iPhoto 5: The Missing Manual, Fourth Edition

Sharpening

The Sharpen command (see Figure 6-13) seems awfully tempting. Could technology really solve the problem of blurry, out-of-focus photos?

Figure 6-13. Top: As a final stop in the Adjust panel, visit the Sharpen slider. By nudging it to the right, you make the photo a tad crisper (or” crispier,” as Kellogg’s would say). In this example, the slider’s been moved a bit farther than was strictly necessary, just to make the effect more visible. The 30.0 mark would ordinarily do nicely.Bottom: To see just how far you’ve come, hold down the Control key to see the photo as it originally looked, before you started fiddling with the Adjust panel. Amazing how much better this picture looks after adjusting; when you first looked at it, the picture might not have struck you as an especially dull, ineffective shot.

Um, no.

Instead, the Sharpen tool that now appears in iPhoto works by subtly increasing the contrast among pixels in your photo, which seems to enhance the crispness of the image. In pro circles, applying a soupçon of sharpening to a photo is a regular part of the routine.

In iPhoto, move the Sharpen slider to the right to increase the sharpness, or to the left to soften the look.

Now, lest you think otherwise, too much sharpening can also ruin a photo, since, eventually, the pixels become grainy and weird-looking. Fortunately, Apple has mostly protected you from this sort of disaster ...