Operation Manual

Working with the Edge Sharpen Controls
You use the Edge Sharpen controls when you want to sharpen the detail in your image.
Images shot with digital image sensors are often a bit soft in focus because of the demosaic
filter applied by the camera’s processor. The Edge Sharpen controls adjust the luminance
values in the image, increasing the contrast between light and dark pixels that touch,
creating an “edge.” Increasing the contrast between these neighboring light and dark
pixels gives the image a crisper, or sharper, appearance. You also use the Edge Sharpen
controls when you make noise-reduction adjustments, so that the image retains detail
and crisp edges that might otherwise be obscured by the effect of the noise-reduction
adjustment.
Before Edge Sharpen adjustment After Edge Sharpen adjustment
Important: The Edge Sharpen controls are not designed to correct images that were shot
out of focus. They are designed to help mitigate the effects of the camera’s demosaic
filter, as well as maintain image detail when noise-reduction adjustments are applied.
Edge Sharpen adjustments can also compensate for the softening that occurs with some
printing processes.
To sharpen an image using the Edge Sharpen controls
1 Select an image.
2 If the Edge Sharpen controls are not shown in the Adjustments inspector or the
Adjustments pane of the Inspector HUD, choose Edge Sharpen from the Adjustments
pop-up menu (or press Control-S).
3 Sharpen the image by doing one of the following:
• Drag the Intensity slider to the right to increase the amount of sharpening applied to
the image, and drag the slider back to the left to reduce the amount of sharpening.
576 Chapter 17 Making Image Adjustments