Sharpening Photos: Identifying the Why's and How's

By Roy Barker

You are definitely certain that you've used all the proper settings before taking stills but they still didn't come out right. As such, you seem to have a requirement to do some image sharpening all of the time. What could actually be the reason behind this?

One of the most common reasons that will contribute to the loss of image-quality is excessive image compression that results from utilizing the JPEG format. On the other hand, shooting in the RAW format wouldn't give you this much of a difficulty because pictures saved using this format will not undergo any image degradation.

If you don't know the most notable difference between the quality of photographs produced by the JPEG format in comparison to RAW format before reading this article, and all your photographs need some sharpening, here are some cool sharpening tools that can help you do the trick:

- Unsharp Mask. With the Unsharp Mask, you can control the amount or force of sharpening you want to apply to your photographs, the radius or the width of sharpening along the edges, and the threshold or the intensity of tonal difference between 2 diagonally opposite pixels.
- Smart Sharpen. If you're using Adobe Photoshop Elements, you can see this tool by opening the Reinforce Menu. It's also got its own built-in sharpening routine that will automatically adjust the settings for you. That's so cool, isn't it?
- Some more advanced sharpening tools. If you'd like to have larger control, then you might want to try some more advanced sharpening tools as those found in Photoshop Lightroom. Or, you can use a dedicated sharpening tool as an alternative.

Keep under consideration that more is not always better when it comes to image sharpening. Just keep your settings to supply the best image quality and you will certainly improve quality photographs every time!

About the Author:

Roy Barker provides a handful of extra tips and information here on sharpening an image. You may register here to get a free photography report and tips on beginning a photography business from home.