User Manual

Soften and Sharpen (Studio Version Only)
A variation of the Sharpen filter that’s streamlined for letting you both smooth some details and
add sharpness to other details of the image based on the size of the structures. It can be used
with any image for which you want to smooth some features while sharpening others, but this is
an operation that’s often used for minimizing unwanted blemishes, wrinkles, or scarring when
used within a window or qualifier that’s isolating the skin.
The advantage of using Soften and Sharpen is that you can use the Small Texture slider to
leave a bit of natural skin detail intact, such as pores and other small naturalistic details, while
you use the Medium and Large Texture controls to smooth out unwanted details in whatever
proportion gives you a naturalistic result.
TIP: The best way to achieve a more natural result is to leave Small Texture at 0 or just
above, while reducing Medium Texture just enough to minimize whatever details merit
minimizing and reducing Large Texture by somewhat less to minimize larger blemishes,
while leaving overall face detail intact. This is the logic behind the default values of
Small 0.000, Medium –0.800, and Large –0.300.
Main Controls
Each of the Small, Medium, and Large Texture sliders can be moved into both negative and
positive values. A value of 0 means no change is made to the corresponding details of the
image. Negative values remove the corresponding details from the image, eventually leaving
only the underlying smooth structure of the image at –1.000. Positive values add sharpness to
the corresponding details of the image, to a maximum value of 1.000.
 Small Texture: Affects extremely fine detail such as skin pores and strands of hair.
 Medium Texture: Impacts coarser detail such as freckles, wrinkles, and clusters of hair.
 Large Texture: Affects the largest details in the image such as eyelids, eyebrows, the
edges of lips and noses, and the edges where hair meets the face.
TIP: What’s identifiable as a small, medium, or large structure depends in large part on
how the subject of the shot is framed. These structures differ depending on whether
you’re grading a subject in a long shot (where they appear small) versus a subject in
closeup (where they appear large).
Adjust Small Skin Texture Granularity
This control lets you adjust the distinction between the Small and Medium/Large texture
controls in the previous group of controls.
 Small Texture Size: Defines the threshold that differentiates Small Textures from
Medium and Large Textures, to help you fine-tune the Small Texture that you want to
preserve. Raising this value includes more of the image as small details, while lowering
this value excludes more of the image from small details.
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