Personalizing Phillip's High Pass Sharpening Technique

[Kevin]

I posted this shot below on another forum and Andreás noticed a slight blunder I made while post processing. We had some dialog back and forth and it resulted in me deciding to do a mini-tutorial, based on Phillip's High Pass Sharpening Technique, but with some slight modifications that I've been experimenting with.

The blunder that Andreás noticed was that the bird looked too sharp for the background and it stuck out too much. The mistake I made was in applying a slight blur to the background but not "applying" a fake dof. The background was excessively busy and my intent was to tone it down ever so lightly (by applying a 3pixel Gaussian blur). Old eagle eyes noticed so at the end I'll show you how you could technically "fix" this.

Here's the shot in question
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/VieraLGHMatte.jpg

This is probably a rather difficult type of shot to use this method but I am still experimenting with it to see how I like it. So far, I really do. If you decide to try this, use a shot where you have a white bird against a sky or water or something easier.

Step 1 So what I did after doing my levels or curves adjustment and any other things that might need to be done is to select the Magic Wand and click on the bird. After the 1st click with mouse, hold the shift key down and continue clicking on different parts of the bird. As you do this, similar colors to the color your clicking on will be selected and you'll see the bird look like the image below with the "marching ants". You'll notice I have the Magic Wand selected in my tool palette and I left the tool on the screen just under the beak/neck area so you can see what it looks like if you're not familiar with it. So here's what it looks like after step 1:
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep1.jpg

Step 2 Don't worry if you don't get all the bird with the wand or even if some of the area outside the bird gets selected, we'll fix that next. The next thing I do is to select the Quick Mask button which is directly under your 2 colored squares on the Toolbox Palette. There's a white rectangle with a circle and a dark rectangle with a circle. Click the dark rectangle with the circle. The image will look like the one below. Now, change your tool to the paint brush (also shown as selected in the screenshot) and change your colors to foreground=white. [tip: Hit the letter "D" on your keyboard to automatically reset your colors to foreground=black and background=white. To reverse the colors, hit the "X" key.] The quick mask will reveal the areas that you selected with the wand and allow you to see the actual colors. What wasn't selected will be masked out in Red. Using the Brush tool with white paint, start painting over the bird to remove any "red mask". I left some red on the bird so you can see. I paint over those areas and they disappear. If the wand grabbed areas outside the bird, hit the "X" key to change the brush color to black and brush over the areas outside the bird to mask them. Use the "[" key to make your brush smaller or "]" to make it larger as you brush.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep2.jpg

Step 3 Once you've masked everything in/out, click the white rectangle with the circle to return to "Standard Mode" which will outline your bird with "marching ants". At this point you'll see if you missed any spots that need correcting. If so, click the dark rectangle again and repaint as necessary then return to the white rectangle.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep3.jpg

Step 4 With the bird still having the marching ants, hit Ctrl+J to duplicate your selection into a separate layer. Then go to the menu at the top and select Filter->Other->High Pass You'll notice in the image at the bottom right that my bird layer is selected and the filter will be applied to that layer, not the background.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep4.jpg

Step 5 I use Phillip's suggested setting of around 5 (on a 8 mp file). You'll see what happens to your image on the screenshot below. I've also included an inset surrounded by red which is my layer's palette after I click "OK" and apply the High Pass Filter. Once you click ok, go to the dropdown box in your Layer's Palette and change the blend mode to "Overlay". The "greyness" will go away and your bird will be nice and sharp.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep5.jpg

That's all there is to it. You can stop here but I'm going to continue to show how I can rectify the problem I created with the original image.

....cont....

[Kevin]

...cont....

So what I did on the original image was to apply a Gaussian Blur to just the background layer to soften the distractions a bit. There's a trick to doing this very easily but you must follow very closely.

Step 6Make sure your bird layer has focus, meaning click on it in the Layer's Palette so it looks highlighted in blue. Then go to the Menu at the top and select Select->Load Selection... This will bring back the Marching Ants around the bird and will exactly duplicate your previous selection process. Now, the trick. Before you do anything else, click on the background layer, then click Ctrl+Shift+I. This will inverse your selection and select everything EXCEPT the bird. Now do a Ctrl+J to duplicate your selection into a new layer. This will copy just your background into a separate layer. Now you can do whatever you want to that layer.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep6.jpg

Step 7 I went into Filter->Blur->Gaussian Blur to apply a blur to the layer. I set it to 3 pixels (though in this example to make it stand out more, I increased the value. I'm also working on a much smaller web resized image so the effect is more dramatic.) You'll notice on this screenshot in the Layer's Palette that my newly created layer is also there. Click OK to accept the blur and apply it to the layer.
http://www.kevinpaavola.com/NikonCafe/MaskStep7.jpg

Step 8 You can see how unrealistic this effect looks so we need to fix this. Again, keep in mind the effect is greatly exagerated for illustration purposes only. There's a couple of ways to "adjust" this blur and create a fake dof appearance. I can work directly on this layer and use the Eraser Tool, set it to a very low opacity at the top just under the menu bar, and erase away the effect gradually. To do this you have to use your head and artistic eye and imagine what it would actually look like. In this shot, I would start erasing near his feet and work out to either side.

Another way to do this would be to work on a layer mask. To do that, simply click the icon in the bottom of the Layer's Paletter that is the shape of a rectangle with a circle in it. Should be the 3rd from the left. This will be a white filled mask which reveals the blurred effect. Select your brush tool and select black as your brush color and make sure the opacity is set very low, like 5-10%. Then start brushing to bring back the sharpness near the feet of the bird and any reeds that you think should be sharper. If you mess up, switch your brush to white and paint over your mistake, switch back to black and reapply the effect.

And that's it. Hopefully this hasn't been too terribly difficult to follow along. If you have questions, please let me know.

[David Cramer]

Kevin - This is a great tutorial. Thanks much for the work you put into it and for sharing it with us. I've used a very similar approach in adding blur to the background so the subject pops more. The images I've used it on were flying birds, and there was no foregroung to account for. The image you are presenting has both foreground and background, which makes it a more difficult image. I think part of what made the bird look "too sharp" was that you do not have an entire line of the focal plane going across the image. In a true example of dof, there would be a horizontal line of in focus reeds across the image, that also feel into the focal plane with the bird. Then you would also have some out of focus foreground and background. I wonder how the image would look if you applied a focal plane from left to right at the foot of the bird. I can visualize this much better than I could do it, as my PS skills could stand a great deal of improvement.

[Kevin]

I wonder how the image would look if you applied a focal plane from left to right at the foot of the bird. I can visualize this much better than I could do it, as my PS skills could stand a great deal of improvement.
Thanks David! I hope there are some skillsets in here that others can use for other applications of post processing.

That what you're asking is what I outlined in Step 8. Creating the illusion of dof could be done by erasing the blur or more easily by applying a mask then brushing in/out the effect. To be honest, I did the additional steps but then abandoned a "finished product" screenshot. This image is not a good image to even attempt the blur on, partly because of the reasons you state. If this were really a keeper shot, personally I would apply a blur then add a black mask and with a white brush set to very low opacity, selectively apply a blur to some of the offending/distracting reeds.

But all in all, I thought this exercise was a good one to illlustrate some additional techniques. :)

[David Cramer]

I think this was a very good exercise and illustration too, and I really appreciate your time devoted to it. Now we should try it on a heron with a better haircut!!!

[Kevin]

I'm planning on staying home tomorrow. Maybe I'll dig out an Egret in flight and try a variety of sharpening techniques and see which looks best. I'll post each up for comparison.

[Keith]

Great job with this illustration Kevin, well thought out and communicated!! Interesting how we can get to the end result but different paths in getting there. Stimulates some new ideas :)