Do Basic Sharpening?

For your average, everyday sharpening, you can use the Unsharp Mask filter. There are actually more advanced ways to sharpen your image, but for some reason this is still the go-to method for many professionals. Go under the Filter menu, under Sharpen, and choose Unsharp Mask. When the dialog appears, you’ll see three sliders: the Amount slider controls the amount of sharpening applied to your image (I’m sorry I even had to explain that one, but if I didn’t, I would get emails asking, “What does the Amount slider do in the Unsharp Mask filter?” I am not making this up). The Radius slider determines how many pixels out from the edge the sharpening will affect, and the Threshold slider determines how different a pixel must be from the surrounding area before it’s considered an edge pixel. (Note: When it comes to adjusting the Threshold amount, the lower the number, the more intense the sharpening effect.) Okay, now that I’ve said all that, what settings do I actually use myself for my own work? My go-to sharpening settings for my average, everyday image from my DSLR are Amount: 120%, Radius: 1, Threshold: 3. Hope that helps.