Sharpening with DigitalCreative.info's Guide to Digital Photography and Image Manipulation

Open your image in Elements and make sure that the file size supports the print size you have in mind. The first thing that you need to do is to examine it, at a high magnification, to make sure that it is as sharp as it needs to be. Either select the zoom tool from the toolbox and click on the image or, with any tool in use, hold down 'control' and the space bar, which temporarily selects the zoom tool, then click on the image. (To zoom out again, hold down control+alt+space bar and click on the image). If it's blurred then there's not a lot can be done but if it's just a matter of a little lack of definition then we can improve it. This is done by judicious sharpening.

1. It's always a good policy, at this stage, to make a copy layer on which to make any adjustments. To do this, open the layers palette, left click on your layer, hold down and drag it to the 'create new layer icon'. A new, identical layer will appear. This is an 'insurance policy' layer! The original can sit at the bottom of the stack unused and unseen but, in the event of anything going wrong with the duplicate layer, during subsequent changes, then the original layer can be activated instead.

2. Most images will benefit from a tiny amount of sharpening. Make sure the top layer is activated and go to filter/sharpen/unsharp mask. This almost sounds like a contradiction in terms but it is the filter you need! Ignore the other options; this is the best one for our purposes. It opens a dialogue box, as shown below:

3. You will see that there are 3 sliders and the best results are achieved by using a combination of the three that suits your particular image. The apparent sharpening is actually more of an optical illusion as the effect is achieved by increasing the contrast between adjacent contrasting pixels. 'A little goes a long way' is the maxim to remember with this particular application. Too much and you'll find unpleaasant and tell-tale 'halos' in areas of already high contrast, for example outlines of buildings, people or trees etc., against the sky. Too much will also introduce unwelcome 'noise'. Experiment with different combinations but, if you use a high amount, you'll find a low radius will usually be best, or vice versa. The radius setting depends on the number of pixels in the image and the higher that number then the higher the radius setting will need to be. The threshold value determines the minimum amount of contrast necessary before pixels will be modified. At a value of 0, the filter will be applied over the whole of the picture. If you increase this figure the sharpening will be applied mainly along already higher contrast edges and less in lower contrast areas. The amount and radius values can then be increased more safely. To avoid oversharpening on flesh tones try a threshold value around 10 to 15.

When should you sharpen? Most books seem to advise that it should be done when all other work is finished and before printing. Personally I always do it as one of my first jobs and then, at the printing stage, just a little extra to give it 'life'. Find out which best suits the sort of pictures you like to make.

4. Another trick I use to bring 'life' to a picture is the high pass filter. If you want to try it out ........... make a copy of your newly sharpened layer. With this activated go to filter/other/high pass:

Select a radius value taking into consideration how many pixels your image has to start with and how dramatic you want the effect to be. This filter locates edges and fills the rest in with grey. A high radius value distinguishes areas of high and low contrast only slightly but a lower value changes high contrast areas to dark grey and lower contrast to lighter grey. Try something between 5 and 10 to start.

5. Go to the layers palette and, in the blend mode menu, select soft light:

6. These 2 images show the picture before high pass was applied and then after:

Once you are happy that the high pass and sharpened layers, together, give you the result that you want, then merge the 2 layers and continue with any further manipulation.