Please turn down your High Pass, it's disturbing the neighbors.

In photoshop there are a hundred and one different ways to do something. Sharpening is one of them, with multiple filters and tricks. High Pass is an old but still good sharpening tool. Apparent sharpness is created by increasing contrast around edges. If you have an edge of a dark object against a light background, by brightening the light area next to the edge, and darkening the dark area, it raises the contrast and thus the apparent sharpness.

Example, from left to right, 0 Radius, 1 radius, 10 radius, 100 radius. (Applied to the original image file)



A copy of the layer to be sharpened is made, and is set to either overlay or soft light. High pass is applied to taste and then can be toned back by adjusting the opacity of the layer. It also allows for selective sharpening as parts of the layer can be masked out, deleted or smoothed.

A trend over the last few years has been to crank the radius of the effect so the shading of the image is adjusted instead. This seems to have really taken off thanks to Dragan and you can find tons of actions that attempt to repeat this effect. And people do, on everything, for no reason. Dragan had a point, he used the technique to bring out and hyperrealize facial lines. However it gives a pop to the image so people use it on everything. In some cases it's because your eyes and brain adjust to the image and an over the top effect looks just right when you have been staring at the image for awhile. This is why when using new processes I normally adjust it to where my brain says "Perfect" and then tone it back a notch or two, and/or I save the file and come back the next day to double check the intensity of it.

Trends appear and get beaten to death in photography. Often because they are technical in nature and thus anyone with enough knowledge or the ability to download an action can do them. Unfortunately people just do them because they are cool or a trend and don't think of the bigger picture. So a great idea gets washed out and over used. It's very important not to follow trends in photography. While people who do may get praise or even a few jobs, as soon as the trend is over all their work becomes dated and needs to be scrapped if they want to keep getting work. By finding your own style you can break out of the mold.

Here at school there is a teacher that is known for a style of food and still life photography. His look and style has gotten him a lot of work and many students come out of his class shooting in a similar way. Which is great, it's a very pretty look, but few people expand on it. This teacher has a large chunk of the market, why would a food company go to you for that look when they could go to the known professional and high quality photographer.

Online photography forums (which I rarely visit) often develop a backlash to any abused look. However if there is a purpose, a reason, for using that look, tell the jaded naysayers to fuck off. After all this is about your vision and sometimes the hardest part is keeping it that way.

Over done shot from Folsom Fair as example,