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Have spent time going through the youtube AF Sharpen tutorials but cannot find a simple tool where I can click on the size and strength for a specific area.

Gosh, the number of things one has to go through I just could not follow, the High Pass (?) just the beginning of what is a series of things that have to be done. Seems very complicated for what was a simple tool in an outdated editing system, Aperture, on which I used a few basic tools.

I go to the top under Filters and there are three choices, but I did not find what I want: area specific determined by size and intensity

Does this exist in AF?

Thank you, 

 
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Thanks but confused.  I did your first line, to clarity.

I tried to select clarity layer for next step, but it combined with the background layer, both of them blue.

"Select only Clarity layer>menu>layer>invert" not sure how to do this after I had done the sentence above.

Thx

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I'm not sure I understand what you need, @SF Charter Boat.

Filters > Sharpen... > Unsharp Mask seems fairly straightforward, to me. And if you need it to apply to a specific area of your image you just make a pixel selection before you apply the filter, perhaps with a feathered edge.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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You may want to read about USM. It has been a standard method to sharpen photographs since before computers. No photographic image should go to press without USM.

Applying: Select area, feather it, go Layer>New Live Filter Layer>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask... Set values.

Usually USM is applied to whole document, but doing it for a selection is ok if you want it.

USM does not affect much if there is no sharpness in the image to start with as there is no local contrast for it to affect. All soft images are not really salveagable (though there are some modern tools that try).
 

usm.jpg

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I like my skies to be soft, seas to be softish, and the hard bits to be sharp, so I use a different approach.  Use a live filter layer / sharpen /  unsharp mask and sharpen everything.  Now take the erase tool, set the opacity and flow to something like 20-30% and the hardness to 0% and start to erase the areas that you don't want to be sharp.  You can play around with the opacity and flow values to get a decent compromise between control and speed, and you can also adjust the brush size.   

AP, AD & APub user, running Win10

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In order, last three responses, thank you.

-USM: I am not "going to press",  just trying to make a print, maybe 12" x 18" or so

-" ..will be applied to the whole image.."

-" will sharpen everything "

I do not want to sharpen everything. I do not want to sharpen the whole image.

Is there not a tool in Affinity where  I have the choice of strength and brush size?? I do NOT want to do the entire picture, I do not want to add then remove, white, then black, then do whatever....

All I want to do is start, get a photo, crop it, adjust contrast, color, etc, maybe sharpen some SPECIFIC  areas, then, if needed, maybe add a soft ND grad if the sky is all one shade. Is there a Sharpen tool for area specific which can be adjusted in size and strength? And if it is the little indicator in Unsharp, how to make that into a brush?

Thank you

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7 minutes ago, SF Charter Boat said:

So, I ask again is there a Sharpen tool for area specific which can be adjusted in size and strength?

The Sharpen Brush Tool can be found in the drop-down under the Blur Brush Tool

There are various settings for size and strength in the context toolbar

 

sharpen.jpg

To save time I am currently using an automated AI to reply to some posts on this forum. If any of "my" posts are wrong or appear to be total b*ll*cks they are the ones generated by the AI. If correct they were probably mine. I apologise for any mistakes made by my AI - I'm sure it will improve with time.

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2 hours ago, SF Charter Boat said:

USM: I am not "going to press",  just trying to make a print, maybe 12" x 18" or so

-" ..will be applied to the whole image.."

-" will sharpen everything "

I do not want to sharpen everything. I do not want to sharpen the whole image.

As @haakoo said (a few posts above yours) it doesn't have to sharpen everything. All the adjustments and filters have masks, and you can control what they apply to in the image by painting on the masks. That is an important approach in working with Affinity Photo, and learning those techniques will help you in your future work with this application.

But if the Sharpen Tool does what you need for your current image, that's fine, of course.

-- Walt
Designer, Photo, and Publisher V1 and V2 at latest retail and beta releases
PC:
    Desktop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 64GB memory, AMD Ryzen 9 5900 12-Core @ 3.00 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090 

    Laptop:  Windows 11 Pro, version 23H2, 32GB memory, Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60GHz, Intel UHD Graphics Comet Lake GT2 and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Laptop GPU.
iPad:  iPad Pro M1, 12.9": iPadOS 17.4.1, Apple Pencil 2, Magic Keyboard 
Mac:  2023 M2 MacBook Air 15", 16GB memory, macOS Sonoma 14.4.1

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