How I sharpen my images for web
There are a few good reasons why you should sharpen your images before printing or posting them online:
Professional Quality: Sharpening enhances images in a way that makes them appear more polished and professional.
Compensates for Editing Loss: Images often lose sharpness during the editing process, which can make them appear blurry or soft. Sharpening helps compensate for this loss.
Brings Out Details: Sharpening helps bring out textures, edges, and fine details that may otherwise appear soft or blurry.
I use a simple method to sharpen my images. It involves resizing, applying sharpness, and then fine-tuning. Here’s how I do it:
Step 1: Open your image in Adobe Photoshop.
Step 2: Resize your image to double the size of the one you wish to post online. I usually post my images at 1920 px on the longest side, so I will resize my image to 3840 px on the longest side. Press OK!
Step 3: Duplicate your background layer by pressing CTRL+J, or right-click on your layer and select “Duplicate Layer.”
Step 4: In the top menu, click on “Filter” > “Sharpen” > “Sharpen.
Step 5: Adjust the opacity of your duplicated layer. I like to keep it around 80-85%, but I recommend zooming in on your image to see how much it affects the image. You don’t want to oversharpen your photos.
Step 6: Resize your image to your preferred resolution (in my case, 1920 px on the longest side).
That’s it—an easy and effective method to sharpen your images. Sometimes, when sharpening your images, a halo effect can appear around the edges of certain parts. To remove it, I recommend selecting the “Healing Brush,” setting the mode to “Darken,” zooming in where the halo effect appears, selecting an area right outside the halo, and then painting over the effect. A more detailed tutorial on how to remove halos will be coming soon here on the blog.
If you have any questions, please let me know in the comments below.
Thanks for reading!
/ Philip