Martyn Welch wrote:
> Sorry but I'm not familiar with High Pass. I use USM in PSPro9 and
> USM or Smartsharpen in CS2 - where or what is High Pass?


You duplicate the final layer then Filter>Other>highpass. Set the slider all the way left and begin to move right until you start seeing edges appearing in the gray overlay - setting depends on the size of your image. Too big of a setting will impart a 'glow/halo', so you just want to get all the edges you want to sharpen. Click 'ok' and now set the layer to 'soft light' - you can adjust opacity of that layer. Also check 'overlay' and 'hardlight' to see the difference - sharper/crisper - also adjust opacity.

The gray layer of the highpass filter tends to dampen halos - I use it in conjunction with usm/smartsharpen/focus magic by doing them on the one layer first, then duplicating that layer and running highpass (tip from how to wow book - Jack Davis/Ben Willmore).

Another way to do it (the way I do it mostly) is to set the blend 'soft light' prior to going to the high pass filter - this way you can see in the preview the sharpening that is actually happening and I have a pretty good idea where the edges are from experience. Others prefer seeing the edges outlined in gray in the preview.
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Kent

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