A detailed analysis of the work of sharpening tools in Photoshop. Filters group sharpening in Photoshop

Improving photographs, giving them sharpness and clarity, contrasting shades is the main concern of Photoshop. But in some cases it is not necessary to sharpen the photo, but rather to blur it.

The main principle of the blur tools is to blend and smooth the boundaries between shades. These tools are called filters and are found in the menu "Filter - Blur".

Here we see several filters. Let's talk briefly about the most used of them.

This filter is used most often in work. For blurring, the principle of Gaussian curves is used here. The filter settings are extremely simple: the strength of the effect is adjusted by the slider with the name "Radius".

Blur and Blur+

These filters have no settings and are applied immediately after selecting the corresponding menu item. The difference between them is only in the strength of the effect on the image or layer. "Blur+" blurs more.

Radial blur simulates, depending on the settings, either “twisting”, as when rotating the camera, or “scattering”.

Twisting:

Result:

These are the basic blur filters in Photoshop. The remaining tools are derivatives and are used in specific situations.

Practice

In practice we use two filters - And .

Our original image is like this:

Using Radial Blur

Create two copies of the background layer ( CTRL+J twice).
Next we go to the menu "Filter - Blur" and looking for .

Method "Linear", quality "Best", quantity – maximum.

Click OK and look at the result. Most often, using a filter once is not enough. To enhance the effect, press CTRL+F, repeating the filter action.

Now we need to remove the effect from the child.

Create a mask for the top layer.
Then select the brush.

The shape is soft round.

Black color.
Go to the top layer mask and paint over the effect with a black brush in areas not related to the background.
As you can see, the glow effect is not very well expressed. Let's add some sun rays. To do this, select the tool "Free figure"

and in the settings we look for a figure of the same shape as in the screenshot.
Let's draw a figure.
Next you need to change the color of the resulting figure to light yellow. Double-click on the layer thumbnail and select the desired color in the window that opens.
Blurring the figure "Radial blur" repeatedly. Please note that the program will offer to rasterize the layer before applying the filter. You must agree by clicking OK in the dialog box.

The result should look something like this:
Excess areas of the figure need to be removed. Staying on the layer with the shape, hold down the key CTRL and click on the mask of the bottom layer. With this action we will load the mask into the selected area.
Then click on the mask icon. On top layer A mask will be automatically created and filled with black over the selected area.

We're done with radial blur, now let's move on to Gaussian blur.

Using Gaussian Blur

Create a fingerprint of layers ( CTRL+SHIFT+ALT+E).
Make a copy and go to the menu “Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur”.
Blur the layer quite strongly, setting a large radius.
After pressing the button OK, change the blending mode for the top layer to "Overlap".
In this case, the effect was too pronounced and needs to be weakened. Create a mask for this layer, take a brush with the same settings (soft round, black). Set the brush opacity to 30-40% .
We pass the brush over the face and hands of our little model.

Let's improve the composition a little more by brightening the child's face. Create an adjustment layer "Curves".

We bend the curve upward.
Then go to the layers palette and click on the layer mask with Curves.
Press the key D on the keyboard, resetting the colors, and press the keyboard shortcut CTRL+DEL, filling the mask with black. The brightening effect will disappear from the entire image.
Take a soft round brush again, this time white and opacity 30-40% . Using a brush, we go over the model’s face and arms, brightening these areas. Don't overdo it.

Let's take a look at the result of our today's lesson:

Thus, we have learned two basic blur filters − And .

13.08.2016 27.01.2018

Detailed lesson, instructions about blur in Photoshop. You will learn how to create blur of any objects and images.

Group filters blur has existed in Adobe Photoshop for a long time, since early versions, the group includes many options for blur - Gaussian Blur, Motion Blur, Surface Blur and many others, is this group filters in the menu Filter-Blur (Filter-Blur). Starting from version CS6, new types of blur have appeared, with a wider range of settings; you can open a subgroup with new filters by going to the menu Filter-Gallery Blur (Filter-Gallery Blur).

In this lesson we will get acquainted with the most popular types of blur and use an example to learn how to make blur in Photoshop.

Gaussian Blur gives a blur effect throughout the image, you can access this filter through the menu Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur).

Let's open a photo with a girl (https://cloud.mail.ru/public/C9Q6/jDda1wyej), the background and the girl in this image have the same degree of clarity, which is why the girl gets lost in the background. According to one of the rules of aerial perspective, the main object should be clearer and more contrasting, then our eye will immediately catch where in the composition the main things are and where the secondary ones are. File-Open (File-Open):

Duplicate the layer (Ctrl + J) or double click on the layer in Layers panel - Create a duplicate layer (Duplicate Layer). Open the filter Gaussian Blur, Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur (Filter-Blur-Gaussian Blur). The following window will open:

Radius blur directly depends on the size and resolution of the image, as well as on the desired result. Let's choose a radius of 5 pixels- so the effect will become clearly visible. For this image, this value for the blur radius is a bit too much, but we chose it to make the difference more obvious.

Add to the blur layer layer mask, click on the icon layer masks V layers panels:

Choose Brush tool (Brush), tool hotkey IN(in English layout):

Color foreground - black:

Making sure that mask layer active, erase black brush By layer mask blur from the girl. If you accidentally erased something unnecessary, change it color tassels on white and return the deleted fragment. Black color on layer mask- erases, white- restores the visibility of the image.

This is what it looks like mask layer after processing black brush:

And the image as a whole:

Usage masks layer has one negative point - a halo appears at the junction of the main object and the background; this can be easily avoided if, before blurring, use tool Stamp (Clone Stamp Tool) , functions Content-Aware Fill or any other tool convenient for you, clone the background at the junction with the object, inside the object itself. In the case of our photo, it looks like this (may this sweet girl forgive me!):

Briefly about the work tool Stamp (Clone Stamp Tool).

Shortcut key for calling the tool - S. Using the tool, you can clone parts of an image to other areas. To select a sample to transfer, click left keymice with a clamped keyAlt, then we release Alt and transfer a piece of the selected image to desired area, click again left mouse button- and the piece “takes root” in the new place.

I repeat, at the junction of the object and the background, we take a sample from the background and transfer it to the object, and so on along the entire contour of the main object.

And this is what the image looks like if you blur not the original layer, but the processed one along the contour Clone Stamp Tool and then erase again layer mask blur from a girl:

There is no halo, the boundaries are clear, the emphasis is on the girl, the background does not distract attention.

So we learned how to make blur in Photoshop.

In this Photoshop tutorial we will look at different ways sharpening and the situations in which they are used. Let's get started.

Why we don't use Sharpen, Sharp+ and Edge Sharpen

In Photoshop's Sharpening menu, you'll find four filters that I ignore: Image Stabilization, Sharpen, Sharp+, and Edge Sharpen. Let's see why.

Image stabilization is a powerful filter with a very specific purpose: removing blur from camera shake. This topic can be covered in a separate lesson, but it has nothing to do with sharpness. In my opinion, however, to avoid camera shake, it's better to use a suitable shutter speed rather than relying on Photoshop.

Image stabilization is a great filter, but it doesn't contribute to the sharpening process.

The Sharpen filter is the base filter for Sharpen+ and Sharp Edges. All three of these legacy Adobe filters Not recommends using. They apply an automatically determined amount of sharpening to the image. You have no control. Sharpen applies a small amount, Sharpen+ applies a little more, and Edge Sharpen only focuses on the edges, ignoring the rest. These filters have no place in good process post-processing.

Now let's look at the filters that you should use.

Contour Sharpening: Quick and Easy

Contour sharpness is film technology, where the blurred copy is subtracted from the original image; this creates an "unsharp mask" of the edges. A mask is then applied to increase the contrast at these edges.

You can roughly simulate this effect yourself in Photoshop:

Convert the image to black and white.
Duplicate the original image.
Apply a slight Gaussian blur.
Change the blending mode to Subtract. This will create an unsharp mask on the edges.
Create a new layer and apply Merge Visible.
Change the blending mode to Screen and turn off the unsharp mask layer.
The original file will now look sharper (bad enough).

The process of creating contour sharpening described above.

In this tutorial, I'll show you the mechanics of applying the Sharp Mask filter in Photoshop; it does a much better job than the technique described above. Rather than repeating the same steps, let's look at exactly when you need to apply the Unsharp Mask filter.

Unsharpening is the simplest, controlled method of sharpening your images. It's not the best, but it's fast and easy to use. For images that need a small amount of overall sharpening, this is a very useful method.

I sharpened this image for the tutorial using the Unsharp Mask filter.

Smart sharpening, which we'll talk about next, uses the same general principles, which is the same as Unsharp Mask. If there is no need to use additional functions, then the Unsharp Mask filter will be your best choice.

After I sharpen a full-resolution file—usually using Smart Sharpening or the Color Contrast technique, which we'll also talk about—I resize a copy of the file down to the size I need. I then use Unsharp Mask to add some sharpness to the file ready for export. Images that have been reduced to web size, for example, will lose a small amount of sharpness. Moderate application of Mask Mask is a quick and acceptable way to sharpen an image.

« Smart» sharpness: best universal option

"Smart" sharpness is best filter to sharpen in Photoshop. Here you have full control over how sharpening is applied throughout the image. It's best to sharpen the midtones. And for that you need Smart Sharpening.”

To apply this filter, create a new layer Shift-Command-N and Merge Visible. Now you are working on a copy of the original image and any edits you have made.

Go to Filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen... If the advanced options aren't visible, click Shadows/Highlights to expand them.

Smart Sharpening dialog box.

The options here are a little different, so let's look at what they do:

The Effect and Radius are the same as Sharpen Mask. They control the strength of the effect and the size of the parts affected by the filter.
Instead of Isohelium, Reduce Noise is used to prevent noise from appearing when sharpening too much. The higher the percentage, the more selective sharpening will be applied. But too high values will make the image “plastic”.
Remove has three options: Gaussian Blur, Shallow Depth Blur, and Motion Blur. Gaussian blur is most suitable in most cases. If you're trying to remove blur from camera or subject movement, then Shallow Depth Blur or Motion Blur may be suitable.
Reducing the effect controls how sharpening is applied in the shadows and highlights. A value of 0% means they are as sharpened as the rest of the image. A value of 100% means that the sharpening is not enhanced at all.
The width of the tonal range determines which areas are considered shadows and highlights. A low number means that only the darkest and lightest areas of the image will be affected.
Radius is used to control adjacent pixels in shadows and highlights. Every pixel that is within the radius of a shadow or highlight pixel value will also be treated as a shadow or highlight. This prevents small color variations from being overly sharpened.

To use Smart Sharpening, start at the top of the dialog box and work your way down. As with Sharpen Mask, enter an Effect between 100% and 200%, then increase the Radius little by little until you're happy with the sharpness in the midtones. On this moment Avoid areas of shadow and light.

If noise is not a midtone issue, then set Noise Reduce to a low value. I usually use 0%. For most images, leave Gaussian Blur in the Remove line.

Look at the shadow areas in the image. They usually have the most big problems with noise. If sharpening creates some problems, increase the Reduce effect until they disappear.

Depending on the image, you can also use Tonal Width to determine what Photoshop treats as shadow. If you only have problems in the darkest areas, then lower the value. Or, in my opinion, around 50% usually works well.

Look at the areas where the shadows meet the midtones and highlights. Play with the Radius slider until the transition looks good and the sharpening is neither too weak nor too intense.

Finally, repeat the process for the highlights. Click OK and you are done.

If the sharpening is too intense, you can lower the layer's opacity. Actually it's great way Instead of spending time fine-tuning each slider in the dialog box, it's better to go a little overboard with the sharpening. It's much easier and faster to reduce the opacity of this layer than to go back to the dialog box and correct the over-sharpening of the image.

The image on the left has been sharpened using Unsharp Mask, the image in the middle has been sharpened using« Smart» sharpness, A on right – difference between them. You can see the difference in the shadows and highlights where I intentionally didn't sharpen the details.

Smart sharpening should be yours in the usual way overall sharpening of images. With it, you have complete control over how sharpening affects shadows, midtones, and highlights.

Color contrast: selective sharpness

The Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen filters are great for general sharpening, but they are more limited when we're talking about about enhancing the sharpness of certain areas of the image, such as the model’s eyes. The ability to sharpen some details without affecting others is an important part of creative sharpening.

I used three layers of Color Contrast to enhance the sharpness various areas this image.

My favorite tool for this is Color Contrast. You'll find it in Filter > Other. It creates an unsharp mask without applying it. This means you can see exactly which edges it affects and apply the mask to the areas of the image you want to apply it to.

Results

With the Unsharp Mask, Smart Sharpen and Color Contrast filters, you can meet your needs. No matter why you want to sharpen an image, one of these tools will do the job. There are other, more advanced techniques, but unless you are a high-end retoucher, you won't see any benefit from them.

(Optional) If your image contains multiple layers, select the layer containing the image you want to sharpen to work with. The Sharpen Mask filter can only be applied to one layer at a time, even if the layers are linked or grouped. Before you apply the Sharpen Mask filter, you can merge the layers.

Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Make sure the View option is selected.

Note.

Click and hold down the image in the preview window to see the image without adjusting sharpness. You can drag and drop to see different parts of the image in the preview window, and the “+” or “–” buttons control the image scale.

Although the Sharpen Mask dialog box has its own preview window, it's best to move the dialog box so that the results of the filter are visible in the document window.

To determine the number of pixels processed by the filter around edge pixels, drag the Radius slider or enter a value. The larger the radius value, the wider the edge effects spread. The wider the edge effect spreads, the more the increased sharpness will be visible.

The radius value may vary depending on the user's taste, as well as the size of the final reproduction and the output method. For images with high resolution Typically, radius values of 1 and 2 are recommended. A smaller value sharpens the pixel edges only, while a larger value sharpens a wider area of pixels. This effect is not as noticeable in print as it is on screen because the two-pixel radius takes up less space on a high-resolution printed image.

To set the degree to which pixel contrast is increased, drag the Effect slider or enter a value. For images that are printed at high resolution, values between 150% and 200% are generally recommended.

Set the difference by which the pixels in question will be recognized compared to surrounding pixels as edges for subsequent filter processing. To do this, drag the Threshold slider or enter the appropriate value. For example, a threshold of 4 means processing all pixels whose tonal values on a scale from 0 to 255 differ by 4 units or more. Thus, adjacent pixels with values of 128 and 129 will not be processed. To avoid noise or posterization (for example, in images with skin tones), it is recommended to use an edge mask or try to find a threshold value between 2 and 20. The default threshold value (0) sharpens the entire image.

How to increase sharpening in Photoshop using various techniques Let's talk in this article. First, what images will we work with and what final goals do we want to achieve with this event? This will allow you to choose the working method and the desired approach.

As trivial as it may seem, all photos can be divided into two main categories – those where people are and where they are not. Consequently, there will also be two approaches to increasing sharpness - working with a portrait and other pictures.

Before we directly turn to work, let’s decide what means sharpening in photoshop this will give us insight into the processing process. So, Photoshop is not a magic pill for crappy photos; it does not add to the objects in the processed image something that is not there in the first place. The program cannot turn a blurry UG into a masterpiece of photographic art.

Increasing sharpness in Photoshop, you're just increasing the micro-contrast, nothing else happens. No new details appear in the photo, it’s just that the existing ones appear most clearly, both those that I would like to emphasize and those whose manifestation is undesirable.

Sharpening a portrait

When working with portraits, you don’t need to increase sharpness throughout the frame; remember to increase micro-contrast; it’s enough to softly emphasize the eye area; this will be quite enough to make the photo look “cheerful”; lips and jewelry are less often treated in the same way.

Such processing can be carried out as part of the general one. I proceed as follows. Using the Lasso tool, read about working with it, I select the eye area

Then use the key combination Shift+Ctrl+C to copy the combined data; if the image consists of one layer, use the combination CtrL+C. Then I immediately apply Ctrl+V, the contents of the selected area will be pasted onto a new layer.

To this layer I apply the High Pass filter (color contrast) from the Filter – Other menu. The radius of exposure is selected in such a way that details begin to appear, in my case these are eyelashes and a pattern on the iris of the eye.

Next, I change the blending mode of the layer processed by the filter to “ Bright light» Vivid Light. I put a black mask on this layer using the corresponding button at the bottom of the layers palette and pressing the Alt key, hiding it

Using white color I process the mask, showing the effect of increasing sharpness on the eyelashes and iris of the eye. If the force of influence turns out to be insufficient, the layer can be duplicated (Ctrl+J), if it is excessive, reduce the opacity (Opacity).

Applying sharpening filters

Another way to increase sharpness, portrait or otherwise, is to use filters Photoshop, however, to use them you need all the layers that make up the image into one (Alt+Shift+Ctrl+E).

Previously, I wrote about increasing sharpness in ACR for RAW files, you can also read it, but no one forbids using this module as a filter (Shift+Ctrl+A); you can find out about the settings using the links above.

I wrote about working with the “Unsharp Mask” filter in this article, if you wish, you can get acquainted with it. A more advanced option is Smart Sharpen filter it’s also called Smart Sharpen in the English version of the program, I’ll try its action on an experimental picture.

In order to see all the changes occurring in the image, before using the filter, I will set its scale to 100% using the key combination (Ctrl+1). I follow the path Filter – Sharpness – Smart Sharpening.

Using the Smart Sharpen filter

The size of the filter window can be adjusted by grabbing the bar and moving it both inward, reducing it, and outward, increasing it. This useful feature allows you to configure the window so that it is convenient to monitor changes in the image either in the document window or in the viewing area of the filter itself.

Now let's talk about how the filter works - first you need to set the strength of the effect, the Amount parameter. The higher the value of this parameter, the stronger the contrast between pixels and the higher the sharpness. I set it to 300%

By moving the Radius slider, we increase the number of pixels affected by the effect; the higher its value, the more obvious the increase in sharpness. However, it is unnecessary to be overly zealous, because this leads to the appearance of halos.

Once the Radius value is set, you can go back to the Amount parameter and try to raise it to a value where halos around contrast edges don't start to appear. The limit of sharpening capability is reached halo-free increasing the “Radius” and “Effect” values.

The Reduce Noise slider allows you to effectively deal with emerging noise due to sharpening.

ParameterRemove defines the sharpening algorithm applied to the image. The default value is Lens Blur, which is most effective at recognizing edges and details before sharpening them. In halos, sharpening is adjusted with less intensity.

The “Motion Blur” item Motion Blur is used to reduce blur caused by movement during shooting, camera or object; when using this item, the angle setting becomes available, which actually determines the direction of movement.

The filter also has the ability to adjust the impact on dark and light areas using the “Shadows/Highlights” drop-down tab.

The settings on these tabs serve to suppress dark and light halos that appear as a result of the filter. We have saddle settings hidden behind the sliders

Fade Amount ( Weakening the effect) allows you to change the intensity of the selected effect.

Tonal Width ( Tone width) allows you to adjust the range of variable shadows and highlights. Adjustment is achieved by moving the slider to the left - thus less meaning and stronger shadow correction limited to the darkest areas. Movement to the right – large values stronger highlight correction in the lightest areas

Radius(Radius) determines the size of the area around each pixel, which determines whether it belongs to light or shadow

For my picture, I selected the values of these parameters shown below.

In addition to these most obvious ways to increase sharpness, there are still a huge number of them; there is no way to describe them all in one place. However, in conclusion there is one more thing I hope you find useful.

Sharpening with an Edge Mask

This method of increasing sharpness is simple, effective, easy to automate, and therefore can be used in processing large quantity photo from minimal costs time.

Take the image, create a copy of the background layer, go to the “Channels” tab Channels, you need to select the most contrasting channel, usually it is red or green, in my case it is green. I make a copy of this channel by dragging it onto the leaf icon at the bottom of the palette.

With the green copy active, go to the menu Filter – Stylize – Find Edges. The result is in front of you

Invert the image of the key combinations (Ctrl+I)

To expand the received counters I go: Filter – Other – Maximum. I will leave the default radius value unchanged.

Using the “ ” correction, I’ll get rid of random pixels, use the combination (Ctrl + L) to call up the corresponding dialog and slightly shift the black point

We need to soften the edges of the future mask a little; for this I use a Gaussian blur filter with a small radius value.

The blank for the mask is ready, all that remains is to apply it. I turn on the visibility of the picture by making the composite channel () active. By clicking on the copy icon of the green channel while pressing Ctrl key I’ll create a selected area based on it, return to the layers palette, and invert the selection (Shift+Ctrl+I).

Now, guided by the principles described in I apply the Contour Sharpness filter.

After applying the filter, remove the selection (Ctrl+D). Thanks to the selection made, only the areas on the goat’s face became sharp; the rest of the picture was not affected.