I've found an exotic sharpening technique on youtube ... but it's in German

Got a Photoshop or Elements question? This is the place to get it answered.
mikemeister_admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Postby mikemeister_admin » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:09 pm

Here is the video....


I can follow 90percent of the technique but there is a filter he used to sharpen the edges at the end and that is what has me stumped.  Furthermore, there is an action that he made available for download, but alas the link isn't working.

mikemeister_admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Postby mikemeister_admin » Thu Sep 29, 2011 9:10 pm

I'm sorry here's the link.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bamMPo0BAc

ggroess
Posts: 5342
Joined: Wed May 24, 2006 2:15 am
Contact:

Postby ggroess » Fri Sep 30, 2011 12:18 pm

Lonnie,
indeed this is interesting but I was not so sure about the final result. 
I do not speak German and perhaps someone who does can fill in the details.

Greg

mikemeister_admin
Posts: 4927
Joined: Fri Sep 20, 2013 8:29 pm

Postby mikemeister_admin » Fri Sep 30, 2011 6:02 pm

OK so I've spent entire last night trying to solve this mystery... and I personally  am impressed with the results.... I've tried the other sharpening applications that I have and the results don't come close.

So... here is the technique.  In order to learn the technique.... make the gradient going from black to white, which sort of represents bluriness that need sharpening. 

Here's the overall concept.  We're aiming to use the tools maximum and minimum in order to bring the dark edge of the blur closer to the light edge of the blur.  The first major problem is selecting the precise areas of blur that we wish to eliminate.

This is the job of the high pass layer... so we make a high pass move examining the lightness and darkness forming the contour.  It would take some experience to properly judge an appropriate amount.
When that is done we want to make a selection of the red channel with the ctrl click in the channels tab. and go to quickmask.
Then you make the level move to 128..... making it go dark  .... then click the autocontrast and exit quickmask.  and invert the selection. This is the selction to be used on the minimum layer by alt clicking to make the layer mask. 

Now we have to make the mask for the maximum layer.
We go through the same procedure on the highpass layer... doing the ctrl click.... the quickmask... but in the level move we move toward brightening to the 128 and then autocontrast and exit quickmask.  and we have our selection to be used on the maximum layer. 

So we now have two masks on either extreme of a blurred region.... we want to bring the pixel together.

So...this is where the visual precision of this sharpening shines....
We just use the maximum and minimum filters to just nudge the pixels together to form a sharp edge.    The maximum layer uses maximum filter and the minimum filter uses minimum. 

I recommend watching the video after reading this for clarification.    One small tip though.... don't forget to toggle the visiblity of the layers as you make your layer masks..... also double check the positions of the selections in the maximum and minimum layers.  Also... don't forget to unlink the layer masks.  The image must move independent of the mask for it to work.


Return to “Questions about Photoshop and Elements”

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 7 guests