# PhotoshopElements

# Sharpen an image

The Auto Sharpen command increases clarity or focus without the risk of oversharpening an image.

The Sharpen tool focuses soft edges in a photo to increase clarity or focus. Oversharpening a photo gives it a grainy look. You can avoid oversharpening by setting a lower Strength value in the options bar. It’s best to make the sharpening subtle and increase it as necessary by dragging over the area several times, building up the sharpness each time.

The Adjust Sharpness dialog box has sharpening controls not available with the Sharpen tool or with Auto Sharpen. You can set the sharpening algorithm or control the amount of sharpening that occurs in shadow and highlight areas.

Adjust sharpening

### Automatically sharpen an image

Select Enhance > Auto Sharpen.

### Sharpen areas of an image

Original image (top), two faces sharpened correctly (bottom left), and two faces oversharpened (bottom right)

1. From the Blur tool menu, select the Sharpen tool .
2. Set options in the options bar:
   Brushes menu
     Sets the brush tip. Click the arrow next to the brush sample, choose a brush category from the Brushes menu, and then select a brush thumbnail.

   Size
     Sets the size of the brush, in pixels. Drag the Size pop‑up slider or enter a size in the text box.

   Mode
     Determines how the paint that you apply blends with the existing pixels in the image.

   Strength
     Specifies the amount of sharpening that occurs with each stroke.

   Sample All Layers
     Sharpens all visible layers. If this is deselected, the tool sharpens only the active layer.

3. Drag over the part of the image you want to sharpen.

### Precisely sharpen an image

1. Select Enhance > Adjust Sharpness.
2. Click Preview.
3. Set any of the following options to sharpen your image, and then click OK.
   Amount
     Sets the amount of sharpening. Type a number in the box or drag the slider to increase or decrease the contrast between edge pixels, giving the appearance of greater sharpness.

   Radius
     Determines the number of pixels surrounding the edge pixels affected by the sharpening. Type a number in the box or drag the slider to change the radius value. As you increase the radius, sharpening becomes more obvious.

   Remove
     Sets the sharpening algorithm used to sharpen the image. Gaussian Blur is the method used by the Unsharp Mask filter. Lens Blur detects the edges and detail in an image, and provides finer sharpening of detail and reduced sharpening halos. Motion Blur attempts to reduce the effects of blur due to camera or subject movement. Select a blur option from the pop‑up menu.

   Angle
     Sets the direction of motion for the Motion Blur option of the Remove control. Type a number in the box or drag the angle dial to change the angle percentage to the left (counterclockwise) or right (clockwise).

   More Refined
     Processes the file more slowly for more accurate blur removal.

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