thanks, mat. thanks phos.
Once again, Mathias to the rescue. I am constantly searching for creative sharpening techniques, and this one hits the mark. This’ll be two of Mathaias’ techniques that I’ll use routinely, the other being High Pass sharpening. I’m beginning to think I owe you some money… (not).
Great job Mathias.
Peace,
Tony
If one is so unfortunate to start out with an oscenely oversharpened image, hey it could happen, it is ofcourse not possible to blend back to original.
To restore this image from sharpen artifact hell (bottom), I duplicated the layer, then applied Gaussian Blur, just enough to blend the halos completely, and then I applied Advanced Layer Blending approximately as the illustration <
http://www.96ppi.net/temp/sharpeningsettings.gif> in my original post, only with lower opacity (60% seems appropriate).
If one wishes, the last remaining visible artifacts can be tediously combatted with the Blur Tool: Use a small, soft brush with very low opacity (3-5) and use Lighten and or Darken blend mode along halos and artifacts. If you do this evenly to the image, you can even re-apply sharpening afterwards.
After a few minutes of blur work at high zoom, and a final bit of sharpening, this is the result:
Mat
Ditto, Mat, excellent tutorial! I wish more folks would use this forum in the same way. I think that too often we get caught up in bitching about one thing or another (yes, I’m guilty, too), and forget that it’s a good place to learn.
Nick
Thanks, Mat!
This provides added control over the old oversharpen-then-fade-effect-using-luminosity-blending-mode method that I use most of the time. I shall study it at the first opportunity.
=-= Harron =-=
This is what is meant by mastering Photoshop.
Bravo, Mat
You are welcome.
I was thinking that I could write a small tip once in a while if you want to read them. It could motivate me to write enough quick tips to put on some webspace later on. The tips could include all sorts of methods I have used and developed from print over web to photography.
Would you think such a contribution would be worthwhile to the list? Ofcourse it is mostly a contribution to the regular readers here. I could mark my tips with a * and include ‘quick tutorial’ in the headings, maybe write one each week for as long as I feel like it?
What say you?
You are welcome to contribute your feedback, and also steal this idea!
I rely on the mercy of our hosts regarding illustrations. Is a header warning of pictures necessary?
Mat
What say you?
I say "yea". Without question.
Mathias…
I’d love to see as many tips of this calibre as you care to put together.
But, please forgive me. I copied this one into the P.L.R.R. without asking your permission first. I made an assumption that, since you posted here, that it would be OK to make it a permanent entry in the Repository.
Was I wrong to do that? If so, I can remove it. Also, if you decide you want to amend it, make additions or correctionswhatever, let me know, and I’ll also fix it in the P.L.R.R.
No, I considered giving you the intellectual property speech, but only in jest 😉
Perfectly fine place to store them in the long run, but I´d like to post them here first, in ‘my’ PS Win forum 🙂
I encourage others to post their favourite tips in similar ‘quick tut’ form, it really doesnt take that long to write tips for experienced users.
Would you think such a contribution would be worthwhile to the list? Of course it is mostly a contribution to the regular readers here. I could mark my tips with a * and include ‘quick tutorial’ in the headings, maybe write one each week for as long as I feel like it? What say you? (quote from Mathias post)
Then Nick said,
Ditto, Mat, excellent tutorial! I wish more folks would use this forum in the same way. I think that too often we get caught up in bitching about one thing or another (yes, I’m guilty, too), and forget that it’s a good place to learn.
Forgive me my lack of html lingo to appropriately quote and refer to the above messages–but, allow me to add my heartfelt words.
Mathias, anytime you are "in the mood" to share such wonderful tutorials and valuable information, please know that there are lots of us who treasure your words of wisdom and truly appreciate your efforts.
Nick said it best…
Patty:)
Mathias,
Enjoyed seeing something like this here!
I especially like the idea of putting "__a quick tutorial" in each subject line so that I could find it again, hopefully, with the search engine.
Thanks for taking the time and effort of writing it all out for us; good works.
What say you?
You need to ask in this group of knowlege hounds Mat?!! 🙂
I say YES PLEASE! AND THANK YOU IN ADVANCE FOR ANYTHING YOU’D LIKE TO SHARE!!!
(AND DO YOU NEED YOUR CAR WASHED?!!) <g>
Yes, your efforts are always appreciated Mathias.
Ken Storch
Thanks Mathias, I tried it, and it works great.
Interresting, When I move the layer’s opacity slider I seem to pass some sort of a minimum (of the halo). This suggests that eliminating a halo would not be maximum at 100% opacity.
Sometimes this effect is very visible (texture, surface-like things, grass, rock) and somtimes a "minimum" is only visible at the end of the opacity slider. (Pattern-like things as shooting through a fence with light sky behind it).
Well done! This will be added to my tutorial map.
Rob
Mathias,
Seems a "no-brainer" – bring on the quick tips! 😉
Mathias: interesting technique. Since halos are only reduced for dark and light regions, not midtones, wouldn’t the optical illusion of sharpening but less halos just depend on how much of the image was in the midtone region?
Philo – that is controllable via the sliders in ALB. It´s like a ‘non-destructive weightened Fade’. And this is why you must sharpen more agressively with midtone sharpening. As you can see in the agressive example in OP, the contrast is enhanced around contrasty elements, only without visible haloing.
Here´s a real-world example of an image sharpened this way, but with an edge mask: <
http://www.96ppi.net/temp/gozo1.jpg>
I use a variety of sharpen techniques on my images, but I almost always incorporate ‘weightening’.
Mat
Since halos are only reduced for dark and light regions
Remember, we are blending the top layer into the background layer, we are not blending the background layer into the top layer.
We are blending in order to hide the extreme white and black haloes of the modified layer.
More about ALB later.
Mat
Yes, Mathias, but an extreme light halo for a light object may be appropriate, as would an extreme black halo for a very dark object. Short of extreme USM, midtone objects shouldn’t have very light or dark halos anyway.
Philo, not sure I understand; light halos for light objects? Do you mean dark halo for light objects (USM)?
Is this a case at hand? I must say that I use this technique on even high-contrast images. – Which are especially prone to halos using USM.
Mathias
If the USM is set for luminosity (rather than lighten or darken) a very light object adjacent to a light object should get two halos: one lighter than the very light object and another darker than the light object. If you pull in the "this layer" left half of the white triangle, you will minimize the very light halo. Is this a good thing?
I’m not sure. Yes, if a midtone transition between two coloured objects gets a very dark and very light halo from too high an USM setting, it would be beneficial to reduce this. But what about light or dark objects next to each other? Don’t you want an increase in the transition line contrast? Am I missing something?
My only advice is to try the method yourself and see if it is applicable. As I´m sure you know, every image has their separate needs.
But I will say that because it is a semi-transparent blend we are creating, there is a very visible increase in line contrast. Sometimes two sharpen layers with same settings can enhance this.
Mathias
