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Dan Rodney/2 min read

Sharpening Details

Lightroom Editing Essentials

Library Module

Import, rate, keyword, and organize photos across the catalog.

Develop Module

Global and local adjustments — exposure, contrast, color, sharpening.

Presets

One-click looks — save your own or use the built-in presets.

Export

Output to JPG, TIFF, or PSD with size, sharpening, and metadata control.

Master Adobe Tools at Noble Desktop

Noble Desktop's Graphic Design Certificate covers Photoshop alongside the broader Adobe toolkit that complements Lightroom in any photography workflow.

Gain in-depth knowledge about Lightroom's sharpening features in this tutorial, covering topics such as sharpening within the Detail panel and using a mask to sharpen parts of a photo.

Topics Covered in This Lightroom Tutorial:

Sharpening Within the Detail Panel, Sharpening Part of the Photo Using a Mask

Exercise Preview

lightroom preview3E

Exercise Overview

In this exercise, you’ll learn how to use Lightroom’s sharpening features.

Sharpening Within the Detail Panel

  1. If you have not imported the photos that were imported in Exercise 2E:
    • Go into the Library module.
    • At the bottom left of the screen, click Import.
    • In the dialog box that appears, on the left under Source, navigate to Desktop > Class Files > Lightroom Class and select the Develop folder.
    • At the top, above the photos, make sure Add is selected (highlighted).
    • On the bottom right, click Import.

  2. Press G to go into the Library module’s Grid View, if you’re not already there.

  3. Click on the three chimneys photo (_CAS4871).

  4. Press D to go into the Develop module.

  5. At the top of the Navigator panel on the left, click on 1:1 to view the image at 100%.

  6. Still in the Navigator panel, drag the bounding box over the top middle of the leftmost chimney:

    screenshot chimneys1

  7. On the right, expand the Detail panel if it isn’t already.

  8. Under Sharpening, drag the Amount slider all the way to the right to 150, just to test it out.

    Way too sharp.

  9. Click on 150 so the setting is editable.

  10. Type 65 and press Return (Mac) or Enter (Windows) to change it.

  11. At the top-left corner of the Detail panel, click the Switch switch icon off and on to notice the difference.

    Much better!

Sharpening Part of the Photo Using a Mask

But what if we didn’t want to sharpen the entire photo—just the darker parts (corners, shadows, edges)?

  1. In the Detail panel, click on the Masking slider to activate that attribute.

  2. Hold the Opt (Mac) or ALT (Windows) key while dragging the slider slowly to the right to reveal the mask.

  3. You can press Opt (Mac) or ALT (Windows) on and off while holding the slider; pressing it reveals the mask, and not pressing shows the photo. In the mask, areas that are black will have NO sharpening applied.

    TIP: Sharpening masks are very useful for sharpening faces such as when you want to sharpen the eyes, but not the skin.

  4. Set the Masking to 75.

  5. In the top-left corner of the Detail panel, click the Switch switch icon off and on a few times to view a quick before-and-after.

    Neato!