adjust image sharpness and blur in photoshop

Adjust image sharpness and blur

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Sharpeningrecommendations

Sharpen using SmartSharpen

Photoshop offers a variety of tools, filters, and masks thatgive you fine control over image sharpness (or blur).

Video | Sharpening in Photoshop CC

Improved Smart Sharpen

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Video | Selective focus in Photoshop

Sharpening recommendations

Sharpening enhances the definition of edges in an image.Whether your images come from a digital camera or ascanner, most images can benefit from sharpening. Thedegree of sharpening needed varies depending on thequality of the digital camera or scanner. Keep in mind thatsharpening cannot correct a severely blurred image.

Tips for better sharpening:

Photoshop Playbook: Selective Focus

Photoshop Principal Product Manager Bryan O'Neil Hughes explains how to blur a background and make a subject stand out witblur gallery in Photoshop.

Bryan O'Neil Hugheshttp://www.photoshop.com/people/bryan


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Sharpen your image on a separate layer so that you canresharpen it later to output to a different medium.

If you sharpen your image on a separate layer, set thelayer’s blending mode to Luminosity to avoid color shiftsalong edges.

Sharpening increases image contrast. If you find thathighlights or shadows are clipped after you sharpen, usethe layer blending controls (if you sharpen a separatelayer) to prevent sharpening in highlights and shadows.See Specify a tonal range for blending layers.

Reduce image noise before sharpening so that you don’tintensify the noise.

Sharpen your image multiple times in small amounts.Sharpen the first time to correct blur caused by capturingyour image (scanning it or taking it with your digitalcamera). After you’ve color corrected and sized yourimage, sharpen it again (or a copy of it) to add theappropriate amount of sharpening for your outputmedium.

If possible, judge your sharpening by outputting it to thefinal medium. The amount of sharpening needed variesamong output media.

Use the Unsharp Mask (USM) filter or the Smart Sharpenfilter for better control when sharpening your images.Although Photoshop also has the Sharpen, Sharpen Edges,and Sharpen More filter options, these filters are automaticand do not provide controls and options.

You can sharpen your entire image or just a portion using aselection or mask. Because the Unsharp Mask and SmartSharpen filters can be applied to only one layer at a time,you might need to merge layers or flatten your file tosharpen all image layers in a multilayered file.

Note:


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The name Unsharp Mask comes from a darkroom techniqueused in traditional film‑based photography. The filter sharpensimages rather than the opposite.

Sharpen using Smart Sharpen

The Smart Sharpen filter has sharpening controls notavailable with the Unsharp Mask filter. You can set thesharpening algorithm or control the amount of sharpeningthat occurs in shadow and highlight areas.

(Photoshop CC) Smart Sharpen dialog box

Zoom the document window to 100% to get anaccurate view of the sharpening.

1

Choose Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.2

Amount

Set the controls in the Sharpen tabs:

Sets the amount of sharpening. A highervalue increases the contrast between edge pixels,giving the appearance of greater sharpness.

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Radius

Reduce Noise

Remove

Angle

More Accurate

Determines the number of pixels surrounding theedge pixels affected by the sharpening. The greaterthe radius value, the wider the edge effects and themore obvious the sharpening.

(Photoshop CC only) Reduceunwanted noise while keeping important edgesunaffected.

Sets the sharpening algorithm usedto sharpen the image. Gaussian Blur is themethod used by the Unsharp Mask filter. LensBlur detects the edges and detail in an image, andprovides finer sharpening of detail and reducedsharpening halos. Motion Blur attempts toreduce the effects of blur due to camera or subjectmovement. Set the Angle control if you chooseMotion Blur.

Sets the direction of motion for the MotionBlur option of the Remove control.

(CS6 only) Processes the file slowlyfor a more accurate removal of blurring.

Fade Amount

Tonal Width

Adjust sharpening of dark and light areas using inthe Shadow and Highlight tabs. (Click the Advancedbutton to display the tabs). If the dark or lightsharpening halos appear too strong you can reducethem with these controls, which are only availablefor 8‑bits and 16‑bits-per-channel images:

Adjusts the amount of sharpeningin the highlights or shadows.

Controls the range of tones in the

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Sharpen using Unsharp Mask

The Unsharp Mask sharpens an image by increasing contrastalong the edges in an image. The Unsharp Mask does notdetect edges in an image. Instead, it locates pixels that differin value from surrounding pixels by the threshold youspecify. It then increases the contrast of neighboring pixels bythe amount you specify. So, for neighboring pixels the lighterpixels get lighter and the darker pixels get darker.

In addition, you specify the radius of the region to whicheach pixel is compared. The greater the radius, the larger theedge effects.

Radius

shadows or highlights that are modified. Move theslider to the left or right to decrease or increase theTonal Width value. Smaller values restrict theadjustments to only the darker regions for shadowcorrection and only the lighter regions for highlightcorrection.

Controls the size of the area around eachpixel that is used to determine whether a pixel is inthe shadows or highlights. Moving the slider to theleft specifies a smaller area, and moving it to theright specifies a larger area.

Click OK.5


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Original image, and Unsharp Mask applied

The degree of sharpening applied to an image is often amatter of personal choice. Keep in mind that oversharpeningan image produces a halo effect around the edges.

Oversharpening animage produces ahalo effect aroundthe edges.

The effects of the Unsharp Mask filter are more pronouncedon‑screen than in high-resolution output. If your finaldestination is print, experiment to determine what settingswork best for your image.

(Optional) If your image is multilayered, select thelayer containing the image you want to sharpen. Youcan apply Unsharp Mask to only one layer at a time,even if layers are linked or grouped. You can mergethe layers before applying the Unsharp Mask filter.

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Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Make surethe Preview option is selected.

Note:

Click the image in the preview window and holddown the mouse to see how the image lookswithout the sharpening. Drag in the preview windowto see different parts of the image, and click + or – tozoom in or out.

Although there is a preview window in the UnsharpMask dialog box, it’s best to move the dialog box soyou can preview the effects of the filter in thedocument window.

2

Drag the Radius slider or enter a value to determinethe number of pixels surrounding the edge pixelsthat affect the sharpening. The greater the radiusvalue, the wider the edge effects. And the wider theedge effects, the more obvious the sharpening.The Radius value varies according to the subjectmatter, the size of the final reproduction, and theoutput method. For high-resolution images, a Radiusvalue between 1 and 2 is usually recommended. Alower value sharpens only the edge pixels, whereasa higher value sharpens a wider band of pixels. Thiseffect is much less noticeable in print thanon‑screen, because a 2‑pixel radius represents asmaller area in a high-resolution printed image.

3

Drag the Amount slider or enter a value todetermine how much to increase the contrast ofpixels. For high-resolution printed images, anamount between 150% and 200% is usuallyrecommended.

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Note:

If applying Unsharp Mask makes already bright colors appearoverly saturated, choose Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask andchoose Luminosity from the Mode menu.

Sharpen selectively

You can sharpen parts of your image by using a mask or aselection to prevent sharpening in certain parts of yourimage. For example, you can use an edge mask with theUnsharp Mask filter on a portrait to sharpen the eyes, mouth,nose, and outline of the head, but not the texture of the skin.

Drag the Threshold slider or enter a value todetermine how different the sharpened pixels mustbe from the surrounding area before they areconsidered edge pixels and sharpened by the filter.For instance, a threshold of 4 affects all pixels thathave tonal values that differ by a value of 4 or more,on a scale of 0 to 255. So, if adjacent pixels havetonal values of 128 and 129, they are not affected. Toavoid introducing noise or posterization (in imageswith flesh tones, for example), use an edge mask ortry experimenting with Threshold values between 2and 20. The default Threshold value (0) sharpens allpixels in the image.

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Using an edge mask to apply the Unsharp Mask only to specificfeatures in an image

Sharpen a selection

Sharpen an image using an edge mask

With the image layer selected in the Layers panel,draw a selection.

1

Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Adjust theoptions and click OK.Only the selection is sharpened, leaving the rest ofthe image untouched.

2

Create a mask to apply sharpening selectively. Thereare many ways to create an edge mask. Use yourfavorite method, or try this one:

Open the Channels panel and select the channelthat displays the grayscale image with thegreatest contrast in the document window.Often, this is the green or the red channel.

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Selecting a channel with the greatest contrast

Duplicate the selected channel.

With the duplicate channel selected, chooseFilter > Stylize > Find Edges.

Choose Image > Adjustments > Invert to invertthe image.

Find Edges filter applied and image inverted

With the inverted image still selected, chooseFilter > Other > Maximum. Set the radius to alow number and click OK to thicken the edgesand randomize the pixels.

Choose Filter > Noise > Median. Set the radius toa low number and click OK. This averages theneighboring pixels.

Choose Image > Adjustment > Levels and set theblack point high to get rid of random pixels. If


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necessary, you can also paint with black toretouch the final edge mask.

Setting the blackpoint high in Levelsto eliminaterandom pixels inthe edge mask

Choose Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur to featherthe edges.

Note:

The Maximum, the Median, and the Gaussian Blurfilters soften the edge mask so that the sharpeningeffects blend better in the final image. Although allthree filters are used in this procedure, you canexperiment using only one or two.

In the Channels panel, Ctrl-click (Windows) orCommand-click (Mac OS) the duplicate channel tomake the edge mask a selection.

2

In the Layers panel, select the image layer. Makesure the selection is still visible on the image.

3

Choose Select > Inverse.4

With the selection active on the image layer, chooseFilter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Set the desiredoptions and click OK.

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Add lens blur

Add blur to an image to give the effect of a narrower depthof field so that some objects in the image stay in focus andothers areas are blurred. You can use a simple selection todetermine which areas are blurred, or you can provide aseparate alpha channel depth map to describe exactly howyou want the blur added.

The Lens Blur filter uses the depth map to determine theposition of pixels in an image. With a depth map selected,you can also use the crosshair cursor to set the starting pointof a given blur. You can use alpha channels and layer masksto create depth maps; black areas in an alpha channel aretreated as though they’re at the front of the photo, and whiteareas are treated as if they’re far in the distance.

Note:

For a gradual blurring effect (none at the bottom to maximumat the top), create a new alpha channel and apply a gradientso that the channel is white at the top of the image and blackat the bottom. Then select the Lens Blur filter and choose thealpha channel from the Source pop‑up menu. To change thedirection of the gradient, select the Invert check box.

To view your results, select the RGB channel in theChannels panel and deselect the selection in theimage.

Note:

You can create an action to conveniently apply allthe steps in the procedure.


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The way the blur appears depends on the iris shape youchoose. The number of blades determines the iris shape. Youcan change blades of an iris by curving them (making themmore circular) or rotating them. You can also reduce ormagnify the preview by clicking the minus button or the plusbutton.

Choose Filter > Blur > Lens Blur.1

For Preview, choose Faster to generate quickerpreviews. Choose More Accurate to view the finalversion of the image. More Accurate previews takelonger to generate.

2

For Depth Map, choose a source (if you have one)from the Source pop‑up menu. Drag the Blur FocalDistance slider to set the depth at which pixels are infocus. For example, if you set focal distance to 100,pixels at 1 and at 255 are completely blurred, andpixels closer to 100 are blurred less. If you click in thepreview image, the Blur Focal Distance sliderchanges to reflect the clicked location and brings thedepth of the clicked location into focus.

3

To invert the selection or alpha channel you’re usingas the depth map source, select Invert.

4

Choose an iris from the Shape pop‑up menu. If youwish, drag the Blade Curvature slider to smooth theedges of the iris, or drag the Rotation slider to rotateit. To add more blur, drag the Radius slider.

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Blur image areas

The Blur tool softens hard edges or reduces detail in animage. The more you paint over an area with the tool, theblurrier it becomes.

For Specular Highlight, drag the Threshold slider toselect a brightness cutoff; all pixels brighter than thecutoff value are treated as specular highlights. Toincrease the brightness of the highlights, drag theBrightness slider.

6

To add noise to an image, choose Uniform orGaussian. To add noise without affecting color,choose Monochromatic. Drag the Amount slider toincrease or decrease noise.

Note:

Blurring removes film grain and noise from theoriginal image. To make the image look realistic andunretouched, you can return some of the removednoise to the image.

7

Click OK to apply the changes to your image.8

Select the Blur tool .1

Do the following in the options bar:Choose a brush tip and set options for theblending mode and strength in the options bar.

Select Sample All Layers in the options bar to

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Sharpen image areas

The Sharpen tool increases contrast along edges to increaseapparent sharpness. The more you paint over an area withthe tool, the more sharpening increases.

blur using data from all visible layers. Deselectthis option and the tool uses data from only theactive layer.

Drag over the part of the image you want to blur.3

Select the Sharpen tool . (If the tool isn’t visible,hold down the Blur tool.)

1

Do the following in the options bar:Choose a brush tip and set options for theblending mode and strength.

Select Sample All Layers to sharpen using datafrom all visible layers. If this is deselected, thetool uses data from only the active layer.

Select Protect Detail to enhance details andminimize pixelated artifacts. Deselect this optionif you want to produce more exaggeratedsharpening effects.

2

Drag over the part of the image you want tosharpen.

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adjust image sharpness and blur in photoshop

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