UPDATED! advanced web sharpening for landscape photographers
UPDATE: Gosh I\'m sorry I obviously havent been in here enough, for those of you that are interested I have now created a simplifed action which should also allow you to add your own a little easier. I also took onboard suggestions to \'fade\' the sharpening to luminosity mode and the sharpened layers (there are now 2 on top of an unsharpened layer) are in luminosity mode, with layer masks. The sharpest layer has a mask which is 50% grey which I beleive gives the best result as an average technique. You can paint white on it to get sharper still. If this still isnt enough, use a smart sharpen at 0.2 px and 100%. The latest version should also work on non-english versions of photoshop, which the last action did not. Older versions of photoshop do not have the \'fade\' command so you should simply delete this part from the action (it should be redundant anyway since the layers are set to luminosity)
I hear that people using Mac\'s may not be able to download it. If that is the case drop me a line at [email protected] and I will gladly send it to you.
I wrote a tutorial for this sharpening method a while ago but until now I have neglected to actually post it.
I wish I could remember where I read it on the net but subsequent google searches havent shown up anything. Marc Adamus uses a variant of this method which is actually what lead me to search for a better method because I noticed a certain clarity in the sharpness his images which were not present in mine. I have tried Marc\'s method but I dont get the same consistency in results as much seems to depend on the ratio between image sizes.
Who should read this
This is really aimed at people who want to show their work at the highest quality on the web. You can get really very close using Unsharp mask settings of 0.3px and 100-200%
An example
So first off here is a comparison of the two methods:
The difference appears quite small but the advanced method is still clearly superior. It picks out the finer details much much better. Look at the grass on the left image, it looks blurry and crunchy in comparison to the pin sharp grass on the right.
How the method works
This method exploits the way Photoshop\'s Bicubic resize algorythm works to retain finer details. That\'s all you need to know! (and that is all I know!)
Step by step
1: Flatten the image
2: Resize image to 1.666 times the final size you want. If your final output size is 600px then you should resize at this point to 1000px
3: Apply the Sharpen filter (not Unsharp Mask)
4: Duplicate the layer
5: Apply Sharpen filter to the top layer (it will look waaaay oversharpened)
5: Resize to final output size. (So if you have just resized your image to 1000px resize it to 600px now.)
6: Apply smart sharpen (set to gaussian blur, 0.2px, 80%). This just brings out a little more crispness!
7: Use a layer mask on the top (sharpest) layer to adjust opacity and mask areas which look oversharpened. (this is nearly always necessary but you may want to use full sharpening on certain areas of the image.)
8: You may wish to slightly correct the saturation and brightness which will have changed fractionally during the process using curves or hue/sat adjustment layers.
Download the actions
If you don\'t want to do it all yourself then I would suggest downloading the action I have created which gives sizes between just 100px and 1024px (all the sizes I have used since starting using this method). If you have CS3 and you arent familiar with actions, read the help! They really are very handy for repetitive tasks.
To load the action in Photoshop CS3 open the actions pallete click on the little button with a triangle on it and select \"Load Action\", its that simple. (It\'s the same in CS4 which I have just upgraded to)
Tutorial: advanced web sharpening for landscape photographers
I wrote a tutorial for this sharpening method a while ago but until now I have neglected to actually post it.
I wish I could remember where I read it on the net but subsequent google searches havent shown up anything. Marc Adamus uses a variant of this method which is actually what lead me to search for a better method because I noticed a certain clarity in the sharpness his images which were not present in mine. I have tried Marc\'s method but I dont get the same consistency in results as much seems to depend on the ratio between image sizes.
Who should read this
This is really aimed at people who want to show their work at the highest quality on the web. You can get really very close using Unsharp mask settings of 0.3px and 100-200%
An example
So first off here is a comparison of the two methods:
The difference appears quite small but the advanced method is still clearly superior. It picks out the finer details much much better. Look at the grass on the left image, it looks blurry and crunchy in comparison to the pin sharp grass on the right.
How the method works
This method exploits the way Photoshop\'s Bicubic resize algorythm works to retain finer details. That\'s all you need to know! (and that is all I know!)
Step by step
1: Flatten the image
2: Resize image to 1.666 times the final size you want. If your final output size is 600px then you should resize at this point to 1000px
3: Apply the Sharpen filter (not Unsharp Mask)
4: Duplicate the layer
5: Apply Sharpen filter to the top layer (it will look waaaay oversharpened)
5: Resize to final output size. (So if you have just resized your image to 1000px resize it to 600px now.)
6: Apply smart sharpen (set to gaussian blur, 0.2px, 80%). This just brings out a little more crispness!
7: Use a layer mask on the top (sharpest) layer to adjust opacity and mask areas which look oversharpened. (this is nearly always necessary but you may want to use full sharpening on certain areas of the image.)
8: You may wish to slightly correct the saturation and brightness which will have changed fractionally during the process using curves or hue/sat adjustment layers.
Download the actions
If you don\'t want to do it all yourself then I would suggest downloading the action I have created which gives sizes between just 100px and 1024px (all the sizes I have used since starting using this method). If you have CS3 and you arent familiar with actions, read the help! They really are very handy for repetitive tasks.
To load the action in Photoshop CS3 open the actions pallete click on the little button with a triangle on it and select \"Load Action\", its that simple. (It\'s the same in CS4 which I have just upgraded to)
I hope this helps someone!
Alex
Jan 10, 2009 at 05:22 AM
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