unsharp mask in photoshop

Forum|Forum|6 years ago
June 25, 2019
6 replies
719 views

having an issue with USM in PS. after resizing a file I open USM, sharpen then when I apply the filter and close USM the image immediately goes soft. Whether it retains any of the sharpening I can't tell. I have tried resetting all tools and resetting preferences when quitting PS but nothing has worked so far and smart sharpen doesn't seem to work at all. I thought about reinstalling PS but I'm not sure exactly what that involves. Thanks for any help.

usm

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D Fosse

Community Expert

And that's important not just for sharpening, but also tonal adjustments if the image contains sharp pixel transitions, such as noise, halftone screens, line art and so on. The same on-screen softening/resampling causes the preview to be unreliable.

The shortcut ctrl/cmd+1, which goes to 100%, should be hard-wired into your spinal cord. Hit it immediately when in doubt.

@mj

Community Expert

Agree with davescm.

View your work at 100%

davescm

Community Expert

Are you viewing the 'after' at 100% zoom?. It is the only way to judge sharpening.

At zoom levels less than 100% the pixels have to be merged on screen which softens them. In addition at less than 66.7% Photoshop uses 8 bit previews to make the on screen composite preview. This is done for speed.

In short check at 100%.

Dave