Yesterday we had a great shoot at the Chuang Yen Monastery in Kent, NY. One of the things we talked about afterward was selectively sharpening an image, that is, you usually (but not always) want to sharpen only a part of an image, rather than the entire image.

The bottom image (one of my shots) needed to be sharpened globably - that is the entire image needed sharpening, because all RAW files need sharpening.

The top two images (left by Benjamin Todd and right by Roger R. Chenault) required selective sharpening - in this case, only subjects had to be sharpened, and not the background. Sharpening the soft background would have added noise and detracted from the sharpness of the subject.

In Photoshop, Convert for Smart Filters allows you to use a filter as you would an adjustment layer and a layer mask. How cool.

The coolest part of the top to photos, the Buddhist monk is Ven. Ji Ning, president of the Buddhist Association of America. I thought it was a chance encounter, but the monk told me that we met 2,000 year ago - after I asked him his name. The short encounter was a wonderful experience - for all of our workshop participants.

More great pictures to come from the participants.

Explore the light,
Rick