The Old High Pass Filter is Still a Great Tool for Sharpening Photos (VIDEO)
Lately we’ve been featuring tutorials that highlight the versatility of older post-processing tools that have fallen by the wayside as Adobe continues to add new headline-grabbing features to Photoshop, Lightroom, and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). We’re doing this again today in the following video that describes why you should take another look at the efficient High Pass filter sharpening tool.
Instructor Adam Welch says the strength and versality of high pass sharpening “goes well beyond simply making your images look cleaner.” In the next 13-minutes you’ll learn a quick-and-easy method for applying this forgotten tool in three straightforward steps that anyone can master with ease.
Welch calls himself a “nomadic photographist,” who specializes in large-format photography and alternative/historical printing processes. As such, he doesn’t willingly abandon tried-and- true methods that have served him well in the past. He notes that this sharpening method works great with all sorts of images, whether they’re captured with a modern digital camera or on film.
He describes the simple technique like this: “The High Pass Filter sharpens your photos, provides great control over the process, and you really don’t have to know anything about Photoshop because it’s one of the easiest tools around.” He further explains that Photoshop runs a mathematical algorithm to makes pixels in high-contrast areas appear to be sharper.”
Welch pulls up an image in Photoshop 2023 (he also uses the current version) and recommends taking a selective approach targeting specific area within the frame—rather than sharpening the entire image at once. This technique is a bit more involved than global sharpening, but it delivers vastly superior results.
It’s important to make sure a background layer is selected when first getting started. Then you’ll use a keyboard shortcut to duplicate the background layer where you’ll apply the High Pass Filter. “Now you can go back and add a mask to this sharpening layer to selectively sharpen any areas you want” without affecting other portions of the scene.
Now you’re all set and ready to go, and Welch walks through the step-by-step process for getting the job done. As you’ll see, Photoshop’s High Pass Filter is not only very easy to use, but it’s both versatile and very effective for getting the natural-looking results you desire with a minimum of fuss. Once you’re done head over to Welch’s popular Tube channel that contains many more how-to videos for thinking outside the box.
And speaking of overlooked, legacy techniques, don’t miss the tutorial we featured with another image-editing expert who explains why Photoshop’s older Content Aware-Fill tool is still valid today. Then he demonstrates how it may outperform the new Remove tool and Generative Fill for eliminating distractions from your photographs.
