As digital editor at Hero Images, I'm tasked with the responsibility of quality assurance for each and every image our shoot team selects. Our images must be de-branded, the colour must be en pointe, and there's even the occasional head swap thrown in just to keep me on my toes. But above all else, the images should be in focus. While checking each and every image may sound like a daunting task, the Hero production team really makes my job easy. It's not very often that I have to reject an image due to technical reasons. Once in a while though, I do have to tweak them a bit. One of my favourite tricks that I've learned in my tenure as a retoucher is the use of the High Pass Filter. If you have an image that is just south of sharp this is an incredibly useful tool to pull it back to where you need it to be.
Here's a play-by play using this technique to sharpen this model's eyes just a touch more.
1. In
Quick Mask Mode, which is accessed by pressing
q on
your keyboard, I used the
B
rush Tool (
set at 100% opacity) to select the eyes and lashes.
2. Once you've masked the area you'd like to sharpen, exit
Quick Mask Mode by pressing
q a second time. Your selection will now be indicated by the dotted line.
3. Create a new layer with your selection by pressing
command
+ j . This layer should only consist of the area you selected.
4. In the
Filter drop down menu, scroll down to
Other ->
High Pass. A box should pop up, allowing you to select the radius of the filter. I typically keep the slider in
between 5 and 6 in order to keep the effect of the filter more subtle.
Press
OK. If you happen to be working on the eyes of your subject, they'll now look like they have serious cataracts.
5. Now, on your
Layers Palette, change the mode of your high pass layer to
Soft Light.
Note: If you're seeing a lot of extra noise in the shadows you can either dial back the opacity of your High Pass Layer or you can add a layer mask to the High Pass Layer and brush away the noise in the darker areas using the brush tool.
VOILA!
You can click your High Pass layer on and off to see the difference it makes.
To see more portraits in our collection,
click here.