Sharpening

[Rise Against Fauxtogs]

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?

[cameraclicker]

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.

[Rise Against Fauxtogs]

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

🙂

[Rise Against Fauxtogs]

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

 

[cameraclicker]

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.

[Rise Against Fauxtogs]

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

I appreciate your advice.

[Bill]

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.

[blrphoto]

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

 

[Author]

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