unsharp mask ????

"Ron&Joyce" wrote in message

When a picture is a bit out of focus I have been told the best way to help it is by using the unsharp mask. How do you do this? What is the best settings for the Amount Radius and threshold ? Are is there a better way

to

do this?

Thanks for the time
Ron

The unsharp mask is a good tool. It does require a certain level of skill and knowledge though.

What it does is it looks for the edges in your image and

If the picture is from a digital camera, I suggest starting points of amount=100%, radius = 2, Threshold 3. But each camera (and scene) is different, so as Charles says, play with these, and I agree the tendency at first is to oversharpen. Also, do it last, after you adjust contrast, saturation, etc.

Don

"Tabasco1" wrote in message

"Ron&Joyce" wrote in message

When a picture is a bit out of focus I have been told the best way to

help

it is by using the unsharp mask. How do you do this? What is the best settings for the Amount Radius and threshold ? Are is there a better way

to

do this?

Thanks for the time
Ron

The unsharp mask is a good tool. It does require a certain level of skill and knowledge though.

What it does is it looks for the edges in your image and "sharpens" them

by

increasing the contrast of the edges. Where as other sharpening methods do this for every point which can lead to "noise" in gradients and elsewhere.

To use the Unsharp Mask you need to know the following.

1.. First set your image size to 100% in the Preview and on the desktop

if

you are going to check the Preview check box.
2.. The Amount slider determines the strength of the effect.
3.. The radius is the how many pixels out from the edges it will affect.
Higher resolution images will generally like larger numbers like 3 to 4. Low-res images generally use between 1.5 to 2.
4.. Threshold determines how intense the edge difference must be before

it

applies sharpening. So the higher the number you select the less that gets sharpened.

How will you know the proper settings? By playing with the tool and

watching

what happens.

Tip. The professionals have learned to not get too aggressive in

sharpening

because you will create jaggies. If they have an image that is too soft

they

retake the image.

Charles
Torrance, California
http://www.tcpslashipdomains.com

One additional ‘trick’ is to make it slightly ‘over-sharp’, accept, then ^z to undo. Then use the ‘fade’ option in the filter menu to make it blend a bit.

On Fri, 28 May 2004 11:47:01 -0700, "Don" found these unused words floating about:

If the picture is from a digital camera, I suggest starting points of amount=100%, radius = 2, Threshold 3. But each camera (and scene) is different, so as Charles says, play with these, and I agree the tendency at first is to oversharpen. Also, do it last, after you adjust contrast, saturation, etc.

Don

"Tabasco1" wrote in message

"Ron&Joyce" wrote in message

When a picture is a bit out of focus I have been told the best way to

help

it is by using the unsharp mask. How do you do this? What is the best settings for the Amount Radius and threshold ? Are is there a better way

to

do this?

Thanks for the time
Ron

The unsharp mask is a good tool. It does require a certain level of skill and knowledge though.

What it does is it looks for the edges in your image and "sharpens" them

by

increasing the contrast of the edges. Where as other sharpening methods do this for every point which can lead to "noise" in gradients and elsewhere.

To use the Unsharp Mask you need to know the following.

1.. First set your image size to 100% in the Preview and on the desktop

if

you are going to check the Preview check box.
2.. The Amount slider determines the strength of the effect.
3.. The radius is the how many pixels out from the edges it will affect.
Higher resolution images will generally like larger numbers like 3 to 4. Low-res images generally use between 1.5 to 2.
4.. Threshold determines how intense the edge difference must be before

it

applies sharpening. So the higher the number you select the less that gets sharpened.

How will you know the proper settings? By playing with the tool and

watching

what happens.

Tip. The professionals have learned to not get too aggressive in

sharpening

because you will create jaggies. If they have an image that is too soft

they

retake the image.

Charles
Torrance, California
http://www.tcpslashipdomains.com

You can achieve better results, if you "prepare" image before using the Unsharp mask filter.

Ctrl J (duplicates the layer);
Filter – Noise – Median (radius from 1 to 5);
Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (radius 1 to 3);
Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask (Amount 500%, same radius as used before in Gaussian Blur, Threshold 0).
After that, lower the opacity of the layer to about 50%. Merge layers.

Shoult look better than using Unsharp mask directly.

Vasja

"Ron&Joyce" wrote in message

When a picture is a bit out of focus I have been told the best way to help it is by using the unsharp mask. How do you do this? What is the best settings for the Amount Radius and threshold ? Are is there a better way

to

do this?

Thanks for the time
Ron

Vasja wrote:

You can achieve better results, if you "prepare" image before using the Unsharp mask filter.

Ctrl J (duplicates the layer);
Filter – Noise – Median (radius from 1 to 5);
Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (radius 1 to 3);
Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask (Amount 500%, same radius as used before in Gaussian Blur, Threshold 0).
After that, lower the opacity of the layer to about 50%. Merge layers.

Shoult look better than using Unsharp mask directly.

In my experiment (all steps radius 2) it looks worse that not doing anything at all.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

I agree. There’s another method that I’d learned in this very group.

CRTL+J (copy layer)
Apply High-Pass filter (radius not too large)
CTRL+SHIFT+U (Desaturate, new layer)
Set blending mode of new layer to "Overlay".

Not as sharp as Unsharp mask, IMO, but it is an alternative. In most cases, it yields good results.

"Johan W. Elzenga" wrote in message

Vasja wrote:

You can achieve better results, if you "prepare" image before using the Unsharp mask filter.

Ctrl J (duplicates the layer);
Filter – Noise – Median (radius from 1 to 5);
Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (radius 1 to 3);
Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask (Amount 500%, same radius as used before in
Gaussian Blur, Threshold 0).
After that, lower the opacity of the layer to about 50%. Merge layers.

Shoult look better than using Unsharp mask directly.

In my experiment (all steps radius 2) it looks worse that not doing anything at all.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/

I have done some more testing and, yes, I was wrong. I have lived in mistake. Thank you, Branko and Johan for correcting me.

"Branko Vukelic" wrote in message

I agree. There’s another method that I’d learned in this very group.
CRTL+J (copy layer)
Apply High-Pass filter (radius not too large)
CTRL+SHIFT+U (Desaturate, new layer)
Set blending mode of new layer to "Overlay".

Not as sharp as Unsharp mask, IMO, but it is an alternative. In most

cases,

it yields good results.

"Johan W. Elzenga" wrote in message

Vasja wrote:

You can achieve better results, if you "prepare" image before using the Unsharp mask filter.

Ctrl J (duplicates the layer);
Filter – Noise – Median (radius from 1 to 5);
Filter – Blur – Gaussian Blur (radius 1 to 3);
Filter – Sharpen – Unsharp Mask (Amount 500%, same radius as used

before

in
Gaussian Blur, Threshold 0).
After that, lower the opacity of the layer to about 50%. Merge layers.

Shoult look better than using Unsharp mask directly.

In my experiment (all steps radius 2) it looks worse that not doing anything at all.

—
Johan W. Elzenga johan<<at>>johanfoto.nl Editor / Photographer http://www.johanfoto.nl/