Sharpening

There are different methods to sharpen an image. My 2 favorite ways to sharpen are the Highpass Technique and Smart Sharpen. You can sharpen certain areas of an image during retouching (like the eyes, or the hair, or the flower, or whatever you want to be the center of attention). Before you print, it's a good idea to do a light "output sharpening", as printing can add just a slight blur to images.

Remember that all sharpening needs to be done on a merged layer on top of the layers stack, ideally after you are done with all other retouching (Select > All, Edit > Copy > Merged,  Edit > Paste)

Smart Sharpen: 

Go to FILTER > SHARPEN > SMART SHARPEN. Depending on your file, you will likely want an "amount" of 100 to 200, and a "radius" of 1-3. But use your own judgement- you want it to be just slightly sharper overall when making a print, because the printing process often blurs the image just a touch. Select "Lens Blur" from the remove menu:

Selective Sharpening- High Pass Technique:

*for portraits, it’s often good to sharpen just the eyes, lips and hair a bit.

1.) After you are done retouching an image, click on the top layer and go to

Select > All (shortcut: command a).

2.) Edit > Copy Merged. Then go to Edit > Paste (pasting shortcut is command v)

This makes a new “flattened” layer on the top of the stack that incorporates all your layers below. (the entire shortcut for making this new layer is “command shift option e” all at the same time, on a Mac)

3.) On this new layer, go to FILTER > OTHER > HIGHPASS. Choose a radius of 2 pixels.

       

Now, on the layers palatte, change the blending mode of your new “Sharpening Layer”  from “NORMAL” to “OVERLAY”

If this is too sharp, lower the layer opacity of the layer. If it’s not sharp enough, re-do the process with a radius of more like 3 or 4.

4.) Make a layer mask (icon at the bottom that looks like a square with a circle in the middle). Invert the mask (Command i). The mask should be black. Paint with a soft white brush JUST on the areas you wish to sharpen.

Skin Softening- Inverse High Pass Technique:

Follow  steps 1 through 3 above. After you change the blending mode to overlay, and BEFORE you make the mask, hit “Command I” (or control I on a PC) to invert the layer. This changes the effect from sharpening to softening.

You can then make a mask, invert the mask to Black, then paint with a soft white brush just on the areas of the skin you wish to soften. Be careful not to make eyes, hair and lips too soft. And zoom in and paint carefully around the hairline.