Sharpen tool

The sharpen tool allows you to apply localized sharpening effects to an image. Prior to Photoshop CS5 there were no circumstances where one would sugest using the sharpen tool since the outcome was pretty ugly looking sharpening artifacts. However, there is now a Protect Detail option in the sharpen tool Options bar (see Figure 1 below). When this is checked the sharpen tool is now able to do a much better at applying localized sharpening to an image. Even so, I would still maintain there are better ways that you can apply localized sharpening in a controlled manner and these are discussed in Chapter 4 of the book.

As with the blur tool, The Sample All Layers option is useful if you wish to carry out work with the sharpen tool on a new empty layer, sampling the pixels from all the currently visible layers.

Figure 1 The sharpen tool Options bar.