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Active Rain PhotoBlogger - Sharpen Your Photos for Your Blog

Sharpening Photos Makes a Difference!

Digital cameras, whether it is a point and shoot, or a DSLR produce inherently 'soft' photos. Sharpening your photos can make a big difference.

When we use a resizing program to make our photos smaller for our blogs, the problem of 'softness' increases.

Here are a couple examples - notice how much more detail is visible:

Unsharpened Photoshop High Pass Filter at 2.0

Sharpening Photos for Blogs Tutorial

Unsharpened

Sharpening Photos for Blogs Tutorial

The photo below was sharpened using FocusFixer V2 at 1.7, threshold at 60%. Look at the difference in this wolf's eyes.

Sharpening Photos for Blogs Tutorial

Just about any photo editing program will offer a sharpening tool. And there are many ways to do it - ask 10 people what method they use, and you might expect to get 10 different answers! How much sharpening to use, and which sharpening tool to use, are all a matter of taste. I really like FocusFixer.

If you have a favorite sharpening method or software, would you share it with us?

For a tutorial on using the high pass filter in Photoshop- click here

Then, make an action for it so it can be done in seconds anytime you need it!

'Soft', dreamy shots can be fun too. Just depends on the effect you want :)

DBoucher Photography

Nature and Wildlife Photography Notecards

Real Estate Showcase Slideshows

Position yourself above your competition - Utilize a "Real Estate Showcase" Slideshow as a listing tool. Post it on your own website - Realtor Showcase Members can upload it to Realtor.com - Post it on your blog to showcase your listings.

"Real Estate Showcase" Slideshow and Web Presentations, more captivating than a virtual tour!

Posted by Debi Boucher - "Realtor Showcase" Real Estate Slideshows/ Photographer on 11/02/2009 08:59 AM

Comments (42)

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real estate, photogpraphy, slideshow, virtual tour, photos, nature, wildlife, photo sharpening, photo editing

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42 Comments on Active Rain PhotoBlogger - Sharpen Your Photos for Your Blog

NOV

I love reading a great post like this one. thanks for making it RAIN!!!

Thanks very much, Jeremy! If you haven't already, consider joining our PhotoBlogger Group!

Debi

Hi Debi,

I'm not too good with a camera at the best of times but this tool is certainly worth knowing about.

Thank you.

Steve

Debi - I love using Photoshop, and think I'm pretty good at it. But every time I read your blog, I learn something new. I'm heading on over to create an action for sharpening my photos right now!

Thank you!

Good Morning Debi,

An excellent post and another tool in the arsenal of helping all of us make our photos the best they can be . Thanks for sharing this with the group.

Steve, Practice practice practice! LOL

Craig - You are DARN good at Photoshop, and everyone knows it! How about a tutorial or two from you? :)

Debi

Morning William - It is really important to sharpen photos for the web- the blur factor is a big one on the web!

Debi

I'll have to practice this.....I tend to over-sharpen and decide the original was better. Maybe a better editing program would help, or could just be I don't know what I'm doing.

Debi - I didn't see your high pass tutorial when I wrote one recently...I could have saved myself some time by just linking to you :-)

Is that a Michigan Ave photo that you closed your blog with?

Hi Ann,Try upping the HP in increments of 1. Start with 1.5, look at it, and go up or down from there. I usually find for an out of the camera shot, that starting with 3 works well. If you are sharpening a photo for print, you will need to go higher than what looks comfortable on your monitor.

Hello Ian, I'll have to go have a look at yours! Michigan Ave. indeed! The Water Tower. I love Chicago - wish I could go more often!

If this comment shows up more than once, I apologize - Looks like AR is still having some problems today! I keep getting blank screens! I'm going to copy and paste this so I don't have to write it a third time! Yeah, I'm a fast learner.... LOL

Debi

Thanks for the sharpening tips, I need to get better at that I appreciate this blog and your examples were very nice...

Deb,

You're really in your element when it comes to photo training tips. Great tutorial.

Rich

Debi - Great tutorial! Sharpening can really make a difference! Your last wolf picture looks like he could jump off the page at you! I have featured this tutorial in the "Photos" group:

http://activerain.com/groups/photos

The nuisances and fine tuning can turn so so photos into high quality photography.

Hello Debi,

Another great tutorial! Thank you for the tips on sharpening photos! Something I need to work on! I just love the wolf's photo - absolutely beautiful!

Rita

Diane, you're welcome, and thank you!

Hey Rich- I love sharing, and this is the greatest group to do it in! I'm glad you're a part of it ;)

Hi Myrl- Careful! He might do that! Hear we'll be talking soon... Looking forward to it!

Hi Sabrina - Absolutely right! But nothing makes a crappy photo a good one....

Hello Rita - Thank you so much :) Happy to help!

Debi

Hi Debbie, I generated some html code for adding the logo in your blog sidebar. I will share this in a post I am doing for the whole group but thought you might like now. You are already the photo link in your posts but if you need the html code, here it is. I saved it in a blogpost DRAFT so I would remember where on my computer it is. The easy way is saving in Google Docs . But before I thought of that, I thought to save as a blog post DRAFT for where I have it residing.

Debi,

How did you do that last one? I love it!

Ann Hayden

Debi thanks for the.tutorial. I often leave my photos as is; however your examples here showed me I should use this feature more.

NOV

Thanks William! I'll use it!

Ann, Thanks! It's FAKE HDR. I've had a Photoshop plug in for years the does HDR and the Orion effect. It's called Redynamix Fun to play with, but nothing like the real thing! The Orion effect is a cool 'blurred' effect. It was free when I got it - it's 16 dollars now.

Jennifer - Great - I'm glad you think you can use it!

Debi

Debi, good tips. It is something that I need to work on, I tend to just use the photos that I like and not do anything with the ones that I don't. They could probably be fixed if I used an editing software program on them. Thanks again!

It is amazing how digital "Shopping" has taken the place of knowing your craft and camera. Back in the old film days, you really had to have all your stuff together to "get the shot". I still use the techniques I learned several years ago ~ Worked then - still works today☺☺☺

Helping you live your American dream...

Hi Debi ~ I simply use picnik and ususally sharpen 2.

Tony and Darcy - That method works too! :)

Hey Michael, You're a 'purist' LOL Yes, I know there are folks who still do everything 'in camera' - usually folks who began shooting years ago in film. I have a friend who began his overseas photo journalism career 35 years ago. He's still in the business and has all the latest and greatest equipment. He swears by NX2 for photo editing since with digital, dark room post processing, the technique of film, is no longer an option. I'm trying to learn this new program myself.... talk about a learning curve!

Monique - I hear Picnik is a good program. Lots of people use it.

Debi

Hey, Debi. Thanks for today's lesson. I did not know about this technique, so thank you for sharing. Have a great day, Jim

I use a number of different programs incuding Picnik and Photoscape to enhance all my photos. There is such a difference, even when I take my photos with a relatively good DSLR. I'm so happy to have found this group. I suspect I'll be visiting here a lot.

You're welcome, Jim!

Geri - We're you're glad you found this group too! Welcome! And thanks for sharing your tools!

Debi

Debi,

Very cool...

Ann

Thanks, Ann!

NOV

Hi Debi,

I think if I could only choose one tool, sharpening would be it. No one can argue with the results of your sharpening the shots above. Thanks for sharing all your knowledge.

Gail

Hey Miss Gail- I would have to agree with you! There's no doubt about it. Good to see you this morning, my friend! :)

Debi

NOV

Debi, Another great and informative post. I have been using Picasa 3 (free photo software from Google) a lot of the time and just yesterday paid attention to the sharpen effect. Your post about using Photoshop, which I am just learning, is going to be a fantastic help.

Terrific Gary! Be careful with sharpening - if you over do it, you'll get halos around your subjects. I should have mentioned that in my post. Tutorials are a great way to learn PS - and there are millions of them on the web! Anything you want to learn, just Google it!

Debi

NOV

Debbie, Thanks so much for the information. The look in the wolfs eyes is great. I'm just starting to really work on my photos, it's great fun Thnak you Barbara

Barbara - you are very welcome! And thank you. It really is fun playing with photography - so much you can do from 'fixing' to special effects that keep it so interesting. And now that there's digital, it doesn't cost a fortune to experiment.

Thanks for stopping by!

Debi

NOV

Debi: I could really see the difference in the wolf's eyes. Thank you for this information. I am always wanting to improve my photos.

I am just learning about the photoshop program. Need to buy it. I can't believe what is available now for photos. sorry just crawled out from my rock! LOL

Hi Donna - yes, there's a big difference, especially when we reduce the size the of our photos for the web - we REALLY need it then :)

Hello Janet - LOL! Welcome to the sunshine! You'll love it if you get it, but be patient, it takes a while to get the hang of it :)

Debi

NOV

Debi: The High Pass filter is my favorite sharpening technique, much more so than Unsharp Mask. For those of you who don't know, it is found under FILTER, then OTHER in PhotoShop. I create a new layer first, then add the High Pass Filter and change the BLENDING OPTION to OVERLAY.

Hi Andrew - Thanks for weighing in! Between the two, HP is my favorite as well. Easy to use with less chance of halos, etc.

Debi

NOV

Oh, so much to learn with so little time! I can definitely see the difference. The camera make a difference too I've learned. My Olympus takes much sharper photos than my last Sony camera.

NOV

Hi Tamara, the cameras on the market just continue to get better and better - like computers, no sooner do you buy one, and there's a better one in it's class right behind it!

Debi

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