Soft, burry photos are the bane of all photographers regardless of the type of photos they shoot. One way to fix things is using Photoshop’s High Pass filter as you saw in last week’s tutorial from the LAYRS YouTube channel.

Today’ five-minute lesson from LAYRS demonstrates another way to get the job done with Photoshop’s more commonly used “Unsharp Mask tool. The first demonstration image is an eye-catching portrait, but there’s no denying that the photo is slightly soft—thereby limiting its impact.

The unnamed instructor has a simple motto: “Save, save, save, or convert, convert, convert.” That’s why he begins by converting the image for Smart Filters—just in case you need to edit the image further in the future. Now you’re ready to use the Unsharp Mask tool which is found by clicking the Filter tab atop the screen, choosing Sharpen from the first dropdown menu that appears, and then selecting Unsharp Mask from the secondary list of options.

Some photographers ignore this tool because the name Unsharp Mask sounds counterproductive—but it’s definitely not. The instructor provides this quick explanation: “Unsharp Mask doesn’t actually add anything to a photo. It basically enhances edges and pulls out contrast—thus making the image appear sharper.”

You’ll notice three simple sliders once you open the Unsharp Mask panel; one labeled Amount, another called Radius, and the third identified as Threshold. You’ll see how each of these work, separately and in tandem—and receive a warning about taking the Radius slider too far. Remember, the goal is to eliminate softness, while retaining a natural look so the image doesn’t appear “overcooked.”

Check out the before/after examples and the stunning improvement that was achieved, through the judicious use of three sliders. The instructor suggests that you zoom in on the eyeglasses to appreciate the significant improvement.

The process is repeated with a second portrait that’s also somewhat soft—just so you’ll remember how this simple technique works. After watching the video take a look at the LAYRS instructional YouTube channel.

And don’t forget to watch the tutorial mentioned above so you can also give Photoshop’s High Pass filter a try the next time you want to sharpen up a photograph.

This quick tutorial begins with two important questions; 1) “does Photoshop’s Home Screen appear every time you launch the program?” And, if so, “does the Home Screen really serve a purpose?”

In today’s three-minute tutorial from the folks at Photoshop Essentials you’ll learn why to turn off the screen so it doesn’t appear automatically, and how to turn it on whenever you need it. Instructor Steve Patterson’s channel has almost 200,000 subscribers, as well as hundreds of image-editing tutorials on basic image-editing techniques.

The Home Screen looks very different from the familiar Photoshop interface, and it changes from time to time. What you’ll typically see is a Tutorials area at the top and thumbnails of your recent files at the bottom. The main purpose of the Home Screen, however, is to enable you to create a new Photoshop document, or open an existing file.

So what’s the problem? Patterson explains that “you can already do that by clicking on the File tab atop the workspace and choosing either New or Open from a dropdown menu that appears. You an even access your files with another of the several options. According to Patterson, “that’s why many Photoshop users feel that the Home Screen just gets in the way.”

Patterson notes how easy it is to access the home screen if it’s turned off by default, like if you want to look at the thumbnails. But first let’s turn the Home Screen off by going to Photoshop’s Preferences panel. Doing this is about as easy as it gets, but the procedure differs depending upon whether you’re working on a Mac or PC.

But here’s the trick: It’s necessary to open and close a Photoshop document for the above change to take effect. Then when you close and reopen Photoshop the home screen is gone. You can view the Home Screen whenever you want, simply by clicking the Home icon on the top left of the workspace.

Getting back to your workspace with the Home Screen temporarily opened is just as fast and easy to do. Just click on the Photoshop icon on the top left of the screen, and everything is back to normal. And the change in Preferences you made previously remain in effect the next time you launch Photoshop—no Home Screen will appear.

For those new to Photoshop we strongly recommend paying a visit to Patterson’s YouTube channel, where you’ll find a wealth of information for expanding your image-editing skills.

And don’t miss another primer that we posted earlier, explaining how to use Photoshop’s versatile Eyedropper tool to quickly give your images precise colors.