There are many ways to sharpen an image in Photoshop (and other photo editors), some are built-in, others need a few steps using Photoshop's tools to get there. Here's one popular method, "Luminosity Sharpening", as described by Club member George Hay (the main benefit of this particular method is that it can reduce the coloured halos around edges that other sharpening methods produce). This should work with any Photoshop version from CS onward, but not with Photoshop Elements.

1. Open the image in Photoshop.
2. Image should be in RGB Mode (it almost certainly will be, but you can check under the Image and Mode menu).
3. Apply an Unsharp Mask (Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask) using the settings, Amount: 125, Radius: 1, and Threshold: 3 (you change the values to your own preference, these are a good starting point).
4. After applying the sharpening go to Edit Menu and choose Fade Unsharp Mask.
5. Ignore the Opacity slider and change the Mode Pop-up Menu from Normal to Luminosity. By doing this the sharpening is only applied to the Luminosity areas of your image. Click the OK button to apply the sharpening.

You can make the above technique into an Photoshop action making it easy to apply it on every image you process.

[Editor's note: For anyone using Affinity Photo instead of Photoshop, the steps are the same except that "Amount" in the "Unsharp Mask dialog is named "Factor" and the "Fade" option is under the "Layer" menu. Notice that for either program you must select "Fade" immediately after applying the "Unsharp Mask"]

These are the results of the "one photo" challenge where members receive a set of digital images and are asked to produce their own interpretations of them. (I know, the title says "one photo" but we've expanded it to 5 images now as the previous events were so popular). So, here are the original images - as a single composite.

And here are what the members did with these - click on each to see a larger version.

This "how-to" uses Photoshop CS6 to create a Lomograph effect. A Lomograph is created by processing slide film in negative chemicals, and print film in slide chemicals. Here are the before (on the left) and the after (on the right) images - click on them for a larger version.

The start image has been adjusted a little in Photoshop before starting on this process.

1 – Load your image into Photoshop
2 – Click the icon at top of layers palette, and select Convert to Smart Object convert the image into a Smart Object, this will allow non-destructive adjustment to the image as well as allowing adjustments to be adjusted.
3 – Go to the Filter menu and choose Lens Correction.
4 – Click on the Custom Tag and adjust the Vignette Slider all the way to the left, then click OK.
5 – Go to the Filter menu and select Blur Gallery, choose Iris Blur.
6- On the image adjust the Blur by placing the cursor on the Ring, and drag to near the edge of the image.
7 – To adjust the amount of blur, drag the Blur Slider or Type in the amount. I used a value of 5px then click OK at the top of the frame.
8 – Next go to the Filter menu and choose Sharpen, and then select Unsharp Mask. Set unsharp mask Amount to 80%, the Radius to 2.0 pixels, and adjust the Threshold to 0, click OK. This will add contrast to all the edges.
9 – Click the Adjustment Layer icon and choose Colour Lookup. Click on the Load3DLUT menu and choose filmstock_50.3dl.
10 – Click the Adjustment Layer icon again and click Photo Filter, I used Cooling Filter(82). You can experiment with the other filters too.
11 – Next I added a few Light Leaks. Make a new layer and change the Blend Mode to Linear Dodge.
12 – Select the Brush Tool and set the Hardness to 0, and the Opacity to 40%, and the Size to 600 pixels
13 – Change the Foreground Colour to Bright Red.
14 – Finally use the Brush Tool to click around the image to get your desired effect.

by George Hay

[This post shows how one of the images in last month's Club competitions was produced.]
The start image in this guide was a jpeg. The original I used for the actual image was a RAW file. The steps described here are the same. The original image is the colour one shown at the left and the final image is on the right - click on the images to see larger versions.

Step 1 - Load image into Lightroom.

Step 2 - I adjusted the BLACK and WHITE sliders while holding down the ALT key to get the effect I wanted.
Step 3 - I moved the HIGHLIGHT slider all the way to the left.
Step 4 - I adjusted the lens correction to lens used.

Step 7 - The image was then opened in Photoshop.
Step 8- The clone tool was then used to repair damaged edges and flaws on the leaves.

Step 11 - The finished image was then saved as a jpeg at the right size for the Club's competitions.

by George Hay

Photography means ‘writing with light’  But writing needs control.  In photography one of these controls is the combination of aperture and shutter speed:  EV or "exposure value".

Historically a problem encountered by beginners is understanding apertures and shutter speeds. Manufacturers have come to your aid by evolving automated exposure controls; aperture priority, shutter priority, program, matrix, spot, multi segment + different names for the same function by different manufacturers. The cure is now more complex than the problem.

Aperture/ shutter speeds  - ½ and third stops.

The concept of apertures and shutter speeds is fairly easy to understand. Let me draw a parallel:
Buy a camera - cost £100, but you need to save up for it.
    £50/wk for   2wks
    £  2/wk for 50wks
    £25/wk for  4wks
    £  4/wk for 25wks  or any combination in between.
This is a combination of Quantity and Time:
Quantity is aperture        
Time is shutter speed
Let’s look at them individually and take the easier one first

Shutter Speeds

1. Numbers range from at least 1 to 1000 + B (or "Bulb")
2. Fractions of a second  1/30  or 1/60  or 1/125  or 1/250  each more or less double or half its neighbour
   

Apertures

1. Numbers range from f2 to f22, eg. f4  or  f5.6  or f8  or  f11
2. Apertures are also doubles/halves, but not obvious.

Which way to move?

You will make mistakes!!

Let's say the ‘Correct exposure’ for a scene is 125th sec @ f8.
    1 stop      60th   @ f11
    1 stop      250th @ f5.6
    2 stops    500th @ f4
    2 stops      30th  @ f16
    3 stops   1000th @ f2.8
     3 stops    15th    @ f22

All these combinations will give the same exposure - but not the same effect.

ISO ratings

Scale refers to sensitivity of CCD - the higher the number the quicker the response.
Low number - 25 ISO slow
High number - 800 ISO fast

100  200  400  800 etc.    also doubles/halves.

Higher number leads to grain/digital noise

Definition - Exposure is the amount of light allowed to reach  a CCD via a combination of aperture and shutter speed.

Conclusion - Aperture and shutter speed is the way light is controlled to enable an exposure to be made.

by Neil Blair

Here's a simple way to add a border to the edge of an image using any flavour of Photoshop (Elements or Photoshop itself):

1. select the marquee tool (the dotted square) and use it to select the entire image (alternatively choose "Select" then "All" from the top menu bar)
2. from the top menu bar select "Edit" then "Stroke (Outline) Selection"
3. set the "Width" to however wide you want the border to be, for example 3 for a narrow border, 15 for a wider one (notice you can set the width in pixels by typing "3 px", millimetres as "3 mm" or inches as "0.1 in", if you just type the number, Photoshop will use a width in pixels)
4. select a colour for the border by clicking on the coloured square labelled "Color"
5. set the "Location" to "Inside"
6. click "OK"

If your first border is thick enough, you can make a double border by repeating the steps above but choosing a different colour and a smaller thickness, the result will then look like the image below (showing the "marquee" tool) - using first a 3 pixel black border then a 1 pixel green one.

by Neil Blair