test 1 Practical Photoshop - April 2018 UK | Page 18

5 CHANGE THE DEFAULTS Lightroom and Camera Raw apply a default sharpening amount of 25 to raws (but not to JPEGs). You can tailor these defaults, or turn them of. Click the Reset button, input your new values, then hold Alt and click the Set Defaults button. 6 TYPICAL VALUES When you’re judging sharpening strength, you should usually aim to keep Amount in the range of 80-130, with Radius between 0.8 and 1.5. Subject is a major factor in this – landscapes and detail-rich images tend to need a higher Amount setting and a lower Radius, while portraits typically require a lower Amount and higher Radius. 7 DON’T SHARPEN EVERYTHING Many images will have detail-free or out- of-focus parts that don’t need to be sharpened, as this’ll just amplify noise. The Masking slider lets you conine the sharpening to the important parts. Hold Alt while dragging it to the right – areas that appear in black will be excluded from sharpening.