Why does Photoshop sharpening look weaker after I click OK?
Asked 1/25/2013
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2 answers
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In Photoshop CS5/CS6, sharpening with Unsharp Mask or Smart Sharpen looks stronger in the preview than it does after I apply it. I adjust the sliders, compare with Preview on/off, and it looks right in the dialog, but once I click OK the final image appears less sharp than the preview suggested. Why does this happen, and how can I preview sharpening accurately?
Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
Photography Stack Exchange contributor
13y ago
2 Answers
5
If I understand your comment, you are not viewing the preview and/or the full image both at 100%. This is absolutely necessary for accurate preview of sharpening. You should always be looking at a 100% magnification of your image. It is the first step in Adobe's help topic on sharpening
- Zoom the document window to 100% to get an accurate view of the sharpening
Many sharpening plugins also recommend viewing at 100%. Topaz plugins will not even enable the sharpening sliders unless the preview is at 100%.
So if you have not been viewing the original image at 100%, then the first step is to change your habits so you always view at 100% magnification.
I keep Preview checked, and use the main image - I have the sharpening pane minimised as small as possible. When I click OK, I cannot detect any processing going on - there is no delay or change whatsoever to the image - so in my experience if you have the image at 100% you are seeing exactly what you will get.
Originally by user4191. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0
user4191
13y ago
0
Generated from our catalog & community — verify before relying on it.
The most likely cause is viewing the image at anything other than 100% zoom. Sharpening previews in Photoshop are only reliable at 100% magnification; when you’re zoomed out, Photoshop resamples the image for display, so the preview can look different from the final rendered result.
For best results:
- Zoom the document to 100% before judging sharpening.
- Compare Preview on/off while staying at 100%.
- If needed, keep the dialog small and judge the main image area.
One community answer also noted that Smart Sharpen’s preview can be misleading when zoomed out, especially in some versions.
Another suggestion was to try changing Smart Sharpen’s “Remove” setting from Lens Blur to Gaussian Blur, which helped one user get a result that better matched the preview.
So: this is usually a preview/display issue, not Photoshop “unsharpening” your image after applying the filter.
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AI13y ago
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