Using Levels and Unsharp Mask

Photoshop Levels Tool

Use the Photoshop Levels tool to adjust the lighting in your photos and the Unsharp Mask tool to make fuzzy photographs just a little bit sharper. Crop the part of the photo that you want to use before you make any exposure adjustments in Photoshop. Cropping first in Photoshop before applying any adjustments will not allow any extraneous information to cloud your judgment.

Go to menu item Image - Adjustments - Level(or hit Keys Control + L). The dark triangle triangle sliders under the histogram graph adjusts your dark values. The middle point is the gray tonal ranges and the white triangles are your whites or highlights. Drag your highlights or Darks sliders to where the graph starts. Also drag the middle gray slider to where you think it looks best so that it brings out the best detail and gives it the richness for your image.

You can also try Auto and let Photoshop do the levels for you automatically. It may do a good job and it may not. Click Auto and see what it does. If not cancel it, and start again manually. Click OK when you are satisfied with the Level adjustments you have made to your photo in Photoshop.

Unsharp Mask in Photoshop

Click menu item Filter - Sharpen - Unsharp Mask. The zoomed area in the preview window can be changed by clicking in your photo or dragging in the preview window. The Unsharp Mask settings will be at the previous setting when it was last closed down. Take everything off, drag the sliders to the left all the way. Make sure that the Preview check box is ticked so that adjustments to the Unsharp Mask reflects in your photo.

Drag the Amount to about 95% and now drag Radius to about 4-5 pixels. You can move it further to the right to see how the extremes look, and then bring it back to an aesthetically pleasing setting or value. Now move the Threshold which balances out and softens the effect of the Radius adjustment. Try a Threshold setting of about 10-14 level. Click OK when you are happy with the adjustments to your photo in Photoshop.

Using Levels and Unsharp Mask - Do not delete an over-exposed or under-exposed or blurry photograph until you try this hint. If you do not have the benefit of a professional lighting rig or fancy camera setups, sometimes your digital photos will come out too dark, too light or a little bit blurred. Photoshop willl help you out! Learn how to use the Levels Tool and the Unsharp Mask filter to adjust the lighting and sharpness of a photograph.