Article Comments

This is amazing! The sharpen is really good and realistic.

Thanks for the tut!

Nice technique and very efficient solution !

I don't see how this would be more convenient that a luminosity fade sharpening in RGB (or go to L*A*B* and sharpen the L). Frequency separation is a convenient way of retouching pictures, but using it only for sharpening is a little precious I think.

I love interesting techniques like this! However, I'd like to see more information about how each step in the process works. There are some fairly obscure methods being used here: the Apply Image dialog, checking Invert and setting Scale to 2, the Add blend mode... and later, the use of Linear Light plus the inversion of the mask. I can follow the recipe but not the reasoning—which makes it harder to learn and to use.

I'd also like to see a discussion of how this compares with the more common method of selective sharpening using an edge or surface mask in conjunction with radius, amount, etc. The idea of sharpening just the high frequency information seems counter-intuitive: Wouldn't it sharpen noise as much as any meaningful detail?

Incidentally, it's a shame that the graphics in these columns aren't linked via JavaScript to larger, full-resolution images. In this piece, the effects of the image adjustments, as well as specific panel settings, are unreadable in anything but the most extreme close-ups.

All in all, I appreciated the article. Thanks!

Really good article and tutorial, and in combination with the one posted last year, helped me achieve a look I have been struggling to get for months. Thank you!