Smarter Sharpening: Sharpening For the Image at Hand - Part III
For some time, I had been content using simple RGB Luminosity Sharpening for images to be displayed on the web. Now and then I would note that my images did not show the sharpness and depth of images displayed by certain photographers whom I admire.
Was I doing something wrong? Were they doing something right? I had to know.
The first discovery I made came by way of talented photographer, Juza of Juza Nature Photography. His process for sharpening images was so very simple that I had doubts it would produce the results I craved. Though, the sharpeness and clarity of his web galleries had always impressed me.
The first step of his process involves resizing the original image to 1200 pixels on the longest edge. Apply Photoshop's basic Sharpen filter to the resized image. The image will likely look very crispy and over-sharpened. No worries. Next, duplicate the sharpened layer. Finally, resize the image to 720 pixels on the longest edge and apply Photoshop's Smart Sharpen filter to the duplicate layer while working with a mask to avoid sharpening where it is not desired.
That's a fine approach, but I had another idea for creating a mask.
Mark Johnson, a member of The Radiant Vista, is a Photoshop guru. His Elegant Sharpening Action employs masking based on a single color channel along with some very clever techniques. I wil explain how you can get ahold of this fantastic action at the end of this article.
Please note that I have tweaked Mark's Elegant Sharpening Action to use Smart Sharpen in favor of Unsharpen Mask. I believe Smart Sharpen to be based on a more suitable algorithm than that of Unsharpen Mask for avoiding halo effect.
So, combining Juza's process with Mark's Photoshop-fu seemed like the perfect mix.
Let's try it out on this image of a Pacific Treefrog.
I employed shallow depth of field here, isolating the frog's face against a clean, green background. I want to present both sharpness and visual depth while avoiding the amplification of any noise present in the image.
Step 1: Image -> Image Size -> 1200px on the longest edge. Do not alter the Resolution field.
Step 2: Filter -> Sharpen -> Sharpen
Yes, I realize that the image above is only 720px. Use your imagination for this example! Just note that the Sharpen filter over-cooked the image. Look closely at the in-focus areas. Quite crispy.
Step 3: Image -> Image Size. Set the image size to 720px on the longest edge. Once again, do not alter the Resolution field.
Step 4: Run Mark's excellent Elegant Sharpening Action, modified to use Smart Sharpen.
Below is our mask, based on the red channel. Very quick touch-up was applied with a black paintbrush.
Now, the action prompts us to provide parameters for the Smart Sharpen filter. For this image, 40% with a radius of .2 looks great. I'm a fan of Lens Blur over Gaussian Blur. It's my personal taste, nothing more.
Voila, the finished product!
Don't forget to Edit -> Convert to Profile... as sRGB before saving the final image.
I recommend the use of File -> Save for Web & Devices for creating a web optimized JPEG.
So, there you have it, a simple and effective sharpening workflow optimized for web display.
Obtaining Mark's Elegant Sharpening Action
As I'd mentioned, Mark Johnson is an absolute Photoshop guru. I recommend his Photographer's Photoshop CS3 Companion without reservation. This eBook (also available on CD) is absolutely loaded with great information for photographers using Photoshop. It also comes with Mark's Elegant Sharpening Action as well as an excellent High Pass Sharpen action. I really can't recommend Mark's eBook enough. I keep a shortcut to my copy on my editing workstation desktop for quick reference.
Thanks for stopping by,
Jamie, JFP
Questions? Comments? Errors, typos, screwups, doh's, etc? Use the contact form.
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