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There are several ways in Photoshop to sharpen an image, the most commonly used is Unsharp-Mask. I will show you two of my favorite ways of sharpening an image; one of them is another way of using the Unsharp-Mask and the other using the High-Pass filter.
First off, you copy your first layer, creating a sharpening layer (I name mine sharpen 1). Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask, your settings are as follows: Amount 200, Radius 8, and Threshold 4. This should over sharpen and make your image look rather hideous, but stay with me. Next duplicate this layer creating a second layer (called sharpen 2). Set the blending mode for this layer to LIGHTEN, now on sharpen layer 1 set the layer mode to darken. Using the Opacity levels adjust these two layers for the right effect. By adjusting these two layers you will sharpen the image and do away with the edge effect caused by the overuse of the Unsharp Mask filter. Play with it; you’ll see what I mean. It doesn’t work with every image, but 80% of the time it does.
Second method I use for sharpening, which is my favorite, is the High-Pass filter. To me this is the best filter in the whole lot, you can do a lot more than just sharpen with it, but I won’t get into that here.
We start off by creating a copy of the first layer (which I name High Pass Sharpen). (By the way I always start off any project by duplicating the original layer. It’s a good habit to get into.) Next I go to Filter>Other>High Pass, now the following settings are not set in stone, you can play with them for different results, but for this we’ll use the following. Let’s try a radius of 10. Then set your blending mode for this layer to overlay. Using the Opacity, adjust accordingly. Sometimes I will create a couple of layer like above, but different adjustments. By turning each layer off & on you see which one gives you the best results for this particular image. I also will adjust for a certain area, say the eyes; and will mask out the rest and delete, which will give you sharp eyes, yet a soft look to the rest of the image. Again using the Opacity adjustment for just the right look. That’s it; I hope it helps.
Steve A.K.A Trimoon
First off, you copy your first layer, creating a sharpening layer (I name mine sharpen 1). Go to Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask, your settings are as follows: Amount 200, Radius 8, and Threshold 4. This should over sharpen and make your image look rather hideous, but stay with me. Next duplicate this layer creating a second layer (called sharpen 2). Set the blending mode for this layer to LIGHTEN, now on sharpen layer 1 set the layer mode to darken. Using the Opacity levels adjust these two layers for the right effect. By adjusting these two layers you will sharpen the image and do away with the edge effect caused by the overuse of the Unsharp Mask filter. Play with it; you’ll see what I mean. It doesn’t work with every image, but 80% of the time it does.
Second method I use for sharpening, which is my favorite, is the High-Pass filter. To me this is the best filter in the whole lot, you can do a lot more than just sharpen with it, but I won’t get into that here.
We start off by creating a copy of the first layer (which I name High Pass Sharpen). (By the way I always start off any project by duplicating the original layer. It’s a good habit to get into.) Next I go to Filter>Other>High Pass, now the following settings are not set in stone, you can play with them for different results, but for this we’ll use the following. Let’s try a radius of 10. Then set your blending mode for this layer to overlay. Using the Opacity, adjust accordingly. Sometimes I will create a couple of layer like above, but different adjustments. By turning each layer off & on you see which one gives you the best results for this particular image. I also will adjust for a certain area, say the eyes; and will mask out the rest and delete, which will give you sharp eyes, yet a soft look to the rest of the image. Again using the Opacity adjustment for just the right look. That’s it; I hope it helps.
Steve A.K.A Trimoon
I have tried the high pass technique, with a slight alteration to yours (setting of about 60-70 and blend mode to soft light) - the great thing as you know is that the effect can be better controlled by using the opacity slider.
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