GIMP: Sharpening (when you need it)

 

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) Editor has many powerful tools available that can fix image imperfections and enhance those pictures

 Continuing from the last post, the image enhancements on the cross panels continue. The previous post covered panel 1-4 and the Rotation and Shear tools that are found in the GIMP Toolbox. In this post, the Sharpening Tools will be covered. Panels 5 and 6 need image and color enhancements done to them. Like the previous images, the Rotation fix was applied to the image, and afterwards, the Curves and Hue-Saturation Tools were used for color enhancements.
Panels 5 and 6 with no modifications or filters
Panels 5 and 6 after the Rotation fix, along with color enhancements, have been performed.

 At this point, one would conclude that where done with the image manipulation. One thing that isn't noticed is that when compared with the previous panels, this one isn't as detailed. It not noticed in this post because the PNG image of the GIMP window had been scaled down to make it bandwidth friendly (568x407). The example image has a resolution of 2420x1568, and is using 86MB of memory (as reported by GIMP). Seeing the image up close in its native resolution, the lack of detail up close is noticeable. How can this be fix? By sharpening the image of course!
 Sharpening is a very powerful filter that can greatly enhance images. With that said, along with great power comes a great trade-offs (and responsible usage). Using the default Sharpen filter, which is found under "Filters|Enhance|Sharpen...", you're presented with this window:

The Sharpen window gives a sample preview which is very useful to see how much to adjust the sharpness of the image. However, if the Sharpness level is greatly increased, the image becomes very distorted, so the right amount of detail has to be found. Even when it comes to sharpness tools though, the default one isn't the best around, and you might opt for the Unsharp Mask filter. Also found under "Filters|Enhance" as "Unsharp Mask"; this tool gives much greater control over the sharpness levels. As you might have also noticed, this tool is significantly more complicated to use, and requires a lot of trial and error before working settings can be found.

 I'm not going to cover the concepts of the Unsharp Mask filter in great detail. As a result, a Wikipedia article about Unsharp masking is provided below that covers the filter in much greater detail. As with the previous tool, the Unsharp Mask filter provides a sample preview window of the image to show how the picture will look with those particular settings. For the most part, the only setting that will change is the "Amount" setting. I've changed the setting to 0.6 and applied the enhancement afterwards.

Unsharp masking
 EN.WIKIPEDIA.ORG
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unsharp_masking


Panels 5-6 after the Unsharp Mask filter has been applied.

Afterwards, the final image is resized to a bandwidth friendly format and ready for the internet. Comparing the before and after images, one could tell that their has been a great improvement in the image quality. I'm going to apply the same filters to panels 7-8. 

Panels 7-8 before with no modifications.
Panels 7-8 after the following: Rotation, Curves, Hue-Saturation, and Unsharp Mask.

I just applied the standard treatment to the rest of the remain panels. Like I mentioned in the last blog post, GIMP has many powerful tools in its arsenal for one to use. To see the closeups of all the panels with the image corrections and color enhancements, visit the following blog below:

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