Finishing Touches - RAW 101: Better Images with Photoshop and Photoshop Elements - page 136

Note: Photoshop users can sharpen and then add a layer mask to control how visible the sharpening
is in areas.
Smart Sharpen (Photoshop CS2 Only)
Photoshop users also have the new Smart Sharpen filter. Selecting Filters > Sharpen >
Smart Sharpen gives you access to this new filter (Figure 7.14), which has the benefit of
more control over how the image is sharpened. Using the new controls in Smart
Sharpen, you can adjust how shadows and highlights are affected as well as how blur-
ring is reduced in your image.
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Figure 7.14
The new Smart Sharpen filter
includes a number of features
that make it a useful alternative
to Unsharp Mask.
By default, Smart Sharpen starts in Basic mode, which has controls for Amount
and Radius that work in the same way as the Amount and Radius controls in Unsharp
Mask. The new feature in Basic mode is Blur Removal. Clicking the Remove list box
shows three options:
Gaussian Blur is the default and uses the same method as Unsharp Mask.
Lens Blur is the most useful for photographs, and it controls how edges and tex-
tures are detected to maintain higher detail in those areas.
Motion Blur would be used to control the angle of correction. Selecting Motion
Blue activates the Angle control. This setting is most effective for images that
have a small amount of camera or subject movement.
The Advanced option adds Shadow and Highlight tabs to the dialog. Both tabs
work in an identical manner on their respective areas and have three controls:
Fade Amount controls how much the sharpening should be reduced in the shad-
ows or highlights. Zero is no reduction at all, while 100 will have the effect
completely removed from the shadows or highlights.
Tonal Width determines how wide of a range of tones will be affected by sharp-
ening. Lower numbers will remove the sharpening effect from only the darkest or