This questions has been in my mind for the last few months and I have read many tutorials and articles online. Is there a good tutorial or any good personal tips in 365 land for sharpening photos. There are many pros in this project and I would like to get their input. I have tried using USM on the entire picture, I have tried using split channel HSL separations and using USM on the lightness layer, and I have tried using High pass filtering both the entire image and on a layer that I set the Opacity and then blend modes depending on the picture. Hope you understand my question. I use Paint Shop Pro X3 for my photo editing. Thank you for your advice.
Sounds like you're doing it the right way already. I use combinations of High Pass Filter and Unsharp Mask, depending on the shot.
One thing that may help - resize your photos before you sharpen. If you sharpen, and then resize, you'll lose everything you gained in your sharpening. Also, you don't need to sharpen as much for web as you do for print.
If you used Photoshop I could direct you to some free sharpening actions, but I've got nothing for Paint Shop Pro, sorry. :(
I usually have a problem with my shots not being sharp lately. X2 doesn't help much, too much noise ! I realized that a lot of my problem is lighting....under controlled lighting in the house, shots are tack sharp, outside I have to pay more attention to the lighting and where the sun is in relation to my subject ! Still learning I guess !
@jinximages I have a translator between Photoshop and PSP. There are not many good PSP tutorials since PS is more popular. If you could direct me to some free sharpening actions that would be helpful.
Cool. :) http://gettotallyrad.com has some great actions, and in the free sample set is one I use quite a lot called Slice Like A Ninja. It's a very nice sharpening action. In fact, I use it more than the ones in the paid sets, especially when I'm batch-editing a wedding or such.
I have to ask, because I don't do it...Why is shapening needed? I think some say posting things on the internet need it, but I have never seen a need (or maybe I am missing something. What is the goal here (can ya tell I'm a film guy?)
@moncooga It's mostly if you shoot in a RAW format (NEF, CR2 etc) - when you shoot JPG sharpening is applied in-camera (along with colour saturation adjustments and so-on). RAW files give you far more data to play with than a JPG, but a JPG is basically "finished" and so, unsurprisingly, doesn't lend itself so well to editing (because it is already edited by the camera).
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One thing that may help - resize your photos before you sharpen. If you sharpen, and then resize, you'll lose everything you gained in your sharpening. Also, you don't need to sharpen as much for web as you do for print.
If you used Photoshop I could direct you to some free sharpening actions, but I've got nothing for Paint Shop Pro, sorry. :(
http://gettotallyrad.com has some great actions, and in the free sample set is one I use quite a lot called Slice Like A Ninja. It's a very nice sharpening action. In fact, I use it more than the ones in the paid sets, especially when I'm batch-editing a wedding or such.
HTH! :)
I've printed images up to 20x30, clear as a bell...so I'll have to see what all the fuss is about.