Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
NOTE
It's helpful to understand just exactly what Elements does when it “sharpens” a photo. It
doesn't magically correct the focus. As a matter of fact, it doesn't really sharpen anything.
Instead, it increases the contrast where colors meet, giving the
impression
of crisper fo-
cus. So while Elements can dramatically improve a shot that's a little soft, it can't fix that
old double exposure or a shot where the subject is just a blur of motion.
When you're ready to apply Unsharp Mask:
1.
Go to Enhance
→
Unsharp Mask
.
You can use Unsharp Mask in either Expert or Quick Fix mode.
2.
In the Unsharp Mask dialog box, adjust the settings until you like what you see
.
Move the sliders until you're happy with your photo's sharpness (the following list
explains what each one does). In the preview part of the dialog box, you can zoom in
and out and grab the photo to adjust which part you see. It's also a good idea to drag
the dialog box off to the side so that you can see the changes in your actual image.
(You get the most accurate look at how you're affecting the image if you set the view
to 100 percent or Actual Pixels.)
3.
When you're satisfied, click OK
.
The Unsharp Mask sliders work much like other tools' sliders:
▪
Amount
tells Elements how much to sharpen, in percent terms. A higher number
means more sharpening.
▪
Radius
lets Elements know how far from an
edge
(a place where two colors meet)
it should look when increasing the contrast.
▪
Threshold
controls how different a pixel needs to be from the surrounding pixels
before Elements considers it an edge and sharpens it. If you leave this setting at
zero—which is the standard setting—Elements sharpens
all
the image's pixels.
There are many, many different schools of thought about where to move the sliders or which
values to plug into each box. Whatever works for you is fine. The one thing you want to
watch out for is
oversharpening
.
Figure 7-22
explains how to know if you've gone too far.
