This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Sharpening an image
How you sharpen an image depends on the quality of the details in a specific image (for example, how sharp is the image already?) while also taking into account its final width, height, resolution, and viewing distance on screen or in print. That’s why this image wasn’t sharpened until after it was cropped and resampled to the size and resolution of its final medium.
Some advanced sharpening workflows include certain steps at earlier stages of editing. Here you’ll try simpler one-step sharpening using the Smart Sharpen filter, because it produces good results while also being relatively easy to use.
A filter applies to the selected layer only. When a document has multiple layers, to sharpen everything the layers must first be combined. One way is to flatten it (Layer > Flatten Image), but that loses the ability to edit adjustment layers. Another way is to combine all layers into a Smart Object that preserves each layer.
In the Layers panel select the first layer (the Portraits – Warmth layer group); then hold down Shift and select the last layer (Background) to select all layers.
Choose Layer > Smart Objects > Convert To Smart Object. The selected layers are combined into a single Smart Object.
Choose Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen.
In the Smart Sharpen dialog box, make sure that Preview is selected so you can see the effect of settings you adjust in the document window.
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You can drag inside the preview window in the dialog box to inspect different parts of the image, or you can click the magnification buttons below the thumbnail.
Make sure Lens Blur is chosen in the Remove menu.
You can choose to remove Lens Blur, Gaussian Blur, or Motion Blur in the Smart Sharpen dialog box. Lens Blur is good for general sharpening. Gaussian Blur is similar to the older Unsharp Mask filter. Motion Blur helps reduce streaks from the camera or subject moving in one direction when the photo was taken.
Drag the Amount (of sharpening) slider to about 400%, and inspect it by magnifying the Smart Sharpen preview or the document window. An Amount of 400% probably looks like too much, so you’ll lower the Amount value.
Drag the Amount slider to about 220%. Adjust it further if you want.
We left the Radius value at 1, a good starting value for an image that’s already reasonably sharp. Radius determines the number of pixels surrounding the edge pixels that affect the sharpening. If the finest details are not sharp, a higher Radius value can help.
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Feel free to adjust the settings. When you’re satisfied, click OK to apply the Smart Sharpen filter. Because it was applied to a Smart Object it’s a Smart Filter, so you can edit Smart Sharpen by double-clicking it in the Layers panel.
Choose File > Save, and click OK if the Photoshop Format Options dialog box appears. Then close the project file.
MORE WAYS TO DELIVER A PHOTO
At the end of Lesson 1, you used the Export As command to create a JPEG copy of the image. There are more ways to deliver a photo, depending on what you need:
The command File > Save A Copy offers a range of file formats with options useful for professional printing, such as resolution metadata and layers.
The command File > Export > Save For Web is an older alternative to the File > Export > Export As command. Both commands can prepare graphics for screen-based media, but offer different features.
Click the Export or Share Files button (
) at the top of the application window to reveal the Share menu, which offers simpler access to a range of options including online review and a direct link to Lightroom Classic. On the Share menu on macOS, click Send to Apps > Other Apps for sharing options such as AirDrop.
MANUAL RETOUCHING WITH THE HEALING AND CLONING TOOLS
The rise of generative AI technology has led to powerful new retouching tools such as Generative Fill and the Remove tool. However, sometimes you may prefer to use the more traditional Photoshop healing and cloning tools instead. For example, some retouching tasks are specialized or simple enough that the traditional tools are faster, because their calculations aren’t so complex. The older tools can also be useful when you’re working on a project that doesn’t allow using generative AI.
The easiest tools to use are those you can simply click or drag to repair an area, such as the Spot Healing Brush tool (
) and the Remove tool (
). Both try to fill in the repair area in a way that looks consistent with the content near where you click or drag the tool.
The Remove tool uses newer technology that can produce better results when repairing larger or more complex areas. Although the Remove tool can use generative AI, it doesn’t have to. When the Remove tool is selected, the options bar displays a Fill menu that lets you control how a Remove tool repair is processed. For example, if you’re not allowed to use AI for a project, you can set the Fill menu to “Never use generative AI.”
Sometimes it works better to tell Photoshop to use a specific area as a source for filling in the area you’re retouching. You can do that with the Clone Stamp tool (
) and Healing Brush tool (
). The Clone Stamp tool retouches by exactly copying pixels you sample from another area. The Healing Brush tool tries to blend sampled content into the area you’re repairing. To use these tools, first click while holding down Alt (Windows) or Option (macOS) to sample an area, and then click or drag the tool to apply the sampled pixels to the area you want to retouch. For both tools, the Window > Clone Source panel offers more options that don’t fit in the options bar.
The Patch tool (
) is similar to the Spot Healing brush tool, but instead of setting the source by Alt/Option-clicking to sample a small area, you drag the Patch tool to select a region of any size or shape.
The Content-Aware Move tool (
) is useful for moving or copying a selection to another area of an image and blending it into the new area. You can use the Content-Aware Move tool to extend content such as grass or a building, by selecting the Extend setting in the Mode menu in the options bar.
If you want to learn more about these tools, you can find the location of any Photoshop tool, and step-by-step instructions for it, by choosing Edit > Search. As with all tools, you can customize how they work by using the options bar to change settings for the current tool.
EXTRA CREDIT: CREATIVELY CONVERTING A COLOR IMAGE TO BLACK AND WHITE
You can control how a color image converts to black and white to get the look you want. The lightness of colors is not the same. For example, at maximum saturation, yellow is much lighter than blue. When you convert using the Black & White adjustment layer, you can control the lightness of different colors. For example, if the original sky is light blue, lowering the Blue value in the Black & White adjustment layer darkens the sky in the black-and-white version. This technique started in film photography, where a photographer would attach a color filter to the front of the lens to change the lightness of the sky, foliage, or portrait skin relative to the other original colors in the image.
Choose File > Open, navigate to the Autumn.jpg file in the Lesson02 folder, and click Open.
In the Adjustments panel, make sure the Single Adjustments category is underlined, and click the Black & White button. A new Black & White adjustment layer appears in the Layers panel, and the options for it appear in the Properties panel.
In the Properties panel, adjust the color sliders to change the lightness of different colors until you create the tonal relationships you want.
You can experiment with options from the Preset menu, such as Darker or Infrared. Or, select the on-image adjustment tool (
) in the upper-left corner of the Properties panel, position it in the image over a color you want to adjust, and drag horizontally. The tool moves the sliders associated with the original color of the image where you started dragging; for example, dragging on the yellow leaves adjusts the lightness of all yellow areas.
If you want to colorize the entire photo with a single hue, select Tint in the Properties panel, click the color swatch, and select a tint color. You can continue to adjust the color sliders.
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