Slight sharpening with a contour mask in Photography

The subject is perfect. The lighting, perspective and background all go well with each other. So you print the photo, but that’s when you realize that the focus should have been sharper. Cameras are aff ected by the slightest movements, which appear as blurs in the photos. Pictures with fi ne details such as eyelashes and beautiful locks of hair always appear slightly faded and never look professional without a tripod. Active optical image stabilizers can be of help here, but not all photographers have a camera or a lens with such a function. Photographing differently: As far as possible, you should use a tripod when taking photos. This ensures pin-sharp photos. You can also make do by placing your camera on a stable base, a wall, or the back of a chair for instance. The best way to take freehand pictures is to use a camera with an optical image stabilizer. Enhancing a picture using the PC: You can rescue slightly blurred shots, but you should not simply use a sharpening fi lter for the entire picture. This is because you would end up sharpening unwanted details such as pimples and pores, especially in portraits. Thus, skin doesn't look smooth. Instead, think of the parts of the picture that really need sharpening. Using an edge mask is a good method of partial sharpening. It limits the eff ective range of the filter to the desired parts. Duplicate the background layer in Photoshop and select ‘Find Edges’ from the Stylize menu. You can strengthen these with ‘Other (Filters) | Maximum’. Diffuse the areas with ‘Blur | Blur More’. The ‘Threshold’ should be really high. Invert the selection with [Ctrl] + [Shift] + [I]. Select the lighter parts of the image by clicking the ‘RGB’ channel in the ‘Channels’ palette by keeping the [Ctrl] + [Shift] keys pressed. Now delete the extra layer—the selection remains active. Create a new duplicate in the layers palette and click the mask icon to create a layer mask from the selection. You can now sharpen the image with ‘Sharpen | Unsharp Mask’.