High Pass Sharpening Help

[nikeskate875]

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to the forums and I'm still trying to get the hang of things so if a thread like this has already been posted/answered then I apologize in advance for reposting the same topic again

I'm having some trouble with my high pass sharpening on portraits and figured someone on here could help me out.

I'm looking for something like this in terms of the final product

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wefwef/5126964150/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/wefwef/5039845496/

I'm sure there is probably dodging & burning as well (which I've been doing and understand). But I can't for the life of me get the high pass to look as good as the photos above. I feel like I'm missing something. What I've been currently doing is a high pass on an overlay or soft light blending mode, but again I just feel like maybe I'm missing something here? Hopefully someone can help me out

And again I apologize if something like this has already been posted

[Flashtones]

Hard to say without seeing your attempts and what you don't like about them. But the thing I notice from your target images is the masking, so that the sharpness is restricted from the background.

[ShadowLight]

keep to a small R for the HP
if needed increase the contrast on the HP layer
apply selectively

[andrewrodney]

Read this: http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/20357.html

[Boneappetit]

Well, bear in mind that these photos have more then sharpening on them... And like Flashtones said, the artist did a selective sharpening there. You can use split frequencies to sharpen your images instead. Take a look here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VnLzsZN7VMo

[mistermonday]

Nikeskate, part of your problem with High Pass sharpening is that you have no accurate control and the method is very inefficient. Perform a a frequency separation and delete or turn off the Gaussian Blur layer. Then on a new copy of the backgorund, do Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask chosing the same Radius value as you chose in the Frequency Separation, set the Amount to 100 and the Threshold to 0. If you now place this sharpened layer above the High Pass layer and change the blend mode to Difference, you will see that the two processes produce exactly the same results. The High Pass sharpened layer is done with a rigid set of parameters and the only way you can adjust it is too clip a Curve Adj layer to it and play with the contrast. You end up with 3 layers where you could get by with a single layer using Unsharp Mask Filter or even better the more powerful and flexible Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.
Regards, Murray

[nikeskate875]

Sorry it took me so long to reply, I wanted to thank everyone for helping me out.

Thank you for the links/videos, I'm gunna check them out today and hopefully it will help me out.

Mistermomday, thank you for the explanation, I really do appreciate it because I'll admit I don't know all the sharpening filters probably as well as I should so I'm going to go check out smart sharpen tonight and see if that will help me out

[Godmother]

And if you don't post an image everyone is guessing -

It's better for you to post an image so ppl can KnOW what the problem is instead of gussing.

xx

[nikeskate875]

Godmother - I apologize for not posting an image I deff should have, I'm still new here and next time I'll post and image up

I'm basically just looking for any good portrait sharpen techniques and am prety much open to anything, but next time I'll post an image for sure

[Godmother]

Take into account the samples you provided have a lot of DOF - It's not enough to sharpen the subject if you don't have depth in the image

Try this

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/SmartDetail_SM.mov

If you don't have smart objects you won't get to visualize the effect but you can still do it, simply duplicate BG (or stamp: control +alt + shift+E) /blend Vivid light/run Surface blur
NOTEsettings of the surface blur depend on the image -- Don't look at the "blur" window look at the image and take into account everything that looks brighter than 50% gray will be dodged and everything that looks darker than 50% gray will be burned
Once the surface blur was applied create another stamp on top of that (control +alt + shift+E) / erase the other one (the one blended vivid light)/ blend the new stamp OVERLAY/SOFTLIGHT

NOTE2 This effect causes color banding some times so use carefully (you can desaturate areas with banding --clip a hue/saturation adj to this stamp, hide it and mask it back in over the areas that have banding-- and that will help)

NOTE3 Don't use the effect in the entire picture, mask it out and paint it where you want it then it will be smarter detail smile

Hope that helps you.



x

[nikeskate875]

Thanks for the video and explanation, I can't wait to give them a try when I get home from work tonight

[bakerser]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

The High Pass sharpened layer is done with a rigid set of parameters and the only way you can adjust it is too clip a Curve Adj layer to it and play with the contrast.

Really?

I do agree that Smart Sharpen is a better algorithm in most cases, but I have a lot of reservations about the statement above.

[mistermonday]

Originally Posted by bakerser

Really?

I do agree that Smart Sharpen is a better algorithm in most cases, but I have a lot of reservations about the statement above.

Sean, I probably could have phrased the statement differently so I will take another spin. Performing a frequency separation and using the High Frequency / Accurate High Pass layer (GB turned off) will give you the exact same result as the Unsharp Mask filter performed at the same radius with the amount = 100, Threshold = 0. That is one fixed set of parameters for the accurate high pass for that one chosen radius. The USM filter by itself has a preview window and the Threshold and Amount sliders provide considerable additional lattitude. Assuming the filter is run on a copy (or merged copy) layer that's only one extra layer instead of two. When you add a contrast adjustment curve on top of the High Pass layer you now have three layers (or two if you delete the GB layer). The Smart Sharpen Filter takes the process up a notch in flexibilty and results.
Sean, what advantages do you see using HighPass sharpening over the sharpening filters?
Regards, Murray

[bakerser]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

Sean, I probably could have phrased the statement differently so I will take another spin. Performing a frequency separation and using the High Frequency / Accurate High Pass layer (GB turned off) will give you the exact same result as the Unsharp Mask filter performed at the same radius with the amount = 100, Threshold = 0. That is one fixed set of parameters for the accurate high pass for that one chosen radius. The USM filter by itself has a preview window and the Threshold and Amount sliders provide considerable additional lattitude. Assuming the filter is run on a copy (or merged copy) layer that's only one extra layer instead of two. When you add a contrast adjustment curve on top of the High Pass layer you now have three layers (or two if you delete the GB layer). The Smart Sharpen Filter takes the process up a notch in flexibilty and results.
Sean, what advantages do you see using HighPass sharpening over the sharpening filters?
Regards, Murray

Murray -

Using a FS-based approach doesn't mean you need either to go through the GB process nor do you need to keep the 'LF' layer if you do. And while one such an approach does require the retention of an additional Adjustment Layer in the file, that layer contributes very little to the actual filesize (unless you go crazy with the mask), while affording you an additional level of control over the sharpening which USM won't give you out of the box. That is, where % and threshold determine how much to apply and when to apply, by adding a masked curve to control the effect, we can choose what to enhance (the mask), when to sharpen [mask, Blend-If, the Curve itself], how much to sharpen (opacity / fill), and what blending model we want to sharpen with (blend mode). Of course, nothing says that Curves is the only clipping option at that, nor that we can use only one.

So while it's certainly not the swiss army knife of sharpening, it's not strictly limited either, and I only mean to keep the creative options open for approaching each problem. Sometimes SS is the better tool, sometimes USM, and sometimes FS - it just depends on what you need to do and what modalities are open to you at the time.

Hope that makes sense.

Sean

[mistermonday]

Sean, thanks. While not stated, I always apply a mask on the USM layer to control where and how much sharpening is applied. I do agree that the various blend modes applied to a great variety of curves and curve presets do allow for great considerable creative options. I have used Solarize curve presets in certain modes with either the HF or LF layer turned off to produce some interesting artistic effect. As for pure output sharpening, where its the last stage of a retouch flow, I tend to keep it simple, focused, and production oriented. I think both processes have their advantages and disadvantages, just like Smart Objects. As with so many options in Photoshop it is great to have the chice and flexibility.
Regards, Murray

[bakerser]

Originally Posted by mistermonday

As with so many options in Photoshop it is great to have the chice and flexibility.
Regards, Murray

+1

Sean