Sharpness (Focus)
Top  Previous  Next


The purpose of this dialog is to improve sharpness and edges of the pictures, thus solving focus problems. Many blurred pictures can be dramatically improved by the algorithms provided.

Sharpness

This tab allows you to regulate the precision of details in a picture: you have both the option to increase or decrease sharpness, moving the slider to the right or to the left.

Enhance Edges

This correction increases the contrast of those pixels that are near the borders or edges inside a picture, thus making the borders more visible and precise.

Unsharp Mask

This is a progressive technique to increase the sharpness of a picture without increasing background noise, that is the grain of the picture itself. Many simple sharpness tools produce unwanted artefacts and thus ruin the image.

To distinguish between true edges and normal noise (grain), a copy of the picture is heavily blurred using a Gaussian algorithm with a given radius. The unsharp algorithm then uses this copy to decide where to apply a sharpen filter and where not.

The correction has 3 parameters: Amount, Radius and Threshold.

·Increase Amount to increase the sharpness effect  
·Increase Radius to reduce the noise. The bigger the picture, the bigger the radius should be, though rarely you will need to use values greater than 3.  
·The threshold represent the selectivity of the algorithm to edge detection: the greater the threshold, the less edges will be detected.  

Common values for these parameters are:

·Amount: between 0.5 and 2  
·Radius: between 0.6 and 2.5  
·Threshold: between 2 and 6  

Example of Unsharp Mask  
 
Note, that in this example the grain of the blurred background is sharpened only minimally, and the effect of distance is thus preserved. Use the Unsharp Mask for delicate sharpness adjustments to otherwise proffessional photographs.  

fs_21   fs_22     
Before
After
 


icon_tipImportant
 
·If you only want to apply Sharpness or Blur to certain parts of an image, you can create Selections or use the Retouch Brushes.  
 
·When selecting parts of the image using the selection tools, all brushes and correction dialogs only apply to these selections. Selections can also have a feather, reducing the effect of the brush or correction close to the selection borders.  

2010 © 1STEIN GmbH - CodedColor

CodedColor PhotoStudio by 1STEIN is a Windows photo viewer and editor to organize, edit, resize, reformat, correct, compare, sort, watermark, annotate and print digital images, and to edit EXIF and IPTC data in digital photos. You can rename multiple images, remove scratches, create panorama pictures (stitch), convert RAW photos (from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, etc. cameras), send images via Skype, send photo SMS, burn digital watermarks, correct colors, run a screenshow, convert and correct JPEG images in a batch process, rename fields, open pictures and image folders from the Explorer, generate a webalbum in HTML and compress JPG images. The CodedColor full version is not free, but during registration you can choose the Freeware edition, in which some functions are deactivated. After the download you can try the PhotoStudio shareware for 30 days without any restrictions. The CodedColor software interface looks very similar to ACDSee, is easier to use than Photoshop and more versatile than Picasa and Irfanview, but still contains editing and correction features as effective as Paintshop. Have a look at our Before / After tutorials, in order to get an idea of the powerful editor capabilities. The software comes with a detailed handbook and a fast database to store EXIF / IPTC data and color informationen. CodedColor PhotoStudio is a powerful and versatile photo organizer and image editing software for digital camera users. The user friendly interface includes features like photo editing & printing, web & flash album galleries, slide shows, photo management & cataloging, custom sorting, IPTC & EXIF editor and display, GPS tagging, perspective correction, barrel distortion, effects, thumbnail generation, resize & resample images, jp2000, batch conversion, database keyword searching, red eye removal, color / sharpness / brightness & contrast correction, artefacts removal, clone brush, scanner & TWAIN import, screen capture, lossless JPEG rotation, transparency (alpha channel), gamma correction, print ordering and screenshows with many transition effects, watermark text, image annotations, panorama stitch & animation, video capture, PDF album export, photo layouts, collages, frames, shadows, histograms, automatic white balance, skype photo sharing, etc. Opens and converts all common image formats: BMP, WMF, GIF, JPEG, JPEG2000, TIFF, PCX, PNG, PSP, PSD, PCD, and all current RAW formats. Visit the CodedColor FotoStudio homepage to learn more and download a free copy! Includes BYNGO MMS messenger and CodedColor Publisher, a versatile photo layout and DTP tool, from which you can order individual photobooks through KODAK.