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Sharpening with Un-Sharp Mask and Layer

Because of the property of digital photography, you will find your pictures, regardless of the expensive lenses you might have used, comes out a little soft, or even slightly out of focus.

To bring out the crisp image like those you shot with film or slide, there is a filter tool in Photosho called Un-Sharp Mask (USM). When used properly, USM gives you sharp, crisp pictures with a desired effect.

To illustrate the technique and the effect, I am going to use an enlarged section of a portrait (face only) to demonstrate the steps.

It is easy to over do USM. When that happens, the picture would look harsh and un-natural. We introduce the concept of doing the USM in a separate layer. Then later, adjust the layer to the desire effect.

Because USM affects the actual pixels of the image, it should be the last step in the process.

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This is the image before manipulation. You see the detail is a little soft and loose.

Insert a layer via copy. From the menu, select Layer -> New -> Layer via copy. Or Ctrl-J.

The red indicates that the Layer 1 is active.

Apply the USM filter. From the menu, select Filter -> Sharpen -> Unsharp Mask.

The Unsharp Mask dialog shows up. Make sure the Preview box is checked. Any action you apply will reflect in the actual image on the screen. You may use the cursor to drag and move the image inside the box to where you most want to see the effect. You can also change the enlargement percentage.

For the sake of simplicity, we are going to left Threshold at 0 level. For most of the application, left the Radius at under 2.0 pixels. You may come back and play with these two items.

Change the amount and give it some time for the image inside the box to reflect the change you made. The same change would also show up in the actual image if you have checked the Preview box.

Move the slide back and forth until you find the sharpness you like. Do worry about over doing it a little because we can change it later when we adjust the layer.

The above was done at 1.5 Radius, and 180% Amount. Comparing this image to the first one on the top, you'd notice that this one a lot sharper. But it is also a little to harsh to my taste.

So, we went to Layer 1 where we had applied the USM and change the Opacity by moving the slide back and forth. As we moved it, the harshness faded away. We had found 60% was the result we want so we settled for tht.