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):