Exercise 24. Sharpening for print

For this exercise I used a photograph of my youngest son as it contained the detail I required to demonstrate the sharpening process and the effect.

This is the original picture:

I then played around with the unsharp settings in Photoshop and started with 84% this resulted in this shot:

When I printed this version out it was hard to see significant differences in the detail.  There is definitely some sharpening though when you compare it to the original and the sharpening has probably improved the picture.

The next image was the 149% version there are now signs that the picture has been tampered with on the print out there is some over sharpening evident in the eyes and the corner of the mouth.

The final version was an exaggerated unsharp at 294% mask:

This time it is clear that the picture has been altered, the edge of the face has a halo around it and the hair has detail missing.  When you go to a close view of the eyes some detail has been cut and the edges made too clear.  This version looks worse in print than it does on the computer screen.  In particular the part under the right cheek looks poor.

My preferred version is the one that makes subtle changes and ones that are not too dramatic.  Once the edges of the features become too sharp I think that the shot has become spoilt.