Sunday School: Sharpening and Saving for Web

Hi everyone hope you all had a great week and that everyone picked up my free alpha from last weeks school.  It's still there if you didn't so scroll back and grab it!

I have a great tutorial for you this week.  This is my go to method for sharpening my layouts and saving for the web.  If you're like me you want your layouts to look there very best in the galleries.  I used to get really frustrated when my low res layouts didn't look as clear and sharp as my full size image.  If you feel the same follow the steps in this tutorial and you will be amazed at the difference!

Tutorial

My tutorial is for photoshop but I am certain that elements has the same functions.

1. First of all flatten your image. 

 2. Now we are going to change the image size, select Image - image size. 

 3. In the image size box change the resolution to 72 and the dimensions to 600x600.  This is the standard size for layouts in the galleries.

 4. Right click on your flattened layout in the layer window and duplicate the layer.

 5. We are going to run a high pass filter on the duplicated layer.  Make sure this layer is your active layer and click on Filter - Other - High Pass.

 6. Set the Radius to 0.3 and select OK.

 7. Now we need to change the blend mode for this layer. In your layer window at the top you will see the word Normal with a drop down arrow tab.  Open this menu and select Linear Light.

 8. Next flatten your image again as we did in step 1.  Now we are going to adjust the Hue and Saturation  to make the colors really pop! Select Image - Hue/Saturation.

 9. Adjust the Saturation slider by about +8, but play around with it and see what looks right, usually between +7 and +10 is good.

 10. We are almost done the final step is to save for Web & Devices. 

 11. Most galleries need layouts to be 150k however there are several out there that allow a higher quality so check your gallery regulations.  You can adjust the size of your layout by changing the number in the quality field (top right of the Save for web box).  The current size of your layout of your layout is shown just below the image in this box.  So watch how the numbers change when you adjust the quality and get the size required for the gallery you are uploading to.

 Here you can see the difference this made to my layout.

Before

After

My layout uses Kiki Halbert's Tea on the Porch

 I really hope that you found this tutorial helpful.  I don't profess to be a Photoshop expert but if there is a tutorial you would like me to cover let me know and I will do my best to cover it for you.
Have a great week.