Two errors of PS noise reduction and sharpening

With our help, master the various sharpening and noise reduction techniques in Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw.

Almost any photo processing can not be separated from noise and sharpening two major operations, which presumably everyone has experience. In particular, the example image used in this article, the extra sharpening can give the birds gorgeous feathers to the effect of icing on the cake. It is the focus of this paper how to apply the skillful sharpening technique to the process of repairing the film. In this process, you will be exposed to the sharp improvements in Photoshop CC and the image amplification function. The different techniques introduced in the tutorial are designed to help you master the way they are used and, more importantly, to understand their applications, rather than performativity each photo with a gourd scoop.

The sharpness of success depends on the correct judgment, and one of the important factors influencing judgment is the number of noises in the picture. Sharpening and noise is like the positive and negative sides of a coin, excessive sharpening will make the noise point becomes obvious, and the large noise reduction will result in the details blurred. Therefore, the key to deal with is how to grasp the sharpness and noise balance between the points.

Selective sharpening

As with the examples of bird portraits, most photos contain both clear focus and a virtual background. You know, a little bit of a brain is a crazy idea to make no difference sharpening or noise reduction for the entire picture. For example, why do we need to sharpen the background of a virtual green? So in the tutorial we'll show you how to use tools and filters correctly.

When we finish the sharpness of the photos and get a clear picture, we will use Lab color mode to perform a quick and perfect saturation adjustment to make the gorgeous feathers lifelike.

Operation Steps:

01 Open in Camera raw

Open the folder where you want to process the file in Adobe Bridge software, and then double-click the file to open it in camera raw. First on the right side of the basic panel to make some simple adjustments to improve the tone and color performance: Contrast +15, Shadow +16, sharpness +10, saturation +18.

02 Adjustment Details

Open the Details panel and double-click the Zoom tool icon in the top toolbar to set the magnification to 100%. Press and hold the SPACEBAR to drag the mouse in the preview window to adjust the preview screen so that the bird head and background are displayed in the screen. The sharpening quantity and radius are set to the maximum value, and the exaggerated sharpening effect is obtained.

03 Reduced effect

Move the quantity and radius of the slider slowly to the left until the effect looks natural. The Quantity slider controls the degree of sharpening, and the RADIUS slider controls the range of edges sharpening. Use the shortcut key p to compare the effects before and after sharpening. For example works, we finally selected the number 67, the radius of 1.4 of the set value.

04 Adjusting Masks

The Mask slider helps us to control the scope of sharpening. Hold down the ALT key to drag the slider, and the screen changes to Black-and-white mode. As we drag the slider to the right, the black portion becomes more and more, indicating that the area has been protected from being sharpened by the mask. Setting the mask to 40 perfectly protects the blur background.

05 Open As Object

When you are finished adjusting, hold down the SHIFT key and click the Open Object button at the bottom right of the interface to open the adjusted ACR file as a smart object in Photoshop. As a result, all of the filter adjustments applied to the layer become non-destructive adjustments. Perform the filter > Sharpen > Smart Sharpen command.

06 Intelligent Sharpening

The smart sharpening filter in Photoshop cc adds an adjustment slider to reduce noise, which is combined with the number and radius sliders to become the ultimate weapon for sharpening and controlling noise. We start with the number and radius sliders, set the number to 120%, and set the radius to 1.4 pixels.

07 Reducing Noise

Set the reduced noise value to 30, reducing the noise amount of the background. The dark part of the picture is the hardest hit of the noise problem and needs special care. The shadow part of the fading slider is set to 65% to further improve the noise control of the shaded area. Click the OK button to apply the sharpening settings.

08 Masking Effect

Enlarge the picture and observe the adjustment effect of the intelligent sharpening filter. The sharpness around the eyeball looks a little higher, and we can use the Brush tool in the toolbar to solve the problem. Click on the white mask of the smart filter layer in the Layers panel, and then use the shortcut keys D, x to set the foreground color to black, and brush smear on the eye area.

09 Realignment

The background after the adjustment is still somewhat granular and needs further adjustment. Using the shortcut key CTRL + J to duplicate the layer, double click the new layer thumbnail to return to the ACR interface and zoom in on the red feathers on the bird's chest. Open the details panel and set the lightness slider to 46 to reduce the noise portion so that the noise in the background disappears completely.

10 Control Noise Reduction range

Click the OK button to return to the main Photoshop interface and click the Add Layer Mask button below the layers panel to create a mask. Select the brush, set the foreground color to black, and then smear the feather portion of the bird to restore the sharpened feathers in the lower layer. Smear in case of out of bounds you can use the shortcut key x to switch the foreground color to white and to fix the mask.

11 Sharpening Brushes

Click the New Layer button below the layers panel to create a new blank layer and rename the new layer to sharpen tool. Select the Sharpening tool in the toolbar and check the options bar for two options for sampling and protection details for all layers. Set the strength to 10%.

12 Adjusting Colors

Adjusts the color of the screen in Lab color mode. Use the shortcut key CTRL + ALT + Shift + E to merge all the layers into a new replica layer, renamed enhanced color. Right-click to select Convert to Smart object, double-click the layer thumbnail to open it in a new document.

13 Color Mode

Perform menu command "color > mode >lab colors." Then click the New Adjustment layer button in the layers panel to create a color-level adjustment layer. In the Properties panel, set the top channel Drop-down menu to A, and move the White triangle slider to the left of the histogram to the right to set it to 25.

14 Adjustment Slider

To ensure that the screen does not appear to be biased, we need to move the black triangular slider on the right to the same amount. The Black triangle slider defaults to 255, moves the same value and moves it to 230, or we can enter 230 directly in the input box below. After adjusting the red and orange feathers became more vivid.

15 Adjust B Channel

Switching the channel Pull-down menu from A to B,b channel mainly affects both yellow and green colors. We also need to move the same amount of black and white sliders to ensure that the color balance is not damaged, because we do not want the background color saturation through high, so use the set values are 15 and 240 respectively.

16 Adjusting Colors

Click the color level to adjust the front of the layer before and after the adjustment of the effect, if the feeling of color is too bright, you can directly reduce the opacity of the layer of the way the effect. We set it to 80%. When the effect is satisfactory, save and close the document, and the adjustment results are reflected directly on the smart object layer of the main document.

17 Control Mask

Now that the orange feathers on the bird's chest appear to be red, you can use a layer mask to solve the problem. Click the Add Layer Mask button below the layers panel to use the Black Brush tool to smear the red feather on the chest to reveal the normal coat color underneath.

18 adding dark Corners

Use the shortcut key CTRL + ALT + Shift + E to merge all layers into a new layer, perform the filter >camera raw Filter command, select the Radial Filter tool, create an adjustment circle around the bird, set the exposure value to-0.4, outside the range, and click OK to complete the adjustment.

Small dictionary:

Sharpening: Sharpening is the operation of improving the edge contrast of picture scenery. The darker side of the edge junction becomes darker, and the lighter side becomes brighter. The contrast strength is controlled by the quantity slider, and the extension range of the edge adjustment is controlled by the radius slider. Sharpening the key point is how to control the degree of adjustment and range, so that the screen both look clear, and will not be in the edge of the scene to form unsightly bright edges.

Smart sharpening: The Smart sharpening tool has been around for a long time, but has been greatly improved in Photoshop cc, including noise reduction features. We can improve the clarity of the details at the same time, more effective suppression of screen noise. Intelligent sharpening is becoming more and more powerful with the help of noise features as well as independent control of high light and shadow area sharpness.

Radius setting: The Radius slider in the filter is used to control the impact range of the effect. To sharpen the example, the radius control enhances the edge contrast adjustment range. In general, it is best to use a smaller radius setting of less than 0.8 for a rich picture, such as a scene, and a larger value of about 1.2 for portraits with less detail. We rarely use a radius of more than 2 pixels to sharpen the value.

Category:

• PS Getting Started Tutorial