does a great job of reducing the glare effect.
Sections Shadow(Shadow) and Light(Highlights) also received their own set of sliders for fine adjustment. Weakening the effect(Fade Amount) is responsible for the overall sharpening in light and dark areas.
Tonal width(Tonal Width) sets the limits of sharpening for certain tonal areas of the image. As an example, if you select a lower Tonal Width in these areas, the sharpening enhancement for them will be limited. A higher value expands the range of tones.
Radius(Radius) here works the same way as Unsharp Masking - moving the slider to the left determines a smaller zone, and to the right - a larger one.
It is worth noting- to get the best results when using these tools, convert first copy original layer into a smart object. This can be done at the very beginning of post-processing or later when the layer is merged and on top. Switching to a smart object will allow you to return and make corrections at any time. Also change Mode overlays(Blending Mode) sharpening layers (except Color Contrast) on Glow(Luminosity) to avoid unwanted glow. This is highly recommended.
4. Color Contrast Filter in Photoshop
Another great way to sharpen landscape photos (and more) is to use a filter Color contrast(High Pass). Again, you can either make a copy of the layer itself, or a copy of all visible ones (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E). Convert the resulting layer into a smart object by right-clicking on it and selecting the appropriate drop-down menu item. As already mentioned, this will allow you to go back and make corrections at any time.
The Color Contrast filter is very simple, but effective method sharpen the photo. Remember that with any adjustment layer or filter you can always use a mask to hide unwanted areas. Slider Opacity(Opacity) is another way to reduce the influence of the effect.
Small radius within 1-1,5 Usually it's enough. Don't overdo it! We only need a little! The image will then turn 50% gray and only have a stroke showing the edges. This is exactly what we need.
Now just go to the Layers panel and select Blend Mode Overlap(Overlay) or Linear light(Linear Light). The latter has a more noticeable impact, while the former is less radical. Linear light - more good choice, since you can always adjust the opacity of the layer and soften too sharp areas using a mask. Using Luminance Masks can also be a good option if you only want to sharpen a certain tonal range.
There are many more ways to bring out detail using Photoshop - what's your favorite? Share your experience in the comments or ask a question.
Practice shooting and editing often!
