This is a really quick tip that I think Gale found and I use it on pretty much every photograph. Since I take all my photos in RAW format, they can all do with a little sharpening. Photoshop does have several sharpen functions, unsharp mask for example, but I think the following method gives better results.
Load your RAW image (or even JPEG) into Photoshop and tweak the RAW settings, exposure etc
Here’s a close up of an image I opened, it looks a little bit blurred, which seems to be a characteristic of RAW (click on it to see it in all it’s blurry glory):
First thing you need to do is duplicate this onto a new layer above the original image. In the layer tab, right click on the layer and then select duplicate. Give it a name.
Next change the blend mode, which is Normal by default, to Overlay. In the layer tab, click on Normal and then select Overlay from the list.
This will make the image look harsh, but don’t worry.
Next, click on Filter on the main menu, then Other, High Pass.
You’ll need to play around, but I used 6.5 on this image.
And voila, the image should look pretty sharp.
Here’s the original and sharpened one side by side, you may want to click on it for a close up look.
