On some images I get a skin gloss after Unsharp Mask, even though I do a fade/luminosity channel blend mode.

Even when I go as low as 1,2 pixel and 85% amount.

I did no presharpening, and the gloss is the glow of the light on the skin, contracted to more visible dots through the sharpening process.

Especially as it is a female portrait, I am wondering what to do in such a case.

I wonder if in such images the gloss will disappear in RGB printing, or if it will stay, which, of course, can't be.

What's your experience in this?

Thanks!

First of all, what you see on the monitor is not necessarily what you will see in a print. I view my image at 100% when sharpening, and when the monitor shows very slight halos (that look like oversharpening) I know that when I print the image it will look fine. If I have doubts, I check the monitor at 50% or 25%, as some people say that that gives a better look at how the print will look.

Second, I seldom have the need for setting the Radius above 1.0, and with small detail in the image I usually do not go above 0.4 to 0.8. Depending on the image I have used anywhere from about 100 to 350 for the Amount.

When there is tiny detail that I don't want sharpened, I increase Threshold to 2-4 or 5, which will keep skin pores and other such detail from becoming prominent. However, when you increase the Threshold, you also have to increase the Radius and/or Amount to get the rest of your image sharp.

You might find that you get better reults using Smart Sharpen. Also, unless you are shooting RAW, your files may already be sharpened in the camera.

A quick but effective solution for portraits is to duplicate your original layer, and then sharpen the background layer so that the eyes and main details come out nice and sharp. Then, on the duplicate layer, use a Gaussian Blur. Blur will be low, say between 3 and 8 depending on your resolution. Then, use the Eraser on hair, eyes, teeth, jewelry, etc. to bring back the sharpness. Follow that by a reduction of opacity in the duplicate layer until you see the effect you like.

I agree.


I do shoot raw and have a follow-on question. WRT to things like pores and other tiny high contrast areas, have you experimented with Smart Sharpen's advanced shadow/highlight tabs? I'm interested to know if anyone has any suggestions on settings for those in terms of tiny specular highlights? I've dabbled with it, but can't say I've really settled on anything.

Thanks, Walter.

I exclusively shoot RAW (if I was concerned, companies could stop offering jpeg processing in camera).

I also had the experience that what looks oversharpened on the monitor looks fine in print.

When I use that close-up view window of Unsharp Mask, then everything looks fine, only when I get down to 100%, that gloss appears.

I usually use the level 5 threshold or more.

Thanks for the tip with smaller radius and higher amount. I will also check out smart sharpen more.

I compared Unsharp Mask and Smart Sharpen, and maybe I made a mistake in Smart Sharpen, but Unsharp Mask hat a bit more characterful results.

But I'll do more experimenting with sharpening techniques.

It's interesting how one can get different results by applying radius, amount, and threshhold differently.

So far, I use a relatively higher threshhold (5 or more), lower amount, and higher radius.

But I'll experiment with higher amount and lower radius and see where it gets me.

Thanks!