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Progressive Sharpening in Photoshop ________________________________Click on the photos below for full-sized versions This is truly one of the most helpful tools I have ever found in Photoshop, and so I wanted to share it with you. I actually discovered this trick from James Trimbee, on this thread, so give him some credit for this great trick. It is also covered in slightly less detail in Fergul McClean's workflow. One of the most annoying things in Photoshop is getting one area of your subject sharpened perfectly, only to discover that another area of the subject has jagged edges, or even worse, is soft. Here is an easy remedy to that problem. The first step is simply to sharpen the image to your liking. I use a some very conservative sharpening settings: 500%, Radius; .2, Threshold; 0. I think these setting work particularly well for this technique. Make several passes with this technique until you notice jaggies appear.  Ok, the nose of the plane looks great....but the wing and tail are jagged. To remedy this, take one step backward, to the image without jagged edges. Now right click the image (if you have certain tools selected this won't work, if in doubt, use the crop tool). Click duplicate layer.  Hit OK to save it as Background Copy, then, sharpen the image again, and watch the jaggies reappear. Now, take your eraser tool, and erase the areas where the jagged edges are, and what shows through will be the correctly sharpened image from before. This allows you to keep certain iamges of the image in perfect sharpness while making sure that other areas have the same quality.  Which side of the wing looks better? The left side might be tad soft, but this can all be perfected by when you create your duplicate layer. Now, say you are satisfied with the image as a whole at this point, and all you need to do now is sharpen the other end of the wing. Go to Layer > Flatten Image. Now, the two layers have just been merged into one, and you can take another duplicate layer and repeat the process until the entire image is in perfect focus, or sharpness, in reality. ________________________________ Also, don't forget to visit our forums, Where we discuss everything from what made Jason's face turn red to all the different ways Eric has messed up a photo! Ok, we don't do much of that, but we do like to discuss what's coming in, what used to be here back in the days of yore, the different editing and in-camera techniques we use, plus any issues concerning the site get discussed as well. We also have a great News section, as well as the Photo Gallery Where photos using these techniques are displayed! No use without permission. |