There are a variety of different ways to sharpen images in Photoshop. One of the easiest methods is the high pass filter, which can quickly accentuate a photo.
Not sure what to do with a blurry photo you want to use in your design? This simple Photoshop process will help you figure out how to sharpen your images.
See how it all works by checking out this tutorial on sharpening with High Pass, or read the steps below.
How to Sharpen in Photoshop Using High Pass
Select Your File
After loading your image file, double-click on the magnifying glass tool so that the image fills the screen. Next, you’ll need to duplicate the current layer by pressing CTRL+J. Then change the blending mode to overlay.
Apply High Pass
Select the top layer, then go to Filter > Other > High Pass to apply a high pass filter. A new box will appear with filter settings, including the Radius pixel count. Try a few different numbers until you’re happy with how it looks. Ideally, the high-passed image will have clearly defined edges, without any haloing.
Use Blending and Highlights
With the high-pass layer still selected, change the blending mode to “Hard Light”. You’ll find the drop-down menu for the blending mode in the Layers palette, just above the list of layers. However, when using a high pass filter to sharpen images, you might end up with some unwanted noise. To ensure that your highlights stay smooth, turn off the high-pass layer (click on the “eye” icon) and then select the bottom layer.
Play With Color Range
Next, go to the Select menu and choose “Color Range”. Use the Color Range to determine where the highlights are, to isolate them from the rest of the image. Play around with the “Fuzziness” and “Range” sliders until there are enough highlights for your liking. If you have too few highlights, the transition between dark and light sections of your image will be too sharp, so choose settings that allow for more subtle grays. This will create a more natural blending effect. When you’re happy with the Color Range settings, click OK.
Invert and Adjust
You should now see shimmering lines around your image highlights, but we want to “invert” our selection so that we’re adjusting the dark areas instead. To do this, press Shift+Command+I.
See the Sharpness
Next, click the Mask icon to enable it on the current layer. By holding down Alt (or Option), you can actually see the mask, which is a great way to determine if the high pass filter is a bit extreme. If you’d like to dial down the sharpness, you can return to the high-passed layer settings and lower the Radius pixel count.
Cover image via PixieMe
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