GUIDE TO IMAGE SHARPENING

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Image sharpening is a powerful tool for emphasizing texture and drawing viewer focus.
It's also required of any digital photo at some point — whether you're aware it's been
applied or not. Digital camera sensors and lenses always blur an image to some degree,
for example, and this requires correction. However, not all sharpening techniques are
created equal. When performed too aggressively, unsightly sharpening artifacts may
appear. On the other hand, when done correctly, sharpening can often improve
apparent image quality even more so than upgrading to a high-end camera lens.

sharp cacti at the Huntington Gardens - Pasadena, California

HOW IT WORKS
Most image sharpening software tools work by applying something called an "unsharp
mask," which despite its name, actually acts to sharpen an image. Although this tool is
thoroughly covered in the unsharp mask tutorial, in a nutshell it works by exaggerating
the brightness difference along edges within an image:

Photo of the letter "T"

Original

Sharpened
Note that while the sharpening process isn't able to reconstruct the ideal
image above, it is able to create the appearance of a more pronounced
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edge (see sharpness: acutance & resolution). The key to effective
sharpening is walking the delicate balance between making edges appear
sufficiently pronounced, while also minimizing visible under and
overshoots (called "sharpening halos").

Soft Original
Mild Sharpening
Over Sharpening
note: all images shown at 200% zoom to improve visibility

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SETTINGS
Fortunately, most of the sharpening settings within image-editing software are
reasonably standardized. One can usually adjust at least three settings:

Setting How It Works

Radius Controls the size of the edges you wish to enhance, where a smaller
radius enhances smaller-scale detail. You'll usually want a radius
setting that is comparable to the size of the smallest detail within your
image.

Amount Controls the overall strength of the sharpening effect, and is usually
listed as a percentage. A good starting point is often a value of 100%.

Threshold Controls the minimum brightness change that will be sharpened. This
(Masking) can be used to sharpen more pronounced edges, while leaving more
subtle edges untouched. It's especially useful to avoid sharpening
noise.

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 Detail Controls the relative sharpening of fine versus coarse detail (within a
(if avail.) given radius value), in addition to affecting the overall strength of
sharpening. Higher values emphasize fine detail, but also increase the
overall sharpening effect. You will therefore likely need to adjust this
setting in conjunction with the amount/percent setting.

It's generally advisable to first optimize the radius setting, then to adjust the amount,
and then finally to fine-tune the results by adjusting the threshold/masking setting (and
potentially other settings such as "detail"). Optimal results may require a few iterations.

SHARPENING WORKFLOW
Most photographers now agree that sharpening is most effective and flexible when it's
applied more than once during image editing. Each stage of the sharpening process can
be categorized as follows:

Capture Sharpening Accounts for your image's source device,

along with any detail & noise characteristics

→

Creative Sharpening Uniquely accounts for your image's

content & artistic intent
→

Output Sharpening Accounts for final output

medium, after editing/resizing

(1) Capture sharpening aims to address any blurring caused by your
image's source, while also taking image noise and detail into consideration.
With digital cameras, such blurring is caused by the camera sensor's anti-
aliasing filter and demosaicing process, in addition to your camera's lens.
Capture sharpening is required for virtually all digital images, and may be applied
automatically by the camera for photos which are saved as JPEG files. It also ensures
the image will respond well to subsequent rounds of sharpening.

(2) Creative sharpening is usually applied selectively, based on artistic intent and/or
image content. For example, you might not want to apply additional sharpening to a
smooth sky or a person's skin, but you may want to crank up the sharpness in foliage or
a person's eye lashes, respectively. Overall though, its use may vary wildly from photo to
photo, so creative sharpening is really a "catch all" category. It's also the least used stage
since it can also be the most time-consuming.

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(3) Output sharpening uses settings customized for a particular output device, and is
applied at the very end of the image editing workflow. This may include special
considerations based the size, type and viewing distance of a print, but it can also be
used to offset any softening caused by resizing an image for the web or e-mail.

Overall, the above sharpening workflow has the convenience of being able to save edited
images at a near-final stage. When printing or sharing one of these images, all that is
needed is a quick top-off pass of sharpening for the output device. On the other hand, if
all sharpening were applied in a single step, then all image editing would have to be re-
done every time you wished share/print the photo using a different output device.

Note: the above capture, creative and output sharpening terminology was formally
introduced in
Real World Image Sharpening by Bruce Fraser & Jeff Schewe. Highly recommended.

STAGE 1: CAPTURE SHARPENING

Capture sharpening is usually applied during the RAW development process. This can
either occur automatically in your camera, when it saves the image as a JPEG, or it can
occur manually using RAW software on your computer (such as Adobe Camera RAW -
ACR, Lightroom or any other RAW software that may have come with your camera).

Automatic Capture Sharpening. Although most cameras automatically apply

capture sharpening for JPEG photos, the amount will depend on your camera model
and any custom settings you may have applied. Also be aware that the preset shooting
modes will influence the amount of capture sharpening. For example, images taken in
landscape mode are usually much sharper than those taken in portrait mode.
Regardless, optimal capture sharpening requires shooting using the RAW file format,
and applying the sharpening manually on your computer (see below).

Manual Capture Sharpening requires weighing the advantages of enhancing detail

with the disadvantages of amplifying the appearance of image noise. First, to enhance
detail, sharpen using a radius value that is comparable to the size of the smallest details.
For example, the two images below have vastly different levels of fine detail, so their
sharpening strategies will also need to differ:

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Coarse (Low Frequency) Detail
Sharpening Radius: 0.8 pixels

Fine (High Frequency) Detail

Sharpening Radius: 0.4 pixels

Note: The sharpening radii described above are

applied to the full resolution images
(and not to the downsized images shown above).

Shooting technique and/or the quality of your

camera lens can also impact the necessary
sharpening radius. Generally, well-focused images
will require a sharpening radius of 1.0 or less, while
slightly out of focus images may require a
sharpening radius of 1.0 or greater. Regardless,
capture sharpening rarely needs a radius greater than
2.0 pixels.

Soft Original

Radius Too Small

(0.2 pixels)
Radius Too Large
(2.0 pixels)
Radius Just Right
(1.0 pixels)
When trying to identify an optimum sharpening radius,
make sure to view a representative region within your
image that contains the focal point and/or fine detail,
and view it at 100% on-screen. Keep an eye on regions
with high contrast edges, since these are also more susceptible to
visible halo artifacts. Don't fret over trying to get the radius
"accurate" within 0.1 pixels; there's an element of subjectivity to
this process, and such small differences wouldn't be
distinguishable in a print.

When noise is pronounced, capture sharpening isn't always able

to be applied as aggressively and uniformly as desired. One
often has to sacrifice sharpening some of the really
subtle detail in exchange for not amplifying noise in
otherwise smooth regions of the image. Using high values
of the threshold or masking settings help ensure that sharpening
is only applied to pronounced edges:

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 Original Image Sharpening Mask

Without sharpening threshold/masking:

With sharpening threshold/masking:

Move your mouse over above images
to see the unsharpened original.

The value used for the "masking" setting above was 25.

Note how the masking/threshold setting was chosen so that only the edges of the cactus
leaves are sharpened (corresponding to the white
portions of the sharpening mask above). Such a
mask was chosen because it doesn't worsen the
appearance of image noise within the otherwise
textureless areas of the image. Also note how
image noise is more pronounced within the
darker regions.

If image noise is particularly problematic, such

as with darker tones and/or high ISO speeds,
one might consider using a creative sharpening
technique, or using a third-party noise reduction
plug-in. At the time of this writing, common
plug-ins include Neat Image, Noise Ninja, Grain
Surgery & Noiseware. However, noise
reduction should always be performed
before sharpening, since sharpening will
make noise removal less effective. One may
therefore need to postpone sharpening during
RAW development until noise reduction has
been applied.

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STAGE 2: CREATIVE SHARPENING
While creative sharpening can be thought of as just about any sharpening which is
performed between capture and output sharpening, its most common use is to
selectively sharpen regions of a photograph. This can be done to avoid amplifying
image noise within smooth areas of a photo, or to draw viewer attention to specific
subjects. For example, with portraits one may want to sharpen an eye lash without also
roughening the texture of skin, or with landscapes, to sharpen the foliage without also
roughening the sky.

The key to performing such selective sharpening is the creation of a mask, which is just
a way of specifying where and by how much the creative sharpening should be applied.
Unlike with the output sharpening example, this mask may need to be manually
created. An example of using a mask for creative sharpening is shown below:

Image Used for Creative Sharpening

Move your mouse over the image to see
selective blurring applied to background

Sharpening Mask:
Selective Sharpening Using a Mask
Top layer has creative sharpening applied;
mask ensures this is only applied to the white
regions.

To apply selective sharpening using a mask:

1. Sharpen Duplicate. Make a duplicate of

your image (with capture sharpening and
all other editing applied), then apply
creative sharpening to the entire image.
This sharpening can be very aggressive
since you can always fine-tune it later.
2. Create Mask. In Photoshop, use the menus
Layer > New > Layer..., or the Shift+Ctrl+N
keys.
3. Paint Mask. Select the layer mask (by left-
clicking on it). Paint regions of the image with
white and/or black when you want creative
sharpening to remain visible or hidden in the
final image, respectively. Shades of gray will
act partially.
4. Fine-Tune. Reduce the opacity of the top layer if you want to lessen the influence
of creative sharpening. You can also change the blending mode of this layer to
"Luminosity" to reduce color artifacts.
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Alternatively, sometimes the best technique for selectively
sharpening a subject is to just blur everything else. The relative
sharpness difference will increase — making the subject appear
much sharper — while also avoiding over-sharpening. It can also
lessen the impact of a distracting background. Move your mouse
over the top left image to see this technique applied to the
previous example.

Another way of achieving the same results is to use a brush, such

as a history, "sharpen more" or blurring brush. This can often be
simpler than dealing with layers and masks. Sometimes this type
of creative sharpening can even be applied along with RAW development by using an
adjustment brush in ACR or Lightroom, amongst others.

Overall, the options for creative sharpening are virtually limitless. Some photographers
also apply local contrast enhancement (aka "clarity" in Photoshop) during this stage,
although one could argue that this technique falls into a different category altogether
(even though it still uses the unsharp mask tool).

STAGE 3: OUTPUT SHARPENING FOR A PRINT

After capture and creative sharpening, an image should look nice and sharp on-screen.
However, this usually isn't enough to produce a sharp print. The image may have also
been softened due to digital photo enlargement. Output sharpening therefore often
requires a big leap of faith, since it's nearly impossible to judge whether an image is
appropriately sharpened for a given print just by viewing it on your computer screen. In
fact, effective output sharpening often makes an on-screen image look harsh or brittle:

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 Original Image Output Sharpening Applied Output Sharpening Applied
for On-Screen Display for a 300 PPI Glossy Print

Photograph of the Duomo at dusk - Florence, Italy (f/11.0 for 8.0 sec at 150 mm and
ISO 200)

Output sharpening therefore relies on rule of thumb estimates for the amount/radius
based on the (i) size and viewing distance of the print, (ii) resolution of the print (in
DPI/PPI), (iii) type of printer and (iv) type of paper. Such estimates are often built into
RAW development or image editing software, but these usually assume that the image
has already had capture sharpening applied (i.e., it looks sharp when viewed on-screen).

Alternatively, one can also estimate the radius manually using the calculator below:

PPI**

**PPI = pixels per inch; see tutorial on "Digital Camera Pixels." DPI is often used
interchangeably with PPI, although strictly speaking, the two terms can have different
meanings.
*It's generally a good estimate to assume that people will be viewing a print at a
distance which is roughly equal to the distance along the print's diagonal.

The above radius estimates should only be taken as a rough guideline. In general, a
larger viewing distance demands a larger output sharpening radius. The key is to have
this radius small enough that it is near the limit of what our eyes can resolve (at the
expected viewing distance), but is also large enough that it visibly improves sharpness.

Regardless, the necessary amount of sharpening will still likely depend on the image
content, type of paper, printer type and the look you want to achieve. For example,
matte/canvas papers often require more aggressive sharpening than glossy paper. A
good starting point is always the default amount/percent value used by your image
editing software. However, for mission-critical prints this best solution is often just trial
and error. To save costs, you can always print a cropped sample instead of the full print.

STAGE 3: OUTPUT SHARPENING FOR THE WEB & EMAIL

Even if an image already looks sharp when viewed on-screen, resizing it to less than
50% of its original size often removes any existing sharpening halos. One usually needs
to apply output sharpening to offset this effect:

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Original Image

Softer Downsized Image

Downsized Image
(after output sharpening)

Move your mouse over the buttons

on the right to see the effect of
output sharpening.

For downsized images, an unsharp

mask radius of 0.2-0.3 and an amount of 200-400%
works almost universally well. With such a small radius
value, one doesn't have to worry about halo artifacts,
although new problems such as aliasing/pixelation and
moiré may become apparent if the amount/percent is
set too high.

For more on image downsizing, see the tutorial on

image resizing for the web and e-mail.

ADDITIONAL SHARPENING ADVICE

Sharpening is irreversible; also save unsharpened originals whenever possible.
RAW & TIFF files respond much better to sharpening than JPEG files, since the
former preserve more detail. Furthermore, sharpening may amplify JPEG
compression artifacts.
Blurring due to subject motion or some types of camera shake may require
advanced techniques such as deconvolution or Photoshop's "smart sharpen" tool.
Some camera lenses do not blur objects equally in all directions (see tutorial on
camera lens quality - astigmatisms ). This type of blur tends to increase farther
from the center of the image, and may be in a direction which is either (i) away
from the image's center or (ii) perpendicular to that direction. This can be
extremely difficult to remove, and usually requires creative sharpening.
Images will often appear sharper if you also remove chromatic aberrations during
RAW development. This option can be found under the "lens corrections" menu
in Adobe Camera RAW, although most recent photo editing software offers a
similar feature.
Grossly over-sharpened images can sometimes be partially recovered in
Photoshop by (i) duplicating the layer, (ii) applying a gaussian blur of 0.2-0.5
pixels to this layer 2-5 times, (iii) setting the blending mode of this top layer to
"darken" and (iv) potentially decreasing the layer's opacity to reduce the effect.

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 The light sharpening halos are often more objectionable than the dark ones;
advanced sharpening techniques sometimes get away with more aggressive
sharpening by reducing the prominence of the former.
Don't get too caught up with scrutinizing all the fine detail. Better photos (and
more fun) can usually be achieved if this time is spent elsewhere.

RECOMMENDED READING
If you're thirsting for additional examples, along with a more thorough technical
treatment of the above topics, a great book is Real World Image Sharpening (2nd
Edition) by Bruce Fraser & Jeff Schewe.

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