THE ART OF SHARPENING AN IMAGE

A newbie to photography once asked me, “Why do we need to sharpen an image, especially when almost everyone uses autofocus? Does it mean that the autofocus thing is inaccurate?”

Before I try to explain, let me tell you a secret. You cannot really sharpen a photo that is not sharp to begin with (we are not talking about forensic science).

Really? Then what’s all the fuss about image sharpening?

So, here’s the deal. Using an image editing program (example, Photoshop), we create micro contrast at the edges and because of this, the image appears sharper than before. (If you have