| Sign in: |
| Members log in here with your user name and password to access the your admin page and other special features. |
|
|
|
|
|| SportsShooter.com: Member Message Board
The Secret Handshake of Focus
Allen Lester, Photographer
 |
Norfolk | VA | USA | Posted: 6:31 PM on 03.11.04 |
->> Greetings Again,
PhotoShop old pros may be familiar with this technique, however, PhotoShop wizard Deke McCelland provided this awesome method (Secret Handshake) for enhancing a slightly out of focus image at the PhotoShop World Expo in San Francisco. Give it a try...it really works great.
1. Open your image
2. Duplicate the layer, i.e. Ctrl-J on a PC
3. Make sure the new layer is active and select FILTER --> OTHER --> HIGH PASS
When the HIGH PASS window pops up set the radius value to 2.0 for print output or between 0.2 and 0.5 for the Web.
You now have what appears to be a gray card with some image outlines.
4. With the "gray layer" still active select LAYER --> NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER --> LEVELS
5. IMPORTANT - When the New Layer naming window pops up make sure that you check the "Use Previous Layer to Create Clipping Mask" box and click ok.
6. On the levels pop up window set the Input Levels to: [ 80 ] [ 1.00 ] [ 175 ]
Don't change the Output Level settings
7. Make the High Pass filter layer active (the gray layer) and change the blending mode to OVERLAY.
8. Make the Levels Adjustment layer active (the clipping mask) and change the blending mode to LUMINOSITY.
It's really awesome....
Allen |
|
Greg Ferguson, Photographer
|
Scottsdale | Az | USA | Posted: 10:46 PM on 03.11.04 |
->> It's interesting, but looks pretty aggressive on the shot I tried it on. (Not that I had an out-of-focus photo. I had to purposely shoot one for the purpose of this test. Yeah. Right. )
Something that will help is to use the opacity slider after finishing the adjustments to dial in the amount of "focus" desired. At 100% the sharpening was pretty obvious but blending it in helped. |
|
Allen Lester, Photographer
|
Norfolk | VA | USA | Posted: 7:20 AM on 03.12.04 |
->> Greg,
Yea - It's hard to find those out of focus shots for testing. I have tried it on several pictures and agree that in one case it was a bit too much, but you are correct, reducing the opacity will fine tune it.
Allen |
|
Caleb Simpson, Photographer, Assistant
|
Denton / Dallas | Texas | USA | Posted: 10:00 PM on 03.14.04 |
| ->> did not work for me at all, just made the image look extremely saturated |
|
Jacob Hannah, Student/Intern, Photographer
|
Rochester | NY | USA | Posted: 10:14 PM on 03.14.04 |
| ->> wow, i just tried that and it actually worked pretty well. thanks. |
|
Caleb Simpson, Photographer, Assistant
|
Denton / Dallas | Texas | USA | Posted: 9:04 AM on 03.15.04 |
| ->> got it to work now, not to impressed though, IT doesn't seem any better than unsharp mask. |
|
Allen Lester, Photographer
|
Rick Billings, Photographer
|
Orlando | FL | USA | Posted: 9:53 PM on 03.16.04 |
->> Allen,
SportsShooter.com is all about sharing ideas, techniques and tips...Thank You.
Now we all know that you can achieve simular results using many, many different techniques in Photoshop. Well here's the one I've used to sharpen images since going digital capture in 1996.
Use can download this action and use it to run a batch action once you get the Amount sitting to your likeness. Just toggle the dailog on/off before you run the batch action.
I mainly change the Amount settings and very rarely change the Radius (0.7) or the Threshold (1).
AMOUNT settings determine just how dark the dark side of the edge gets and how light the edge's light side gets; it controls the change in contrast along the edges. A large Amount setting causes high contrast along the edges. There are many settings yielding almost the same results, but as you increase the Amount setting, you need to decrease the Radius to keep the degree of sharpening constant. Typically, a good Amount to start with is around the 150% and you can go up to as much as 400%.
RADIUS defines the distance the filter affects. I find that the best over all radius with today's digital camera is between 0.4 to 0.8. If you choose too large a radius, a very unpleasant halo will appear.
THRESHOLD setting determines the values included in the edge-finding process. When the Threshold is set to 1, almost all values in the image are included and edges are found anywhere pixel slightly differs from another. This has the effect of creating edges in skin tones and other areas. As a general rule, I set the Threshold setting normally at 1. If you set it too high, nothing happens because of the radius setting.
http://www.rickbillings.com/Extras/ImageSharpening.atn |
|
chris curry, Photographer
|
Peoria | IL | usa | Posted: 10:27 PM on 03.16.04 |
->> What a great tip.
Also, keeping the damn lens in focus in the first place works real well, too.
chris curry |
|
Rick Billings, Photographer
|
Orlando | FL | USA | Posted: 8:22 AM on 03.17.04 |
->> If the above link does not work try this one.
www.rickbillings.com/Extras/ |
|
Return to --> Message Board Main Index
|