Lessons

Lesson Info

Selective Softening & Sharpening

onto a fabulously useful technique called selective sharpening in blurring. Who sharpening We've got some folks here in studio are excited about learning about sharpening. So I'm gonna pop open another image for us to play with here, and we are going to start out with selective blurring. And we had a question on this yesterday about how do you create a shallow depth of field effect, which is a nice, blurry background after the shot. We're gonna see how to do that right now. So I'm gonna work with image number 20 in the folder called D Full Edit Mood. And again, you do get access to all these files if you happen to purchase the course. So here's what we're going to create. Okay, this is the original shot. Okay, so I'm gonna go ahead and throw away the layers. Actually, I created this file in the previous version of elements, and the reason there's three layers is that's the convoluted work around that we used to have to do to get elements to thinking it had layer masking ability. Wasn't...

that convoluted, but it definitely took two or three extra steps. Okay, so if you're working with elements. 91 of the big new features that elements nine has really layer mass that you can add to a any layer. But what I did here was I used an empty adjustment layer and attached it to the layer. I really wanted to add the layer mass to just to get at the mass that comes along with their readjustment layers. That's the hoops that we used to have to jump through arguably a good reason to purchase the new copy of elements. So I'll go ahead and select both these layers and toss them in the trash and show you how I did this. So the first thing we want to do is we want Teoh duplicate our image layer, because to create the blurry effect, we're going to run a blurring filter. And we don't want to run that on our original image. Okay, so we want to create a copy of this that we're gonna blur the heck out of, and then we're gonna hide a part of that blurry copy to see through to the sharp copy underneath. Okay, because remember, whatever your layers, your layer stacking order is whatever's on top has the ability to cover up or hide whatever's underneath. So if we blur the heck out of the layer on the top of the layers stack, punch a hole through it with a layer mask, you'll be able to see the sharpened photo underneath, so to duplicate a layer, you can simply click to activate it in the layers panel, and you do need to be in full and it mood for this technique. Then you can trot up to the layer menu and choose duplicate layer, and we're gonna give this a name. We're gonna call it blurry impress, return or mouse over here and click. OK, so now we've got a layer that we're gonna blur the heck out of. We can do that by trotting back up to the menu. The top of the screen choosing filter come down to the blur category pips. I did not mean to click that in that keyboard shortcut that I just did was the keyboard shortcut for nd it was Command Z or Control Z on a PC. Or you could just click the undo button at the top. So now we go to filter Blur. In this time we'll click the one we want, which is Gaussian Blur. And you'll encounter a dialogue with where elements asked exactly how blurry you want this photo to become. This little area right here is a preview so you can click and drag to move the photo around. So I'm gonna move the photo over to the flowers because that's really the part that I want. A blur. Then I'm gonna click and drag the radius slider until it looks gets me, so I'm gonna blur the heck out of it. So I've got it up to about 38.2 or whatever Looks good, there's again. There's no real magic number with this. This number is gonna change depending upon the amount of pixels that are in your image. So if you're working with a ah honkin big images like 5888 pixels wide by 3000 some odd pixels high, you may need to increase that radius to get this level of blurring going on. I'm working with a relatively small pixel dimension image so I can get away with lower numbers, so you may have to experiment with that, but it can you get a nice preview both in the preview box and outside here, in the window. If you've got that preview turned on so we'll go ahead and click. OK, so now I've got a blurry layer on top of my sharpens layer. So all we need to do now is add a layer mask to the blurry layer. That way, we control exactly where the blur shows up again. This is a feature new two elements. Nine. So I'm gonna zoom in down here so you can see what the layer mask, but looks like. Looks like a circle within the square lives at the bottom left of the layers panel. So you're going to give that a single click and you will have a layer mask attached to that layer. Now and again, the layer mask is your digital equivalent of masking tape. So now we're gonna go grab some masking tape in the form of a paintbrush set toe black because black conceals white reveals. Well, if I pick over in my tools panel, I've already got the brush activated. But black is not one of my color chips, so I need to reset my color chips to the default of black and white. And you can do that by pressing D, or you can click that little icon underneath the color chips either way. Well, if I want to hide or conceal part of the blurry layer, which is what I want to do in this point, I need to paint with black so I can press eggs to flip flop my color chips. Or you could press the curved arrow to flip flop them. Either way, now, up in the options bar, I need to make a couple of changes. First of all, I need to make sure that I've got a soft edged brush chosen. I cannot tell you the last time I used a hard edge brush for anything. Okay, so I usually always have a soft edged brush. So a soft edged brush we're gonna make our brush really, really big. And we're gonna do just a couple of clicks to punch a hole through the blurry layer to the sharpened one underneath. But by using a soft brush, that transition from blurry sharp is gonna be nice and soft. That's gonna look like it could have happened in camera. So as long as you've got one of these fuzzy guys activated. And again, it doesn't matter which number. The number just means the size of that brushes you containers the size of the brush. Just make sure you've got one of the soft ones activated. Then the other change we want to make is remember how when we were using the brush tool a minute ago with our foe birds, birth faux bird, faux burn and dodge Not to be confused with faux birds, that's something else entirely. Remember how we lowered our capacity of the brush? I can't tell you how many times I've for gotten that. And then I come over here and I start clicking. When the brush in the brush isn't working. Hence the reinstall. So do make sure to increase the capacity of your brush back up to 100. If you're following along with these techniques, you'll definitely need to do that because your brush will have been set to 10 a moment ago. So now we're actually ready to paint, So we're gonna come over here to the image and I want a humongous brush, huge brush. So I'm gonna hold down my right bracket key seriously elements. Okay, so I'm using my right bracket key to go up in breast size, and I'm gonna make it really big. My brushes, currently 500 pixels and years doesn't have to be exactly 500 but the point is, make it large. Okay, I'm gonna make it even bigger. So I'm gonna do a single click a top my focal point now, because my brush was so big, I'm gonna go back in with a smaller brush and color over her face to make sure that the blurry is being hidden from that area. So I used the big honkin brush at first to punch a hole through that blurry layer, get that soft, shallow depth of field effect going on, and then you come back in with a smaller brush, and you just you're just making sure that none of that blurriness is being revealed on your subject's face. In my personal opinion, it's OK on this photo that her hair is blurry. And that's a subjective thing to your the photographer. You're the expert, so you make it what lucky want. Well, this is a really easy way to get that nice shout at the field effect after the shots. Okay, so let's just do that one again. Because that's ah, are very, very useful techniques. I'm gonna throw this layer away, so the first thing we're gonna do is duplicate the layer cause we're gonna blur the heck out of it. So I'm gonna choose layer duplicate layer. We're gonna name it something memorable, blurry. Now we're gonna run our blur filter, so we choose the filter menu. And from this point since we just ran the blur filter, the filter that you've previously run is available at the very top of the filter menu. Now, if we choose that or use its keyboard shortcut, which is commander Control F, we will run that same filter with the exact same settings. If that's what you want to dio, go ahead and choose that because you'll bypass that Gaussian Blur dialog box. But if you do want to change the settings, say you want it more or less blurred than you would need to go back down here to the blur category and choose Gaussian Blur. But we're just gonna go ahead and run into the same settings. See how it bypassed that dialogue box Okay, so now we need to add our layer mask. So we're gonna trot down to the bottom of the layers panel. Click that little circle within the square icon. Just give it one click. Now we've got our layer mask, so you want to use the brush tool set to paint with black? So a quick peek over here in the tools panel, yet we've already got the brush active. Yet black is our foreground color chip. Take a quick peek in the options bar. Everything looks normal. Come over here and make your brush extremely large. Do a single click where you want to begin The sharp area of the photo. OK, the main place. You want to hide the blurriness and then decrease your brush size and paint over the focal point, which, if it's people which ought to be the face and eyes or however much of the image, you want to be perfectly sharp, and that's absolutely all there is to it. Salad up the field. So, as you might suspect, you can use that same technique on any filter sharpening filters. You could do the exact same thing. This particular technique right here with the Blur filter is great for using on Portrait's. If somebody's got uneven skin tone, you can slightly soften the skin. So in that situation you wouldn't blur it quite as much. And then you would hide the blurring from everywhere except for the skin to smooth it out and give a little bit of ah, uh, glamorously glow softness kind of thing. So it's very, very useful. So not just for shout at the field, but any time you want a blur, anything. So let's take a look at that same technique, but using the sharpening filter instead. So this time I'm gonna use file number 21. Okay, so I'm gonna throw away the layers that I had to create in the previous versions of elements. Okay, so if we want to do sharpening, let's duplicate the layer, so choose layer duplicate layer. Then we're gonna name this one sharp, and we're going to the exact same thing. Trot back up to the filter menu this time. Come down, Teoh. You know what in elements? The uncharged mass filter isn't in the filter menu. It's in the enhancement me making sure you're staying on your toes. So for sharpening the UN sharp mask, which is a pro level way of sharpening, or at least a gold standard way of sharpening. It does not live in the filter menu, even though it is a filter. So in elements you have to choose the enhancement mu, then go down and sharp mask, and you're going to get a dialog box that has all kinds of wonderful options. And again, you can change the preview point in the dialogue box just by clicking and dragging around with your mouse. Now, what's really happening when you're sharpening is elements is looking for edges in your image or areas of high contrast. Okay, so, for example, in this image, the color change between the hat and the background has a lot of contrast. Well, elements is going to see that and think, Oh, that's an edge. Okay, I'm gonna accentuate that edge. I'm gonna make the light parts lighter in the dark parts darker along that edge. The wit of the edge in which that happens is under your control. Okay, and that's what some of these settings were all about. So let's talk about these real quick, the amount setting that's pretty self explanatory. How much sharpening do you want to occur? Okay, the radius setting controls how wide your edge is. Okay, so if we were to, I'll see if I can zoom in on this image. He's my space bar to move around. If elements sees this high contrast transition between the color of the hat and the color of what's next to it, it deems that to be an edge. Now it's going to go in, and it's gonna dark in the dark parts of that edge. Enlighten the light parts that edge well. The width of that is controlled by the radius setting. How wide do you want that lightening and darkening to go from that point where those two high contrast pixels meat. Okay, so these air to high contrast pixels right here, How wide of an area do you want elements to darken? Enlighten in order to accentuate that edge if you go too wide? Well, let's have some fun with this. If you go too wide, you're going to create me, see if I can get a spot where it'll do it. Well, I can't get it to do in this image, but if you go to wide, You're gonna create what looks like a halo. Because, really, if you've got a light pixel up against a dark pixel in your darkening this one enlightening that one for a fairly good with, then you're going to end up with a white stripe down the center. Okay, that's called a sharpening halo. Taney typically don't want that. So the radius setting controls how wide you're willing to let that sharpening halo get. Okay, A very low radius setting will be very, very narrow. High radius setting will be wider, So typically you don't want to go above four on your radius. Okay, so we're going to keep this set. We'll call it three. Now the threshold adjustment or slider. Rather let you tell elements how much of a difference how much of a color difference, or how much contrast there has to be between two pixels for elements to think it's an edge in the first place. Okay, so, oddly enough, this one works exactly the opposite way. You might think you might think a higher threshold means that the pixels have to be more different. That's not really the way it works, so setting it to zero will sharpen everything. Okay, So you typically want to keep this one between about three and 20. Okay, so what we're doing is we're saying by increasing this setting, we're saying, hey, elements. You know, there's gonna be quite a bit of contrast here, you know, for you to deem everything an edge else. Everything is gonna get sharpened, and it will be too much. Scharping. Okay, now, these numbers, you can experiment within your own images. There are a few magic numbers which my buddy Scott Kelby gave me permission to give away to you guys. And the magic members are sharpening anything. Just a golden rule kind of sharpening. You want to set your amount at 85%? You want to set your radius to one in your threshold to four. That's a good magic set of numbers just for all purpose everyday sharpening, no matter what the thing is. Okay, so 85 1 and four. Now, if you, uh, need maximum sharpening, you want everything to be really sharp. Those numbers changed just a little bit. And this is what I usually use for if I'm preparing an image for the web and I have resized it. You know, any time you start manipulating pixels, you can. They can start to soften if you've done a lot of re sizing. So if you're re sizing for the Web, you're changing pixel dimensions. So you're typically throwing pixels out to make the file small enough to get up onto the Web. First place, I say up over. So what you want to do is sharpen the picture after you resize it, because in the in the re sizing process, the pixels can get a little bit soft, just like the printing process makes pixel soft. So before I throw a picture up on the Web, I always sharpen it, you know, make it nice and short. So for maximum sharpening, you can change the numbers and we're gonna go with an amount of a radius of four in the threshold of three. So that's a magic set of unsure AARP mask numbers for a lot of sharpening. OK, and even though we reduce the amount by increasing the, uh, actually we didn't change the yeah, we did. It would change the threshold so special That threshold went from 4 to 3, which actually increases the amount of sharpening. Okay, because less contrast is being you need less contrast between the two pixels for elements to consider them an edge. So it's gonna sharpen mawr pixels in your image than if we increase that threshold. Because we increase the threshold elements, gets pickier and pickier, and more and more and more and more and more contrast is required for it to think it's an image anyway. Okay, so with a lower threshold number for this image, we're going to get all kinds of sharpened areas in her hat, whereas we might not have with a higher threshold number. Okay, so for this, this technique that we're doing right now is a selective sharpening technique. So what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna go ahead and pump up the settings a little bit more than I would. Okay, so these numbers that I've just given you are good for overall sharpening. What I'm gonna show you how to do in this technique is sharpened Onley certain areas, so I'm gonna pump it up a bit. I'm gonna go ahead and set our amount back up to 100 which is way more sharpening than I would ever do to the entire photo, so I'm gonna go ahead and click. OK, zoom back out. Real can see he's my space. Barter. Scoot over. So here's our before and our after so a huge difference overdone. But that's OK, because we've got layer masking and layer opacity toe work with. So that's what we're gonna do now. We're gonna add a layer mask to this layer by clicking that little circle within the square at the bottom of the layers panel to add the layer mask. Now we need to decide how much hand painting we're willing to do in this mask. So you look at the image and you think self. Do I want most of the image to be sharpened, or do I only want the Scharping's show up in small areas? Let's say we only want Scharping show up in very small areas, will that in that situation it's easier to fill the layer mask black. That way you hide all the sharpening, and then you go back in with a white brush and reveal it only in certain areas. So with the mask active, we're gonna trot up Teoh the edit menu and we're gonna choose Phil Layer and from the EU's poppet menu. We're gonna pick black because black conceals white reels. I wonder if there's anybody out there counting how many times we say them that's got that kind of fun like a counter at the bottom of the screen. You know, the kids taking up a surprise so we'll go ahead and click, OK, And as soon as I click, OK, all the sharpening that we just added is gonna be hidden. So now we're back to the super soft image we started out with. So now we'll try it over to the tools panel. And with the regular brush tool set to paint with white to reveal black conceals, white reveals, we're gonna come over here, and I might zoom in a little bit. And I'm going to reveal the sharpening on the irises of her eyes, not on the white parts, just the iris. And we're gonna take a look at what that looks like. So here's our before there's are after. That's an eye popper. And if that's a little bit too overdone, lower the layer opacity. Hey, so I'm gonna go ahead and increase the layer rapacity back up to what it was. And we're gonna continue sharpening other areas that are great for this kind of selective sharpening our eyelashes. If I was doing this for real, I zoom in and get a teeny tiny brush, and I would do each not every single lash, but some of them. Okay, you can also sharpened eyebrows a little bit. Make those areas stand out. It's a little bit Kanell. Zoom out a little bit and come down to her lips. This is gonna look like we added a coat of lip gloss and then amazing. It's like we're there. So here's a little before and after on the lips to show you the difference that that can make anything that you want to draw attention to in your portrait. This is whatever it ISS, you know, this is a great way to do it. The other items I might sharpen if I want to draw a little attention to her hat. I am from Texas. After all. This is not a Texas hat, I'll tell you that. You know why it's on Texas hat because the brims to curved Texas hats or flat Oh yes, things you didn't know you'd learn in this class. So I'm gonna keep revealing the sharpening to make the straw stand out a little bit. And, of course, you could do as much or as little of that selective sharpening as you want. OK, so we'll back off the opacity just a little bit, cause we don't want it to be obviously, Photoshopped about 2 75 So here's our before and our after I'll go ahead and cramped the next question, which will be, well, Lisa White kid. And you just use the sharpening tool on a certain areas. Same kind of thing is destructive. Not as an efficient technique. You would have Teoh duplicate the image layer and then go in and do the sharpening. But there wouldn't be any way to go back in and find Tune that sharpening if you printed it or gave it to a client and decided it was a little overdone or it needed more, you'd have to start over. So any time you can use a layer mask, Uh, is, ah, a better way to do that? So again we just sharpen the whole layer, sharpen it quite a bit, and hid the sharpening from the areas that we didn't want to show up on and then lowered our layer opacity to make the technique look riel.