Henry,
Here is a method that should help.
1) Duplicate the layer (Layer, Duplicate)
2) Effects, Edge, Find All
Which produces an image which is bright where there are edges and
dark where there are not.
3) Effects, Blur, Gaussian Blur - Radius 4 to 6
This blurs the edge areas so that they include surrounding pixels,
which will also be sharpened.
4) Effects, Enhance Photo, Auto Contrast Adjustment - Neutral,
Normal, Bold.
The image after step 3 will be too dark. This method simply
expands the range of luminosity values. Other techniques could
also be used here.
5) Masks, New, From Image - This Window, Source Luminance.
Your original image will reappear at this point but will look
distinctly odd with the areas to be sharpened pale and washed out.
6) Selection, From Mask
This creates a selection from the mask. Although you will see a
relatively simple marquee, the selection is in fact more complex
and contains gradational information.
7) Layers, Delete
You wil now see your original image with a selection.
8) Layers, Duplicate
9) Effects, Sharpen, Unsharp Mask.
Apply whatever values are appropriate. You will see that the
sharpening only afsects some areas of the image and there is a
smooth gradation from the sharpened to the unsharpened areas.
At this stage you are basically finished and can merge the layers.
I find that the contrast enhancement of the unsharp mask tends to
produce unnatural highlights so I would advise the following:
10) Layers, Properties. Select the Blend Ranges page and, on the
This Layer range, slide the upper right marker to the left -
typically to 200 or 210. This reduces the effect of the sharpened
layer at high luminosities while preserving it at lower
luminosities and to my mind produces a more natural effect.
Chris
