Sponsored by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. Learn More

Sharpening Your Images Like A Pro

 

Just about every image that is brought into Photoshop, whether from a scanner, digital camera, CD-ROM, etc., needs to be sharpened. The undisputed tool for this task is Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask filter. The only downside of using this filter is that getting the level of sharpening you’d like can sometimes cause color shifts and halos, and it can also accentuate dust or specs within the image. There are two ways around this, and what’s great about these methods is they let you apply a higher level of sharpening without causing color shifts or other problems: (1) Convert your file from RGB mode to Lab Color. Then go to the Channels palette and click on the Lightness channel. Now apply the Unsharp Mask filter (twice if you need it), then switch back to RGB mode (don’t worry, there’s no harm in this RGB-to-Lab-to-RGB mode conversion). (2) If you’re working on a CMYK image, apply the Unsharp Mask filter, then go under the Edit menu and choose Fade Unsharp Mask. When the Fade dialog appears, change the Mode pop-up menu to Luminosity and click OK (which pretty much does the same thing as method 1; it applies the sharpening to the luminance of the image, not the color).

Spread the word:
  • Digg
  • del.icio.us
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • NewsVine
  • Technorati
  • BlinkList
  • Design Float
  • Mixx
  • Reddit
  • Slashdot
  • SphereIt
  • StumbleUpon
  • LinkedIn
  • MySpace
  • Fleck
  • Netvibes

No Comments

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI

Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.

Photoshop Tutorials

  • Olympic Graphics, Part 2

    Corey finishes up the Olympic-inspired design that he began last week in Part 1.

  • Olympic Graphics, Part 1

    The Olympic-inspired tutorial will be coming in two parts. Stop by next week for the conclusion to this video.

  • Masking with Channels

    This week’s tutorial deals with creating masks for complicated images by using channels.

  • Animate 2D in 3D

    Corey shows you how to create a 3D animation form 2D elements using Photoshop CS4 Extended. Click here to download a .MOV file with the final version of this animation.

Premium Video Tutorials From NAPP


 

Modify Textures on 3D Objects

If you have imported a 3D object that has a texture applied to it, that texture will show up as a sublayer with your 3D layer. To modify or replace the existing texture, simply double-click directly on the texture name in the Layers panel. A dialog will open with the 2D texture. Make whatever changes you need, then close and save the document. Just like a Smart Object, it will update automatically in the main document.

Read More Tips

Tip of the Day
 
 
DVD Special
Online Training
Kelby Training