Sharpen Part of an Image

[Pookat]

I have an imagre where there are 2 subjects.  One is blurred by the light behind him which is OK.  The other is a baby and I want to sharpen and brighten that part of the image.  Need help on how to do it.  TIA  Pat

[jane-e]

• Create a Smart Object
• Add the sharpen filter
• Apply a layer mask and paint with black on the mask (not the image) to hide the parts of the image you don't want to have the filter.

[Stephen_A_Marsh]

Without seeing a copy of the image it is hard to comment, however, from the description I would suggest concentrating on the tonal range that the baby resides in first, and then look at sharpening second. It sounds as if the exposure has been affected by the background lighting, leaving the baby underexposed.

Do you have a raw camera image file?

I'd look at using the shadow/highlight command judiciously to open the up the shadows and darken the highlights, in preparation for global tonal range adjustments. Then using curves to target the tonal range for the baby and steepen the curve between these points. Then and only then would I look at localised corrections to tonality and sharpness.