Photoshop Sharpening Technique

Harv at Pixel-shooter posted this and I wanted to link it.

Photoshop Sharpening Technique

"

The following technique was originally provided to me by Jeff (BigRed450) while at another forum. I have been asked to share it. In reading the technique you will see that I also created a second version which is a little more subtle. For ease of use, I created an action for each.

Photoshop Sharpening Actions

The following sharpening method was kindly provided to me by Jeff (BigRed450)

This method should be applied after resizing,, levels adjustment, saturation adjustment and contrast adjustment.

The figures in bold are the originals supplied by Jeff and work very well in most situations. The figures in brackets which follow, are the ones I substituted for a more subtle sharpening when I felt the standard action might be too aggressive. I found that if the more subtle pass is not enough, I am often able to run it a second time over the first.

What I did is create an action for each naming one ‘standard sharpening’ and the other ‘lighter sharpening’. It makes it fast, easy and eliminates possible errors or omissions.

Dark and Light Blend Sharpen

1- open original image and make Duplicate copy to protect the original.
2- On the copy adjust your levels, saturation and contrast, as per your regular workflow.
3- Now make duplicate layer and name "Dark Sharpen"
4- Make another duplicate layer and name "Light Sharpen"
5- Select the Dark Sharpen layer and add USM
Amount – 500 (400)
Radius - 0.6 (0.4)
Threshold – 2 (2)
6- In the layers palette set the Blend mode to Darken and set the opacity to 20 % (15 %)
7- Select the Light Sharpen layer and add USM
Amount – 500 (400)
Radius - 0.6 (0.4)
Threshold – 2 (2)
8- In the layers palette set the Blend mode to Lighten and set the opacity to 5 % (5 %)
9- Flatten image
10- Make duplicate layer and name Luminosity Sharpen
11- Select Luminosity Sharpen layer and add USM
Amount – 500 (500)
Radius - 0.2 (0.2)
Threshold- 0 (0)
12- In the layers palette set the Blend mode to Luminosity and set the opacity to 60% ( 50%)
13- Flatten Image
14- Done

"


Thanks for Harv for the post.