Sharpen with Edge Mask Photoshop Tutorial

Learn how to sharpen an image on the edges only with this Photoshop tutorial. Ordinary sharpening methods sharpen the entire image including the areas that you don't want sharpened such as the skin, clouds, etc. But with this tutorial, you'll learn how to sharpen only on the edges so that artifacts don't appear.

Step 1

First go to File> Open, browse for a picture and then click OK.

Step 2

We begin by duplicating the layer. The top layer will have the sharpened version of the image and the bottom (Background) layer will have the original untouched image with its default sharpness. To duplciate the layer, press Ctrl+J or go to Layer> Duplicate Layer.

Step 3

Before we start sharpening, we need to add a layer mask. A layer mask will let us filter out where the layer gets shown so that we can choose which parts of the image to show the sharper layer. To add a layer mask, go to Layer> Layer Mask> Reveal All.

Step 4

You should now have a layer mask and it should be selected. You can tell if it's selected or not by checking for a white outline around the layer mask thumbnail. Once you have the layer mask selected, go to Image> Apply Image. Here, just use the default settings and click OK.