USM in photoshop

Discussions
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1

Been using PS for yrs but recently an issue has appeared while using unsharp mask that makes it nearly useless. I resize, save then open USM to sharpen. I get the image looking good but when I apply it to the file and close USM the image immediately goes soft…at least softer than it looked while USM was open. So sharpening has become a guessing game of how much to “oversharpen” in USM to get it to look good after applying the filter. Any thoughts?

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Never heard of (or seen) such a thing. Are you using Photoshop CC or an earlier version loaded from discs? If CC, have you installed the latest updates? Clearly something is out of whack, and my only guess has to do with versions and updates.

We’re forced to access the internet via a hot spot and pay-as-you-go rates, so “parsimonious” about how often we install updates. Nothing specific to USM, but I occasionally run into wrinkles, and updating usually fixes the issues.

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Thanks Hank. I’m on CC so supposedly getting auto updates. What you’re suggesting has occurred to me. Will check when I get home. I even thought about uninstalling and reinstalling but who knows what can of worms that may open.

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That’s usually Adobe’s standard advice when something goes wrong is to reinstall, it’s a pain in the butt, but it usually fixes it and doesn’t cause problems.

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5

I’d first reset Photoshop Preferences before uninstalling and reinstalling. There is an option in Preferences to Reset Preferences when you quit Photoshop:

Reset Photoshop Preferences In Photoshop CC

  1. Open The Preferences Dialog Box. In Photoshop CC, Adobe has added a new option…
  2. Choose “Reset Preferences On Quit” This opens the Preferences dialog box set to…
  3. Choose “Yes”. To Delete The Preferences When Quitting.
  4. Close And Relaunch Photoshop.
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6

Thanks Keith I’ll give it a shot.

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Hi Bruce. I have also experienced this issue…but with Smart Sharpen instead of USM. But I’m not having the problem at this time so either a version update or clearing the Ps preferences as @Keith_Bauer suggests must have fixed it at some point. I commented over on your latest image critique as well that my favorite tools for web sizing/sharpening are TK Web Sharpen in @Tony_Kuyper’s TK7 panel and the Web Sharpener Panel by Andreas Resch.

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8

Are you talking about sharpening for web or final print output?
:vulcan_salute:

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9

sharpening for web Michael

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Image caching also causes this kind of behavior. In the performance pain in prefs. :v:

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