Sharpening

[Steve56]

Hi All,

I've taken this photo :

I'm not entirely satisfied with it as in the bottom left hand corner I have a stem from a plant that is very blurred and it stands out too much.

I'm learning how to use P.S Elements 9 but I'm not sure how to sharpen that particular aspect of the photo.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks for your help.

 

[Trever1t]

Take the photo with a smaller f-stop to increase depth of feild.

Your pup can sure climb steep hills!

 

[Big Mike]

That's not what sharpening does.

When we talk about sharpening, what we are actually doing is increasing local contrast. So in other words, sharpening can give your image more contrast, making the tones & colors stand out from each other...but it will not take something that is blurry (due to motion or focus/DOF) and make it sharp.

I'd suggest reading up on the clone tool (stamp) and the healing tool (brush).

 

[Steve56]

Your pup can sure climb steep hills!

I'm still getting used to my 50mm lens. Just wondered if Post-Processing could improve it as it is difficult getting my dog to do anything other than eat, sleep and walk. lol

Lol, not that steep of a hill. Just tried to angle the camera a little for a different effect. Got bored of the front, straight on, camera position.

Thanks Mike, I'll give that a read.

I've got the Missing Manual for Elements 9 and it's like the bible it's so thick.

 

[Trever1t]

I know. I have a dislike for tilted shots with few exceptions

 

[Steve56]

I know. I have a dislike for tilted shots with few exceptions

Hopefully mine being one of them.

I can understand what you mean if it's over done. Like selective colouring in Black and White photos.

 

[shortpants]

To answer your question, like big mike said you can't sharpen something so out of focus in post processing. You could darken it a bit to blend in with the rest of the grass and make it less obvious.
The tilt is making me feel like I want to hold on for dear life and not fall off the planet. A lot less would be nice!

 

[table1349]

There is nothing you can do for the current photo. Maybe this will help the next time. Understanding Depth of Field in Photography

 

[patrick0294]

try getting rid of it using the clone stamp tool

 

[vtf]

Don't run your 50mm at f1.8. The DOF is crazy narrow wide open. Start at f4-6 for super sharp photos. Anything that close will still be blurry.

 

[KmH]

Sharpening is a complex subject. I recommend you get the book Real World Image Sharpening with Adobe Photoshop, Camera Raw, and Lightroom (2nd Edition)

However, you can use one of the selection tools to select just a portion of the image you want to edit. You can sharpen and/or do other types of edits. I recommend you do that type of edit on it's own layer.

Unfortunately Photoshop Elements has some selection tool and layer masking limitations.

That part of the photo you want to sharpen cannot be sharpened enough to not still be very blurry.

Just quick and dirty, I used the Spot Healing brush in Content-Aware mode in CS5: