So I promised my sisters-in-law that I would show them how to sharpen photos using an unsharp mask and a high pass filter, so here goes! (Ann, Sharon, Teresa, Kristen, and whoever else wants to know…this is for you!)
Before starting, I thought I would let you know that I do all of these edits before I crop so that I can work with as many pixels as possible:
1. First adjust levels and color as desired.
2. Next, click on FILTERS>SHARPEN>UNSHARP MASK. Plug in the following numbers: “Amount” between 50-60%, “Radius” between 10-20 pixels, “Threshold” 1 level. Play around with the numbers until you like the look, click “OK”.
3. Go to your layers palette and right click on the blue rectangle next to your photo. Select “Duplicate” then click “OK”.
4. Click on FILTER>OTHER>HIGH PASS. Move the slider to about 3.0 pixels, give or take a few tenths depending on the contrast in the photo. Click “OK”.
5. Now go back to your layers palette and click on the layer blending drop down menu (it says “normal”). Select “overlay”.
6. Now click on LAYER>MERGE DOWN. Crop as desired.
Enjoy your nice sharp crisp photo!
Wow! That was so helpful! I just tried it out on a blurry photo I love and it looks awesome now. I’m getting pretty good at digi scrapping, but my photo editing still needs work 🙂 – so thank you so much for the tip.
Thanks so much for sharing this! I always wondered how to use those photos that came out less than perfect but I still wanted to use. Thanks again!