What is sharpening?
QI feel I have got the hang of producing good images since I invested in my first DSLR 18 months ago. Before that I was simply a ‘snap’ shooter using a rather old and inexpensive Pentax Optio compact digital camera. I am discovering how to benefit from adjusting various image processing parameters including saturation, shadows, and highlights and colour temperature. But there is one option that I honestly still don’t fully understand: sharpening. I realise I can control the intensity of the sharpening effect through the ‘Amount’ value, but I haven’t a clue what the radius, detail and masking parameters do. Kelly Unsworth
ASharpening is all about adjusting the contrast between pixels along boundaries or edges of lighter and darker areas of detail in your images. The brightness of each pixel can be adjusted accordingly. To do this effectively you can manage the application of the pixel modifications using Amount, Radius, Detail and Masking parameters. Different combinations of these values can result in similar effects, and preferences vary.
Probably the key is the Radius value. If there is a lot of very fine detail you want to keep the Radius setting low, even to under one pixel. Detail lets you control the range of edge sizes that are modified. A low value only sharpens large edges and a large value will sharpen almost everything. The Masking value, also referred to as the Threshold, can be used to moderate the unwanted effect of noise created by the other sharpening parameters in areas of low detail in your image. The key to good sharpening is not to overdo it!