Miniature faking in Photoshop is a easy, and fun way to make an ordinary image look like a scale model. Simulating the shallow depth of field (the out of focus area of the picture) in Photoshop makes the scene appear much smaller than it really is. As most scale models are viewed from above, pictures taken at an angle looking down tend to have greater impact with this technique (think sporting events from the top seats). This rule is not implicit however, and I am going to demonstrate on a level viewed image. There are some very good examples of this technique here. Deviant Art Tilt Shift Examples

I am going to start with this image of a grave I took at the start of summer in a small mountain town near Buena Vista, CO.

To start, click on quick mask mode on your tool palette, or type Q on your keyboard to enter quick mask mode.

Now, choose the gradient tool, and choose reflected gradient as the gradient option.

Draw a vertical line with your gradient tool on your image, starting near where you want your focus. This may take a little playing around with after we apply the blur. If you are not happy with the focus point later, revisit this step.

Now, exit quick mask mode, by clicking on your tool palette or typing the Q button again. You should now have two areas showing selected, both outside of the area you want focused.

Now we will apply the blur, by going to Filter > Blur and selecting Lens Blur.

You can fiddle with the sliders here and see what looks best. I used radius:41, blade curvature:10, brightness:22 and threshold: 255.

You should now have your image, in miniature. If you are not happy with your point of focus, revisit the gradient step, and try moving it around a bit. Here is the finished picture.

Interesting write up on creating a typographic wallpaper. Click below for the original article.

Create A Great Typographic Wallpaper In Photoshop

When I sat down to begin writing a tutorial for my four favorite image sharpening techniques, I realized about halfway through my first one that I was going to need to split them up. Otherwise I would risk having a post so long nobody would finish reading it. So now, having finally completed them all, we have my four favorite Photoshop sharpening techniques.

1. High Pass Sharpen
This is my favorite, and possibly the most flexible of the four. I nearly always use this sharpen, and often use another alongside it.
1st of 4 Useful Photoshop Sharpening Techniques
Click the image for a full size view.

2. Luko USM
This sharpen is good for adding a little contrast back in to an image, where others sometimes diminish it. Very useful, especially in landscapes or portraits.
2nd of 4 Useful Photoshop Sharpening Techniques
Click the image for a full size view.

3. Adamus Sharpen
This sharpen is great, but does not translate to print very well at all. Best as a web only solution. Click the image for a full size view.
3rd of 4 Useful Photoshop Sharpening Techniques
Click the image for a full size view.

4. LAB USM
This is a subtle sharpen, that helps diminish the haloing that can occur with normal Unsharp Mask. Click the image for a full size view.
4th of 4 Useful Photoshop Sharpening Techniques
Click the image for a full size view.

Digital photographs are a little soft by nature. Most require at least one pass of sharpening, and often require more than one to look their best on the web. In this tutorial, I am going to show you the LAB Color Mode sharpen technique. This is a more subtle sharpen, that has a little more control over haloing and artifacts than a simple Unsharp Mask.

4. LAB Sharpen
After you have finished processing your image, make a single layer copy of the visible image by doing a “Stamp Visible” command (Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E).

Now take the layer that was created by the Stamp, and duplicate it to a new image. To do this, go to Layer > Duplicate Layer and choose New in the Destination drop down.

Next, change the Color Mode to Lab by going to Image > Mode and picking Lab.

After you change to LAB mode, select the Lightness Channel. When it is selected your image should appear black and grey.

Now, apply your Unsharp Mask by going to Filter > Sharpen and select Unsharp Mask. Once that is open, start adjusting your sliders. There is no set number that will work for your image, but a good range to try is Amount between 75 and 150, Radius between 1 and 3 and Threshold between 0 and 2. For this example I used Amount 102, Radius 1.8 and Threshold 2.

At this point you can either change it back to RGB Color mode (Or whatever you used for the main image) and save it if you are happy with it, or you can copy this layer back to the original and work with masks to get it a little cleaner.

I am going to just convert back to RGB Color Mode by going to Image > Mode and picking RGB Color.

And here is the before and after. Click on the image for a larger view.

Digital photographs are a little soft by nature. Most require at least one pass of sharpening, and often require more than one to look their best on the web. In this tutorial, I am going to show you the Adamus sharpen technique. This is a more drastic sharpen, particularly with landscapes, but is only useful for web quality pictures.

3. Adamus Sharpen
From your full size image, re-size your image to somewhere between 1000 and 1500 pixels on the long end. Try to keep it at double the size of the image that you intend to finish with. Go to Image > Image Size.

For this example I want to end up with a 750px image, so I am starting with 1500px. Make sure you re-sample as Bicubic, not Bicubic Sharper.

If you have done any editing to your image on multiple layers, before this next step you will need to flatten the image.

Duplicate your your layer and label it sharpen1.

Then go to Filter > Sharpen and run sharpen.

Duplicate the sharpen1 layer and label it sharpen2. Then go to Filter > Sharpen and run sharpen again. This will give two passes of sharpen on this layer.

Now duplicate the sharpen2 layer and label it sharpen3. Then go to Filter > Sharpen and run sharpen again. This will give three passes of sharpen on this layer. This will give it a highly over sharpened look, but don’t be alarmed. It will not stay that way.

Now re-size the image to the web size that you intended, in this case 750px. Make sure you re-sample as Bicubic, not Bicubic Sharper.

You will end up now with three sharpen choices. Simply choose which layer gives you the best result and then save for the web. Below is the before and the three sharpens. Click on the image for a larger view.

Digital photographs are a little soft by nature. Most require at least one pass of sharpening, and often require more than one to look their best on the web. In this tutorial I am going to use my favorite and most often used technique. It’s called Luko USM. This technique I find invaluable for portraits, but it works well for most things.

2. Luko USM

Start with your image already sized for the web.
Duplicate your image layer and name it Luko

Highlight your Luko layer, go to Filters > Sharpen and pick Unsharp Mask.

Adjust the sliders to Amount 18%, Radius 40 pixels, Threshold 0 levels.

Again, go to Filters > Sharpen and pick Unsharp Mask.

Adjust the sliders to Amount 150%, Radius 0.3 pixels, Threshold 0 levels.

Next, go to Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask

Choose Opacity 100%, Mode Darken.

Again, go to Filters > Sharpen and pick Unsharp Mask.

Adjust the sliders to Amount 150%, Radius 0.3 pixels, Threshold 0 levels.

Again, go to Edit > Fade Unsharp Mask

Choose Opacity 100%, Mode Lighten.

The finished product becomes this before and after picture. (click for a larger image):

Digital photographs are a little soft by nature. Most require at least one pass of sharpening, and often require more than one to look their best on the web. In this series of tutorials, I am going to demonstrate some of the techniques I have learned to help get your images tack sharp (please note, some of these techniques will not translate to print well).

1. High Pass Sharpen
This sharpen technique is subtle, and I often use it in conjunction with other sharpens.

After opening your image, in the layers menu duplicate the background image and name it high pass.

Next, change the layer mode on the high pass layer to Overlay.

Then in Filter, go to Other and chose High Pass.

Next, you will adjust the high pass slider. This usually takes a little playing with, but stick to the lower end. I rarely go over 1.8. For this example, I used 1.6.

Lastly, you may or may not want to adjust the layer opacity. I find that it sometimes helps blend the sharpen, especially if there is any over sharpened areas. In this example I have the opacity set to 92%.

The finished product becomes this before and after picture. (click for a larger image):