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Sharpening Photos with the Unsharp Mask

Sometimes our photos are a little softer than we'd like them to be. Or perhaps you have a photo with more than one subject, as shown below, where one of the subjects is not quite as sharp as the others. This tutorial will show you how to use the Unsharp Mask to sharpen up your photo.

As you can see, one of the subjects is not as sharp as the others. First we will draw a selection around the part of the photo that we want to sharpen. Select your lasso tool, and set the feather to 2px. This will help it blend into the background better, and not leave a distinct line around where you're sharpening.

Click on Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask. (If you are not using the marquee, and simply sharpening the entire photo, you may click on various parts of your photo to see the results in the screen as you change settings.)

Start with these settings, and adjust to your liking. Be careful not to sharpen too much, or it will look pixelated, and you might get a halo effect. The Amount slider determines just that...the amount of sharpening you are doing. The Radius slider determines how many pixels out from the edge the sharpening will affect. The Threshold slider controls the intensity of the sharpening.

Below is the after shot, where individual faces were sharpened a bit, then the entire photo sharpened subtly as well. Have fun with this handy tool, and remember, sometimes less is more!

© 2007 Becky Soto

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