Curves

mitsugirly · Mar 16, 2009

Do most of you use curves to sharpen an image or do you usually use the smart sharpen on your pictures?

I've never worked with curves yet in PS (I'm still learning all the functions of PS) and I just discovered how to do the curves to sharpen the image and was really proud of myself. (Although I don't know if I'm doing them correctly, but I know they looked a lot better than when they were shot).

Samanax · Mar 16, 2009

mitsugirly said:
Do most of you use curves to sharpen an image or do you usually use the smart sharpen on your pictures?

I've never worked with curves yet in PS (I'm still learning all the functions of PS) and I just discovered how to do the curves to sharpen the image and was really proud of myself. (Although I don't know if I'm doing them correctly, but I know they looked a lot better than when they were shot).

Curves to sharpen?

Dao · Mar 16, 2009

Samanax said:
Curves to sharpen?

+1

And for me, I usually just use the regular sharpen tool or the Unsharpen Mask.

rufus5150 · Mar 16, 2009

Curves can vastly influence color balance and tonal contrast, but it generally won't affect edge sharpness by a massive degree. There are tools appropriate to edge sharpness -- which is what we refer to generally when we say an image is 'sharp'. Un-sharp mask is the reigning king of sharpening tools, but smart sharpen and sharpen edges all of their use.

You could, theoretically, use curves and masks to properly sharpen an image, but it'd be about 2010 before you had an image finished.

TheSon · Mar 16, 2009

I sharpen in Lightroom with the Detail category.

I use the curves to adjust light and contrast.

I haven't been using PS that much lately. I like the ease and simplicity of LR better...

Big Mike · Mar 17, 2009

I use curves (along with levels) to add or tweak contrast.

Command Primer

Slaphead · Mar 17, 2009

Trying not to hijack the thread, but why the hell do they call it "unsharp mask"? - It sharpens and does not make a picture unsharp. This question has been in the back of my mind for years, but I never got around to asking - until now