How to Use the Sharpen Filter in Photoshop

If you have a digital photo or scanned copy that has good composition but is a bit dim and out-of-focus, the Photoshop Sharpen filter can do wonders to bring out brightness, contrast and crispness to the image.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Adobe Photoshop
• Computer
• Basic Photoshop experience

1. 
    
   Location of Sharpen Filters

   Open your digital photo in Photoshop. On the menu at top, select "Filter," then "Sharpen." In the drop-down menu you will see four options, "Sharpen," "Sharpen Edges," "Sharpen More" and "Unsharp Mask." The first three do exactly what they say. The fourth, "Unsharp Mask" is a source of confusion for newbies. The name come from an old technique used with film developing. It actually does sharpen images. We will use it later to sharpen some details.

2. 
    
   Fade Sharpen Option

   For starters, just click "Sharpen." The photo will automatically sharpen by small increments. Try it several times. You will notice the image becoming clearer, but if you apply the filter too many times, the image will begin to become grainy. If this happens you can always undo (Edit > Undo or Edit > Step Backward), or you can gradually reduce the level of sharpness by selecting the option to fade sharpness (Edit > Fade Sharpness) The Fade Sharpness option has a slider that you can adjust by percentage of fade. If you have the small box labeled "Preview" checked, you can see the results in the main picture as you adjust the slider. There is another similar option to fade sharpened edges. (Edit > Fade Sharpened Edges)

3. 
    
   The Unsharp Mask filter.

   After you experiment with the first three filters, you may want to try the Unsharp Mask filter. This filter and the others will work on selected areas of the picture. In this example, I selected the word "bubbles" on the poster on the wall with the rectangular selection tool. In the Unsharp Mask filter's dialog box, use the sliders to adjust the effect. The small preview image inside the box can be zoomed in and out by clicking on the plus or minus signs: (+) or (-). If you hover your cursor over the preview image, a hand-icon will appear an allow you to "pan" or move around the image.

4. 
    
   Unsharp Mask filter applied to Bubble

   Other areas can be selected to enhance the sharpness. Sharpening also has the effect of increasing the saturation or vividness of the color in the selection as well as the brightness and contrast. In this example, the Magic Wand tool was used to select the huge bubble. The tolerance value was set to 20%, and most of the bubble's interior was selected by holding the shift key and clicking areas next to each other. Then the Unsharp Mask filter was used. Experiment with selections and the various filters.

5. 
    
   Sharpened image has greater clarity.

   Save your image as a new file with a different name, so you can always go back to the original. Your image will be improved for greater impact and clarity of content.

Tips & Warnings

• Don't be afraid of experimenting. Often the sliders have unpredictable effects that can only be discovered by adjusting them across their ranges in different combinations with other sliders in the same box. Just save your file with a different name to preserve the original. Remember, the Undo tool is the most useful tool in Photoshop.