Photoshop How To

One of the best things about Photoshop is that it helps us sharpen images which, for whatever reason, might look softer than we hoped when we shot them. But Photoshop is such a powerful and complex piece of software, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by all the tools and, excuse the pun, the vast layers of adjustment you can perform on your photos.

To help you learn the basics of sharpening in Photoshop, the Photoshop Training Channel (PTC) has produced a great primer on the subject titled, plainly, “How to SHARPEN Images in Photoshop.”

“When sharpening photos in Photoshop, it is important to understand that the sharpening adjustments that we apply do not add any new detail to the photo,” PTC says in explaining the video. “In Photoshop, we can only create the illusion of sharpness by increasing the contrast of edge pixels. Making it seem as if there is more detail in the image. If the sharpening is pushed too far, it can create edge halos or increase noise in the photo, so it is always a good idea to keep your adjustments as subtle as possible.”

While there are three types of sharpening you can apply to a photo in Photoshop -- Capture Sharpening, Creative Sharpening, and Output Sharpening – the video below mainly focuses on Capture Sharpening. Check out more great Photoshop videos on PTC’s YouTube channel. You should also watch this video on some other ways to sharpen images in Photoshop, and this free Photoshop Action that helps with sharpening.