Playing around with sharpness

[justleesa]

I went riding the other day and took some beach pictures. Got some interesting stuff and one picture I wanted just a touch sharper and used the sharpening tool. Now I always notice when in the preview stage the picture looks just like I want it, but when I ok it the result is a bit unsharper than in the preview...Does anybody else notice that? and maybe know why that happens? [BTW I have PSE - will soon install my CS (woohoo!)]

Anyway, I sharpend more - again the preview was good, but after pressing ok, this is what I got:

Image by justleesa (Copyright) posted at ScubaBoard.com

I really liked the effect and wanted to get it on a second picture of the series - but it didn't work. Why?

 

[flyinghuntster]

If you Sharpen to many times you will get pixelation like that. Another way of getting that effect is with Filters. Look for the one with add noise. Once you get the add noise filter window open it will allow you to adjust the amount of noise you add.
Hope this helps. I don't have my PS computer with me right now.

 

[cdiver2]

Leesa what I do is sharpen more then sharpen the unsharp mask

 

[justleesa]

Yup! I used the unsharp mask, always do
Just don't understand why the end result is not as sharp as the preview.

 

[cdiver2]

Yup! I used the unsharp mask, always do
Just don't understand why the end result is not as sharp ads the preview.

Only had it happen to me once and no matter what I did I could not get a sharper picture....I just assumed the dope at the keyboard was doing something wrong.
Is the preview a smaller picture? and you don't see how bad it is until you get to a larger picture

 

[justleesa]

you can see it in both as you change the settings on the scales. When you ok it the screen will, I don't know what the right word is...flicker? reset? and when the final product appears it is less sharp than the preview.

 

[cdiver2]

you can see it in both as you change the settings on the scales. When you ok it the screen will, I don't know what the right word is...flicker? reset? and when the final product appears it is less sharp than the preview.

This is a new one on me, could it be a conflict in the program I'm no tech maybe someone else with more computer know how can think of something?

 

[Dee]

That's a new one on me, too.

Sometimes the photo part in the preview in the unshark mask isn't as sharp as but as soon as I apply it, it looks fine.

 

[Scubatooth]

ah the wonderful world of the unsharp mask. its a amazing tool but mostly miss understood. The unsharp mask goes back to the film days when photographers or dark room techs would make a duplicate negative that would be slipped just a few microns in a direction to help the negative when printed a little sharper in the print. oh btw its a PIA to make those USM negs, i did a couple for a class i took and its not fun.

well lets step forward to the computer age where photoshop is your friend.

USM mask is a simple tool in that it makes the seperation between colors (harsh example would be a black pixel next to a white one) in the image.

when you bring up USM under the sharpen menu (im not sure what the menu route is that i dont have my laptop with me so i cant look) you will see a preview of the image that is enlarged (mostly likely 100% ) then below will be three sliders with one saying radius (going from 0.1 - 5.0 pixels) this is the width the area effected by the shaprpening, but the higher the number the harder the effect will be and more noticeable by making your eyes hurt when viewed.

next would would be the amount (this is the first slider in the menu) and this relates back to the radius you selected (i have some more notes from my digital imaging class i have to dig up to add what this does more precisely). As i will explain in a minute but this is where you want to do most of the sharpening as this will make the biggest difference in the image.

Finally would be the threshold(slider goes from 0-255). threshold is used by PS to find which area will be affected by the sharpening. so for example say you use the number 127 in the threshold amount the only amount of sharpening that will be done by pixels that have a 50% seperation in color so as a result mainly the highlights (whites) and the shadows will be effected. where if you put say a 3 in the threshold the pixels that will be sharpened will have a 3 point seperation (this would be 3 points in a single channel or 1 in each or a combonation inbetween)

here are are the settings i use (for most prints 11x14 and under, larger prints require larger numbers, and websized require much smaller)
radius: of .03-0.7
percentage: 80 - 300%
Threshold: 1-5 but most of the time never more then 3, 5 is a rare exception usually used for saving a image that i really want that i goofed on


just remember USM is supposed to be bearly noticeable in the print because if you can see it in the screen or print its way to much.

i hoped this helped would a tutorial on USM in both PSE and PS be helpful?

sorry for this being a little hurried(and probable Typo's) but i wrote this very quickly before i have to go to work and i will try to clean it up if its not clear to anybody.

Tooth

 

[justleesa]

Thanks!