{"id":19132,"date":"2017-05-09T14:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-05-09T21:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/?p=19132"},"modified":"2017-05-07T19:29:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-08T02:29:29","slug":"tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-34","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/2017\/05\/tutorial-tuesday-photoshop-elements-34\/","title":{"rendered":"Tutorial Tuesday (Photoshop Elements)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can This Photo Be Saved?<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Hey there GingerScrappers! I thought this week we’d look at something a little different. With Mother’s Day almost upon us and lots of old photos being pressed into service, I know there are some of you out there who wish your scanned pix were just a little less… blurry. So I’m going to show you a super-duper-simple trick for tightening up those images a bit.<\/p>\n

I started with this photo taken in May, 1955; I found it in a box of my mom’s photos. (No, that isn’t me in there.) First I dealt with the dust spots and scratches using the Spot Healing<\/strong> brush then I was ready to sharpen it.<\/p>\n

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It’s not horrible, but it’s a little… um… soft. So I Duplicate<\/strong>d the image (WSNH= CTRL\/CMD>J<\/strong>).<\/p>\n

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Working on the topmost layer I just created, I clicked on the Filter<\/strong> tab, scrolled down to Other<\/strong> and selected High Pass…<\/strong><\/p>\n

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The Tool menu<\/strong> opens up a dialog box<\/strong> as shown. I selected a Radius<\/strong> of 1.0 pixels<\/strong>. There is now a gray-scale image of my photo, with some details visible.<\/p>\n

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To make this filter adjust the appearance of my photo, I’m going to change the Blend Mode<\/strong> for the topmost layer to Overlay<\/strong>. If you don’t feel there’s been enough sharpening, you can Undo<\/strong>\u00a0(CTRL\/CMD>Z<\/strong>) and increase the Radius<\/strong> until you’re happy. But be careful. A word of caution: Don’t keep adding layers with High Pass filters<\/strong> on top of each other because you’ll end up with something quite bizarre-looking.<\/p>\n

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Can you see the difference between this image and the untouched one? Facial features are a little clearer.<\/p>\n

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By setting the Radius<\/strong> to 3.0 pixels<\/strong>, there’s more detail visible on the filter layer.<\/p>\n

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When you get to the point where the Filter layer<\/strong> looks a lot like the original, it might be time to stop. Too MUCH is not better. Less in this case can actually be more.<\/p>\n

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I was pleased to see that the resulting image was sharp, the contrast was good and my photo now looked a lot better. So I Merge<\/strong>d the two layers (CTRL\/CMD>E<\/strong>) and saved my photo as an edit.<\/p>\n

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I can hear you mumbling about colour photos… so I’m ready for that too! This photo was in the same box, and was taken in 1978.<\/p>\n

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At a Radius<\/strong> of 1.0<\/strong>, there’s faint detail visible, and only gray-scale.<\/p>\n

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It looks a bit better, but not much!<\/p>\n

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At a Radius<\/strong> of 2.0<\/strong>, there’s a faint hint of colour showing through, and a bit more detail.<\/p>\n

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The area that seems to show the most sharpening effect is the window. Notice that the colours are darkening too.<\/p>\n

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The higher I take the Radius<\/strong>, the more colour shows through.<\/p>\n

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What happens if I’m tired of inching up and just make a jump to say… 7.0 pixels<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

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The colours have darkened a lot and some detail is actually lost. To save this one at this degree of sharpening, I’d have to make quite a few tweaks of Lighting<\/strong>, Brightness<\/strong> and Contrast<\/strong> and I run the risk of making the photo look really phony. So I suggest you don’t save this version over the original, but as an edited copy so if you’re sickened by how far you took the image (as I was with some of my Ireland trip photos… blech!) you still have the original and can start over with a lighter hand.<\/p>\n

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I plan to make a layout with the first image for the Inspired by a Word\/Words iNSD challenge<\/strong><\/a> from JoCee Designs<\/strong><\/a>. When it’s finished I’ll add in a link<\/a> so you can see it if you want to.<\/p>\n

In April there were 4 people who linked me up to layouts where they’d used one or more of these tutorials. Ellen<\/strong> had several, but to be fair, she only is on the list once. Mr Random has selected Bekki Braun Fekete<\/strong> (aka bekfek<\/strong>) as this month’s winner. Bekki, put your thinking cap on!<\/p>\n

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Remember, if you\u2019ve used a technique from these tutorials, post your finished layout in the GingerScraps Facebook Tutorial Tuesday Challenge Gallery<\/a> for an opportunity to have YOUR chance to challenge me. If you\u2019re not a Facebooker, you can post a link to the layout you\u2019ve created with the tutorial you used in the comments section here on the Blog. I\u2019ll get a notification and will then enter you into the draw. The first week of each month I\u2019ll have a random draw of all entries and the winner will be announced at the end of the first tutorial of that month.<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n

Next week’s tutorial will be for Michelle\u00a0<\/strong>(aka Belis2mi<\/strong>). She needs some help with organization, so stay tuned. You might find a tip or two you can use!<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can This Photo Be Saved? Hey there GingerScrappers! I thought this week we’d look at something a little different. With Mother’s Day almost upon us and lots of old photos being pressed into service, I know there are some of you out there who wish your scanned pix were just a little less… blurry. So […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":42,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[92,62],"tags":[373],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-28 15:48:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"private","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category"},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19132"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/42"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19132"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19159,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19132\/revisions\/19159"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gingerscraps.net\/gsblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}