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Home » Computers And Internet Articles » How To Work With Light And Dark Edges In Photoshop

How to Work with Light and Dark Edges in Photoshop

Want your images to have effects that'll make it stand out more and show up well on every background tones? With Photoshop, you could achieve these effects for your images by its features that work on light and dark edges. These allow you to work on bringing out the best edges of your image – lighten or darken it, anyway you please to match on background tones and make it stand out more.

Through highlighting edges of your photo, you also highlight its details. The method of unsharp mask and others like the difference of Gaussians increase the change in brightness close to each step. This technique's standard version adds a bright halo along the bright edge of the step and a dark halo along the dark edge. Depending on what effect you'd like for your image, there are advantages in just using one or the other. Using both may not do very much to improve your image, though.

There are several advantages of using any of the effects for the edges on real images. One is that it reduces interference between steps or detail and the haloes from other, nearby steps. Another thing, the light or dark haloes make other features of the image stand out better from the background.

Start doing this effect on your images using Photoshop by following several procedures:

1st step is duplicate the layer holding the image

2nd step - apply the conventional unsharp mask

3rd step - set the layer blending mode to "Darken" or "Lighten".

However, you must understand that this only works for 8 bit per channel images – those that can be put into layers but it could function also on 16 bit per channel pictures with Optipix plug-in that allows direct selection of dark or light edges.

If you are not sure about which edge halo to use, there are general rules regarding such:

1. On light background tones, light edges don't show up well and vice versa on dark ones.

2. The halo should lie on the background, not on the foreground. This technique helps the feature stand out without having to change its brightness values.

Sometimes the following rules are in conflict. It is necessary, then, to try several combinations to decide which is best. You can try both edges, light edges only, dark edges only. You can experiment since different regions of your image may call for different answers.

As you experiment for the best results, you'll come to know that using unsharp mask filter may drive you to add too much additional local contrast. Understand that though adding some local contrast can make a bland image turn into a good one, adding too much creates a disaster. Take care not to add too much and make the image appear more like caricatures than photos. Remember that what looks best on the computer screen may not be the same in print since the process somewhat compresses contrast and blurs detail.

And here is another random article you might be interested in...

Businesses - Leisurely Dining Or Fast Food

It occurred to me the other day, that so many people today liken their businesses to the way they eat - fast. Think about it. All over the web we are inundated with... make $1000's of dollars a day, make $10,000 a month, make a million by the end of the year. Everyone is looking for the magic formula or the magic bullet to get rich quick...fast. They want their business to succeed in the time it takes to get their hamburger or chicken sandwich. No wait, no delay of gratification. I want it now, and I want it without having to work at it. I want to sit back and rake in the dollars, my way.

Those of us who have been on the web for the past six years, realize that just like the businesses we ran off the web, a web business takes time to grow. It is not fast food, but instead like an five course dinner. We start with the drink, the business idea, then go to the appetizer, the business name, mission statement and business plan, then the first course, formalized plan, the second course, the strategies to market our business, the main course, the everyday running of the business, and then comes the dessert, the moneys, we so richly deserve.

We know that it takes time to digest, and we have to go through several courses to get to the dessert. The dessert does not come first. One course builds upon the other, till you get to the end, however, this also allows us to savor our success. Going through the courses also allows us to take a good long look at things, so if we need to add a piece or entrée (make small or big adjustments), we can do so immediately.

If you want to run a successful business on or off the web, remember your business is not fast food, but rather a nice long leisurely meal. Take the time to digest it, and savor it over several courses, and your just desserts will be realized in the end, but the dessert does not come first.

Copyright 2001, DeFiore Enterprises.