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(Optional) If your image contains multiple layers, select the layer containing the image you want to sharpen to work with. The Sharpen Mask filter can only be applied to one layer at a time, even if the layers are linked or grouped. Before you apply the Sharpen Mask filter, you can merge the layers.
Choose Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Make sure the View option is selected.
Note.
Click and hold down the image in the preview window to see the image without adjusting sharpness. You can drag and drop to see different parts of the image in the preview window, and the “+” or “–” buttons control the image scale.
Although the Sharpen Mask dialog box has its own preview window, it's best to move the dialog box so that the results of the filter are visible in the document window.
To determine the number of pixels processed by the filter around edge pixels, drag the Radius slider or enter a value. The larger the radius value, the wider the edge effects spread. The wider the edge effect spreads, the more the increased sharpness will be visible.
The radius value may vary depending on the user's taste, as well as the size of the final reproduction and the output method. For high-resolution images, radius values of 1 and 2 are typically recommended. A smaller value sharpens the pixel edges only, while a larger value sharpens a wider area of pixels. This effect is not as noticeable in print as it is on screen because the two-pixel radius takes up less space on a high-resolution printed image.
To set the degree to which pixel contrast is increased, drag the Effect slider or enter a value. For images that are printed at high resolution, values between 150% and 200% are generally recommended.
Set the difference by which the pixels in question will be recognized compared to surrounding pixels as edges for subsequent filter processing. To do this, drag the Threshold slider or enter the appropriate value. For example, a threshold of 4 means processing all pixels whose tonal values on a scale from 0 to 255 differ by 4 units or more. Thus, adjacent pixels with values of 128 and 129 will not be processed. To avoid noise or posterization (for example, in images with skin tones), it is recommended to use an edge mask or try to find a threshold value between 2 and 20. The default threshold value (0) sharpens the entire image.
In this photo retouching tutorial, we'll look at the Field Blur effect, the first of three new blur effects in Photoshop CS6. Field Blur, along with Iris Blur and Tilt-Shift (other new blur effects) are located in the Blur Gallery, which appeared in Photoshop CS6.
Each of these effects blurs the image in different ways, but as we'll learn in these tutorials, Field Blur, Iris Blur, and Tilt Shift all have one thing in common - they allow us a lot of control over the blurring process because they don't apply uniform blur. throughout the image. On the contrary, these effects help us precisely adjust the degree of blur in individual parts of the image without using a layer mask, which makes the task much easier.
In this tutorial we will study field blur in detail. Here's the photo I'll be working with:
Original image
Before we continue, let's take a look at the Layers panel, where you can see that I'm currently working with a copy of the original image. I created a copy of the layer by pressing the keyboard shortcut Crtl+J / Command+J and thus duplicating the background layer. In this case, the original image on the background layer will remain untouched, and I will do the blur on the copy - on layer 1:
Work with a copy of the image (layer 1) to avoid changes to the original (background layer).
Selecting the Field Blur effect
To use the Field Blur effect, go to the Filter menu bar at the top of the screen, select Blur from the list, and then select Field Blur:
Select Filter > Blur > Field Blur.
Blur gallery
After selecting the “Field Blur” effect, a new blur gallery appears on the screen, temporarily replacing the standard interface in Photoshop CS6.
The Blur Gallery consists almost entirely of a preview area where we work with the image, and if you look to the right side of the screen you can see several panels. The top panel is called the Blur Tools panel, where you can find options for controlling the field, iris, and tilt-shift blur effects.
Below is the Blur Effects panel, with more options for adding bokeh effects to your blur. We won't be exploring the Blur Effects panel in this tutorial because we won't need to add any additional options to the basic blur effect.
Because I selected Field Blur in the Filter menu bar, options for field blur automatically appeared in the Blur Tools panel:
Blur gallery in Photoshop CS6 with the Blur Tools panel, where you can see the options for field blur.
Working with pins
If we look at the image in the preview area, we'll notice two things.
First, the entire image is completely uniformly blurred, and this is similar to applying more traditional Photoshop blur effects, such as Gaussian blur.
Secondly, and more interestingly, we can notice a strange circular icon. This icon is called a "pin" because we "pin" it to the image. Photoshop defaults to the initial pin for us, but we can add additional pins in various places in the image. Why do we need this? We'll find out soon:
Photoshop defaults to the initial pin for us.
The initial pin that the program adds actually controls the amount of blur that will be applied to the image. How does this happen?
The pin's outer control ring acts like the volume control on a tape recorder. To increase the music volume, we turn the knob clockwise, and to decrease the volume, we turn it counterclockwise.
In our case, instead of adjusting the volume, we adjust the degree of blur, but the principle of operation is the same. We just need to turn the knob. Hover your mouse over the outer control ring, then, while holding down the mouse button, rotate the ring clockwise or counterclockwise.
Turning it clockwise will increase the amount of blur, while turning it counterclockwise will decrease it. Photoshop will show you a preliminary result of rotating the ring:
Click on the outer ring and rotate it to adjust the amount of blur.
Blur slider
If using the "volume control" doesn't appeal to you, you can also adjust the amount of blur using the more traditional method - moving the slider in the Blur Tools panel under Field Blur.
The slider and pin are tied to each other - changing one automatically changes the other. Therefore there is no difference in which tool to use. And just like with the pin, Photoshop gives you a preview of the result as you move the blur slider left or right:
You can use a pin or slider to control the amount of blur.
Here's what my image looks like in the preview area after setting the blur level to 18 pixels:
Initial blur effect.
Moving pins
So, at this point I managed to achieve the same level of blur throughout the entire image. But what if you need to change the degree of blur in a specific place in the image? For example, a girl’s eyes should not be blurred. They should remain clear. How can I reduce blur in the face area? With the new Field Blur filter, this is easy to achieve! All you need to do is add another pin!
Before I do that, I want to move my original pin to a different location. We can move the pins by simply clicking on their center and moving the pins around the image. I'll move the pin a little higher to get it away from the eye area:
Click on the pin and move it to the desired location.
Adding pins
To add a new pin, move the mouse cursor to the desired location. The cursor will turn into a pin icon with a plus sign next to it, indicating that you can add a new pin. In my case, since I want to change the amount of blur around the girl's eyes, I'll move the mouse cursor to the left eye:
Move the mouse cursor to the desired location.
Then just click on the mouse button and a new pin will appear! Note that the original pin is still in the image, but it does not have an outer control ring. This is because although both pins blur the image, we can only control one pin at a time, so the control ring appears on the selected active pin (the new pin I just added):
When two or more pins are added, the outer control ring appears on the selected pin.
After adding a new pin to the girl's eye area, I can remove the blur there either by rotating the control ring counterclockwise, or by dragging the blur slider in the toolbar to the left until the blur level is set to 0. I select the rotating ring option. The blur effect around and below the second pin has stopped working, while the area closer to the original pin above in the image is still blurry:
Each pin adjusts the amount of blur in different parts of the image.
I'll do the same with the second eye, adding a third pin to the image and turning the outer control ring counterclockwise to remove the blur effect. Both eyes are now clear and sharp, just like in the original image, while the area around the top pin is blurred. As we add more pins, we begin to have more control over the blur in different parts of the image:
Each new pin adjusts the amount of blur in the area around and below it.
So what if I want to go back and adjust the original pin differently? No problem! All you need to do is simply click on it and make it active, bringing up the outer control ring on the screen, and then rotate the ring (or move the slider on the toolbar) to increase or decrease the degree of blur in that part of the image.
It's important to note that we are not making permanent changes to the image as we work with the pins. Photoshop simply shows us the preliminary result of the blur effect:
Click on any pin to make it active again and make the necessary changes.
In my case, I add a fourth pin to the shoulder area to blur that area a little, and rotate the control ring clockwise to increase the blur effect. You can add as many pins to the image as you need to control the amount of blur as needed:
Let's blur the area in the lower left corner of the image by adding another pin.
And as another example, I'll add a fifth pin to the mouth area, then turn the control ring counterclockwise to bring back the original sharpness of the girl's lower face:
The field blur filter allows us to quickly and easily adjust the desired degree of blur.
Temporarily hiding pins
The only problem with working with pins is that they gradually clutter the image and it becomes difficult to see the blurring effect. We can temporarily hide pins by pressing and holding the letter H on the keyboard (from the verb hide). When the key is pressed, the pins disappear. By releasing the key, we return visibility to the pins:
Press and hold the H key to hide the pins and see the result of the blur.
You can also compare the processed and original images at any time by turning off the Preview option at the top of the blur gallery. When Preview is not selected, the original image appears. To return to your unfinished blur work, select the Preview option again by checking the box. You can also press the P key on your keyboard to quickly enable/disable the option:
Compare the original and processed images by turning on/off the preview option.
Removing pins
To remove an unwanted pin, make it active and press the Backspace/Delete key on your keyboard. If you want to remove all pins at once and start over, click the Remove All Pins icon at the top of the Blur Gallery (to the right of Preview):
Select Remove All Pins to remove pins from your image one at a time.
Applying a blur effect to an image
When you're finally done adding, moving pins and are happy with the result, simply click the "OK" button in the blur gallery or the Enter/Return key on your keyboard. This will apply the blur effect to the original image and exit the blur gallery:
Press OK to apply the blur effect.
And now we're done with the blur! For comparison, here's the original image again:
Original image.
And here's my final result, after adding a few more pins to the image:
The end result.
We did it! We learned how to easily blur the necessary parts of an image using the new Field Blur filter in Photoshop CS6!
Translation: Ksenia Rudenko
