Photoshop How To

As you’ve no doubt learned by now there are often several ways to accomplish the same task in Photoshop. And sometimes the methods you choose depend upon what you plan do with the finished image.

In other words, are you going share the image on one or more social media platforms, use it for other online purposes, add it to your portfolio, or make a large print? The video below from our friends at The Phlog Photography YouTube channel address all that, with a specific emphasis on sharpening soft photos.

German landscape photographer Christian Mohrle is an adept instructor whose tutorials are very popular among Shutterbug readers. He devotes today’s eight-minute episode to the different methods available in Photoshop for adding more detail to images intended for Instagram and the web.

Mohrle begins with a warning that images used on various social media platforms usually have to be scaled to different sizes. For example, Instagram prefers 1080x1080-pixel square files—while you can push resolution higher for Twitter or Reddit.

The lesson begins with a quick discussion of sizing images properly, but that’s only half the battle. It’s often important to sharpen images differently, with the intended use in mind.

Mohrle provides step-by-step instructions for getting the job done using Photoshop filters and other simple techniques. His demonstration image is a beautiful landsape photo with a lake in the foreground. It's already been edited, except for the required step of making it a bit sharper.

The first approach Mohrle demonstrates involves Raw sharpening, and he explains that his last step in the Camera Raw editor typically takes place in the Details tab where sharpening occurs.

Mohrle also demonstrates how to use Photoshop’s Unsharp Mask and High-Pass Sharpening tools, as well as a method for accomplishing the task with plugins.

You can find more helpful lessons on Mohrle’s instructional YouTube channel, so be sure to take a look. And check out the tutorial we posted from another editing expert recently, explaining five easy tricks for making realistic photo composites in Photoshop.