High Pass Sharpen — Do you still need to desaturate layers?

Question

Hi,Another sharpening question: for most tutorials I come across on high pass sharpening, desaturating the layer is never mentioned; however, for a minority (but not insignificant) of tutorials it is instructed that you should desaturate the layer so you dont sharpen the colours. Does anyone know if that is just an old outdated method of high pass sharpening or is desaturating the layer still recommended? thanks

D Fosse · Answer

High pass sharpening is itself outdated. It's just Unsharp Mask in raw form, if you want to build it up from the ground manually.

The best modern options are smart sharpen and the ACR filter. Both give you a lot more control. Which one you prefer is mostly down to taste. I use the ACR filter.

Sharpening and exaggerating color artifacts is always a real consideration, whatever the method. So setting the sharpening layer in luminosity mode is always good practice.

Sign up

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Sign in to Adobe Community

To post, reply, or follow discussions, please sign in with your Adobe ID.

Scanning file for viruses.

This file cannot be downloaded