Comments on: Spot Sharpening with a Faux Layer Mask in Photoshop Elements

By: Andrew WL

Andrew WL — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:46:50 +0000

@Liz In PS CS2 and up you don’t need a faux mask to tone down the sharpening of the unsharp mask layer, you can apply a mask directly. With the unsharp masked layer selected click on the icon at the bottom of the layer’s palette that looks like a circle in a square…. that’s your mask. Fill the mask with black which conceals the sharpened image then paint with white (opacity about 25%) to reveal the sharpened eyes and features of the face you want to see sharpened.

By: liz

liz — Mon, 11 Oct 2010 11:38:42 +0000

Do you have a tutorial for this that will work for Photoshop CS2 and up? Thanks in advance!

By: Mungo

Mungo — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 13:52:59 +0000

Thank you, I nearly rejected a photo that I’m hoping I can fix with this method

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 23:14:34 +0000

@spodeworld, Ok, so far so good. Now look in the Layers Palette and see if the white mask box has turned black, if it has you’ve done exactly what you needed to do. The black fill in the mask hides the sharpening effect from the image. It might be difficult to see that this has happened but it has. You’re now ready to move forward a step and paint the sharpening back onto the image where it needs to be added – the eyes.

By: Spodeworld

Spodeworld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 13:22:52 +0000

Thank you. I believe that that is what I have been doing. I clicked on the white box making sure the mask is active, and then used then selected the bucket and the black box at the bottom left of the tools (foreground and background) to bring it forward. Then I place the bucket over the picture and click, but nothing happens. I’m sure I am just making a simple mistake, but at this point I’m just left scratching my head….thank you for your help.

By: Helen Bradley

Helen Bradley — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 07:17:02 +0000

@spodeworld You are nearly there. You have to select the Adjustment Layer as you have done, then click on the Adjustment layer mask which is the white box on the right hand side of the layer. Then you can fill the image with black and, because you have the adjustment layer selected, the mask will fill with black rather than the image itself.

By: Spodeworld

Spodeworld — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:07:23 +0000

I must be missing something, but in Step 5 (“Fill this mask using the paint bucket tool with black), I can’t seem to fill the mask. I have the mask layer selected (the adjustment layer itself). But, when I try to fill it with the Bucket, nothing happens. Any idea what I am doing wrong? Thanks!

By: Mick

Mick — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 15:45:22 +0000

Excellent article. Unlike so many of the online tutorials I have read, this one was very easy to follow and gave me just the results I was wanting, thank you very much!!

By: BenC

BenC — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 16:51:51 +0000

Everything worked but I cant figure out how to fill the adjustment layer with black. I did what Jen did but nothing worked. Can someone tell me what I am doing wrong??

By: Igor

Igor — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 07:12:18 +0000

Excellent article. Well explained and easy to follow. This technique has helped me enormously to understand how layer masks work. It has also shown me how to sharpen in a very controlled way. Thankyou.