Unsharp mask more than once?

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

monte12345 · Sep 23, 2025

At some point any additional sharpening will end up with ugly edges in the image and a clear indication that it's been "fixed". I also think that there are times when the best approach is to "own the Image" flaws and all. As history going back to the Neanderthals scratching on cave walls great images don't have to be perfect, all they need is to convey a message that is best described with an image. If you have an image that you think could be great if not for some flaw take a step back and look at that image and think about if those flaws are actually have a negative effect.

dbdalrymple · Sep 23, 2025

Shinnen said:
Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

With some software you can crank sharpening up until it produces halos. You can also turn it down below that level and do two passes without halos.

Test your software and your likes for yourself.

Dale Dalrymple

Gato Amarillo · Sep 23, 2025

dbdalrymple said:
Shinnen said:

Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

Click to expand...

With some software you can crank sharpening up until it produces halos. You can also turn it down below that level and do two passes without halos.

Test your software and your likes for yourself.

Dale Dalrymple

Pretty much what I was going to say. It's easy enough to test for yourself.

You may find one way works better for you, or you may find that different images call for different techniques.

A couple of random tips on USM -

-As a rule, keep the radius low and let the amount go high if needed.

-If it looks just a little overcooked at 100% view, but looks good at 50% you've done all you can do.

I got those years ago from Ctein at The Online Photographer blog and they have worked for me.

Gato

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

Gato Amarillo said:
dbdalrymple said:

Shinnen said:

Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

Click to expand...

With some software you can crank sharpening up until it produces halos. You can also turn it down below that level and do two passes without halos.

Test your software and your likes for yourself.

Dale Dalrymple

Click to expand...

Pretty much what I was going to say. It's easy enough to test for yourself.

You may find one way works better for you, or you may find that different images call for different techniques.

A couple of random tips on USM -

-As a rule, keep the radius low and let the amount go high if needed.

-If it looks just a little overcooked at 100% view, but looks good at 50% you've done all you can do.

I got those years ago from Ctein at The Online Photographer blog and they have worked for me.

Gato

Hi again,

I probably should have phrased this question differently; something like 'Has anyone discovered that double, triple, ?? sharpening produces better results than single sharpening?

........ john

Ron Poelman · Sep 23, 2025

Shinnen said:
I probably should have phrased this question differently; something like 'Has anyone discovered that double, triple, ?? sharpening produces better results than single sharpening?

........ john

how many times you are prepared to resave a JPEG file.
Four is believed to be a reasonable limit before IQ degrades.
The technique itself is no rubber stamp.
Different pixel counts, different software, different workflow and settings will all vary.
You should probably run a few simple tests on your setup to see if there's any magic there.
I haven't found any, personally.
Best here is to get the default sharpening out of RAW as near as I can, finish all the work on the shot (important) then do a final single sharpen.

Ruby Rod · Sep 23, 2025

Save as few times as possible or work from a giant lossless TIFF. The number of times you can resave a jpeg depends on the compression level, which you can almost always set. At a high compression saving it once might be too much! I remember hearing there was sometimes an improvement by using less USM and doing it twice or more. Easy enough to try and prove or disprove it.

SoCalAngler · Sep 23, 2025

Shinnen said:
Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

You may find this interesting. Thom discusses multiple unsharp passes as well as some some different types of sharpening. It is an older article so some of the Photoshop instructions may have changed a bit.

Sharpening | Cameras and Photography Explained | Thom Hogan

All about sharpening digital photographs

www.bythom.com

ishwanu · Sep 23, 2025

Shinnen said:
I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

I understand your question to be once at 'normal' level vs twice at half-normal level. Correct?

Also, people responding with comments about saving a JPEG multiple times are missing the point instead of addressing the question. Two passes of sharpening at half-normal level can be done immediately without saving or re-opening at all in between.

Ron Poelman · Sep 23, 2025

ishwanu said:
Also, people responding with comments about saving a JPEG multiple times are missing the point instead of addressing the question.

Doesn't that need testing ?
Whether the user saves the file or the software does, (as the previous state), the actions are still being stacked ?

Gato Amarillo · Sep 23, 2025

Ron Poelman said:
Shinnen said:

I probably should have phrased this question differently; something like 'Has anyone discovered that double, triple, ?? sharpening produces better results than single sharpening?

........ john

Click to expand...

how many times you are prepared to resave a JPEG file.
Four is believed to be a reasonable limit before IQ degrades.
The technique itself is no rubber stamp.
Different pixel counts, different software, different workflow and settings will all vary.
You should probably run a few simple tests on your setup to see if there's any magic there.
I haven't found any, personally.
Best here is to get the default sharpening out of RAW as near as I can, finish all the work on the shot (important) then do a final single sharpen.

I didn't see anything talking about JPEGs

Ron Poelman · Sep 23, 2025

Gato Amarillo said:
I didn't see anything talking about JPEGs

You do your final sharpen in RAW ?

Guy Parsons · Sep 23, 2025

Gato Amarillo said:
dbdalrymple said:

Shinnen said:

Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

Click to expand...

With some software you can crank sharpening up until it produces halos. You can also turn it down below that level and do two passes without halos.

Test your software and your likes for yourself.

Dale Dalrymple

Click to expand...

Pretty much what I was going to say. It's easy enough to test for yourself.

You may find one way works better for you, or you may find that different images call for different techniques.

A couple of random tips on USM -

-As a rule, keep the radius low and let the amount go high if needed.

-If it looks just a little overcooked at 100% view, but looks good at 50% you've done all you can do.

I got those years ago from Ctein at The Online Photographer blog and they have worked for me.

Gato

Years ago after mucho experimentation I settled on Unsharp mask settings that gave me results that I liked. I use this on everything, low MP to high MP.

Radius always 0.3 pixel, Amount/Intensity varies like crazy depending on image, also the use it may be put to.

I grew up in digital hating the lousy edges seen in most digital images, often glaring edge halos, so settled on the 0.3 radius as a way to avoid that during the raw conversion.

Gato Amarillo · Sep 23, 2025

Ron Poelman said:
Gato Amarillo said:

I didn't see anything talking about JPEGs

Click to expand...

You do your final sharpen in RAW ?

Generally in Photoshop with a PSD file -- before conversion to JPEG or other final format.

jalywol · Sep 23, 2025

When I was using the Panasonic 100-300mm, a nice enough moderately priced long lens, for sure, I frequently did a double sharpen.

The lens tended to be a bit soft out at full tele, so my standard treatment was to really goose the first sharpen, but at very small radius (0.4), amount up at about 250, and then do a careful second sharpen, with radius of usually around 1.1, and amount at whatever looked the best (anywhere from about 50-70).

Worked really well for that lens.

I still will sometimes do a double sharpen, with the very small radius, on other lenses too, even now, but it really depends on the lens and the subject. With birds, doing this kind of double sharpen can sometimes do a great thing with feather detail, if you are very careful not to overdo the second sharpen.

-J

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

SoCalAngler said:
Shinnen said:

Hi all,

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

...... john

Click to expand...

You may find this interesting. Thom discusses multiple unsharp passes as well as some some different types of sharpening. It is an older article so some of the Photoshop instructions may have changed a bit.

https://www.bythom.com/technique/post-processing/sharpening.html

Thanks for the shortcut. I'll check it out.

...... john

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

ishwanu said:
Shinnen said:

I was reading about unsharp mask today, and ran across a post where someone suggested doing it twice of the same photo at low levels. He felt that it gave him a better result. I've only ever applied it once on a photo. Is more than once more effective?

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Click to expand...

I understand your question to be once at 'normal' level vs twice at half-normal level. Correct?

Also, people responding with comments about saving a JPEG multiple times are missing the point instead of addressing the question. Two passes of sharpening at half-normal level can be done immediately without saving or re-opening at all in between.

Hi ishwanu,

I'm not really sure if two at half of one pass level is best. That's one of the things I was wondering about. Perhaps two at one quarter would be better; I have no idea.

.... john

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

Ron Poelman said:
ishwanu said:

Also, people responding with comments about saving a JPEG multiple times are missing the point instead of addressing the question.

Click to expand...

Doesn't that need testing ?
Whether the user saves the file or the software does, (as the previous state), the actions are still being stacked ?

Yes, of course it requires testing. I'm simply wondering if anyone has tried two or more passes and felt it was an improvement over one.

....... john

Shinnen · Sep 23, 2025

jalywol said:
When I was using the Panasonic 100-300mm, a nice enough moderately priced long lens, for sure, I frequently did a double sharpen.

The lens tended to be a bit soft out at full tele, so my standard treatment was to really goose the first sharpen, but at very small radius (0.4), amount up at about 250, and then do a careful second sharpen, with radius of usually around 1.1, and amount at whatever looked the best (anywhere from about 50-70).

Worked really well for that lens.

I still will sometimes do a double sharpen, with the very small radius, on other lenses too, even now, but it really depends on the lens and the subject. With birds, doing this kind of double sharpen can sometimes do a great thing with feather detail, if you are very careful not to overdo the second sharpen.

-J

Well, that's very interesting. So, what it boils down to is that it's dependent on many factors, not a one size fits all formula; but it does show promise.

Thanks,

.... john

ishwanu · Sep 23, 2025

Ron Poelman said:
ishwanu said:

Also, people responding with comments about saving a JPEG multiple times are missing the point instead of addressing the question.

Click to expand...

Doesn't that need testing ?

What testing?

Ron Poelman said:
Whether the user saves the file or the software does, (as the previous state), the actions are still being stacked ?

Software does not save a file (at least not permanently) until you tell it to save a file and close the working session. Simply do not do that and there is no 'extra' JPEG compression happening to the image you're working on, so it's a non-issue.

My assumption in this thread is that the software can stack unsharp mask multiple times in a session, so If you don't like the result you see during the editing session, just undo it.

But if your software only allows applying unsharp mask one time per session, then you would ideally save the first pass in a lossless format before re-opening it for the second pass. That sounds kind of cumbersome in practice, so I imagine you might as well avoid the two-pass approach with such software.

Unsharp mask more than once?

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