Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Step Nine:
All four sliders in the Sharpening section
of the Detail panel let you have a live pre-
view of what the sharpening is affecting—
just press-and-hold the Option (PC: Alt)
key as you drag; your screen will turn gray-
scale, and the areas that the slider you're
dragging will affect appear as edge areas
in the Preview area. This is particularly
helpful in understanding the Masking
slider, so press-and-hold the Option key
and drag the Masking slider to the right.
When Masking is set to 0, the screen turns
solid white (because sharpening is being
evenly applied to everything). As you drag
to the right, in the preview (shown here),
the parts that are no longer being sharp-
ened turn black (those areas are masked).
Any areas you see in white are the only
parts of the photo receiving sharpening
(perfect for sharpening women, because it
avoids sharpening their skin, but sharpens
the things you want sharp, like the eyes,
hair, eyebrows, lips, edges of her face, and
so on). Below is a before/after of our boat
deck shot, with these settings—Amount:
100, Radius: 1, Detail: 78, Masking: 0.
Before
After
