This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Sharpening for Printing
When we apply sharpening, we apply it so it looks good on our computer screen, right? But when you actually make a print, a lot of that sharpening that looks fine on a 72- or 96-dpi computer screen gets lost on a high-resolution print at 240 ppi. Because the sharpening gets reduced when we make a print, we have to sharpen so our photo looks a bit too sharp onscreen, but then looks perfect when it prints. Here’s how I apply sharpening for images I’m going to print:
Step One:
Start by doing a trick my buddy Shelly Katz shared with me: duplicate the Background layer (by pressing Ctrl-J [Mac: Command-J]) and do your print sharpening on this duplicate layer (that way, you don’t mess with the already sharpened original image on the Background layer). Double-click on the new layer’s name and rename it “Sharpened for Print,” then go under the Enhance menu, and choose Unsharp Mask. For most 240 ppi images, I apply these settings: Amount 120; Radius 1; Threshold 3. Click OK.
Step Two:
Next, reapply the Unsharp Mask filter with the same settings by pressing Ctrl-F (Mac: Command-F). Then, at the top of the Layers palette, change the layer blend mode to Luminosity (so the sharpening is only applied to the detail of the photo, and not the color), and use the Opacity slider to control how much sharpening is applied. Start at 50% and see if it looks a little bit oversharpened. If it looks like a little bit too much, stop—you want it to look a little oversharpened. If you think it’s way too much, lower the opacity to around 35% and re-evaluate. When it looks right (a little too sharp), make a test print. My guess is that you’ll want to raise the opacity up a little higher, because it won’t be as sharp as you thought.
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