Home Forums Let’s Talk Photography Sharpening

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  • #17982

    I’ve recently tried using the High Pass filter for sharpening and I like it. My question is how does one know when something is oversharpened?  Are there telltale signs?

    How much is too much?

    #17986
    cameraclicker
    Participant

    It’s definitely overdone if you see halos around everything.  You may also want to dial it back depending on how it affects noise.

    Some photos seem to need more sharpening than others and large photos (lots of pixels) need more than small photos.  Printing usually needs more than for display on a monitor.

    #17987

    Thanks so much cameraclicker.  That was a helpful response.  I’ll definitely keep my eye out for halos and noise.

    🙂

    #17988

    Can you take a look at this and tell me what you think of  the sharpening?

     

    #17991
    cameraclicker
    Participant

    High pass has the most apparent fur detail.  I say apparent because sharpening affects edge contrast.

    At the size presented, “none” is slightly soft.  “high pass” and “smart” both look acceptable.

    Exactly the same sharpening settings may be wildly off for a different photo.   Most will be acceptably sharpened with the same settings but a few will need either more or less.  You have to look at each photo individually.

    #17994

    Thanks cameraclicker.  I would choose the Smart sharpen for this photo.

    I appreciate your advice.

    #18042
    Bill
    Participant

    CC summed it up really nice and simple. I wanted to jump in and just say what is happening without being too techy when using a high-pass filter and many other features in PS. PS does not see or interpret colors as our eyes do, the program places a value on a color 0-255, black being 0 and white being 255. This is important to know because this is per pixel in the image and the high-pass filter allows for a threshold of surrounding pixels. Adjust the threshold too high, and the halos will appear and the image may be over-sharpened, too low and it may not choose enough of the surrounding pixels to properly sharpen the image. Try this for an example, it may be a better visualization for what the color values are and how PS interprets it. RGB Color Value Codes

    The reason I bring this up, is if you have an image that has very little contrast and is a little on the blown out side, high-pass filtering may not work as intended.

    It’s always good to know a little bit of what magic PS is doing and how.

    #18369
    blrphoto
    Participant

    Yes, If you see halos around everything it means its overdone.  Large photo requires more pixels as compared to small pics.

     

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