Sharpening with an edge mask
1. This is a portrait after RAW conversion with standard sharpening applied to eliminate anti-aliasing from the sensor. The image is sharp, but not tack sharp. I will improve on this by using a sharpen filter in Affinity Photo. The problem is, that the effect is applied globally to the entire photo. Smooth gradients, like the skin will be affected also and in most cases this is not desireable. Therefore, I will show you a way to create an edge mask, which allows to only sharpen the edges and leave the gradient portions of an image intact.