Correcting oversharpened images possible?

Is anyone aware of a technique for correcting oversharpened images? I

plan to use some images taken with an old 2MP digicam but the in-

camera sharpening seems to be much too aggressive for todays

standards.

a degree of gaussian blur with a very small radius would help - not ideal though as the damage is already done.

Sharpening is usually the very last thing you do to process an image. There may be a plugin that will "unsharpen" an image--in fact i'd google it if i were you--but for the most part, there is no way to correct it and go back to the same quality that was present in the original.

photoshop:

 

1. duplicate Background layer

 

2. set mode to Overlay

 

3. Filters->Other->High Pass, enter, say, 2

 

4. invert layer (Ctrl+I)

1. duplicate your image twice.

 

2. depending on the content and image size - gaussian blur on each of the new layers with radius say 0.5 to 4.

 

3. set first duped one to lighten.

 

4. second duped to darken.

 

5. adjust opacity

Thanks for your hints. Will give it a try...

Gaussian blur would be appropriate if a large radius unsharp mask was applied, but I find it hard to believe that an old camera would have had this function. Since simple sharpening was probably applied, the use of soften-filter is more appropriate. If sharpen-more was applied, then soften-more might be appropriate.

 

A small radius gaussian blur gives much the same effect as soften (with some easier control). I find that a fractionally softening user defined filter helps undo some of the damage. Don't try to undo all of the original sharpening (this is counter-productive).

try the High Pass technique above. seriously, it's loads better than trying to compensate with Gaussian blur/etc.

My problem did not involve a camera, just an oversharpened image. The High Pass solution

suggested by Chris Combs worked extremely well for me. It didn't *completely* solve the

problem, but it helped tremendously. I suspect that a complete fix for an oversharpened

image is impossible, but the High Pass solution provided a very satisfactory result. I tried the

various Gaussian Blur solutions and the results were not nearly as good.

For what it's worth, had to adjust another over-sharpened image. Again, i used Combs's

advice. This time, it was a huge image (35" x 26", 300 dpi). The new overlay layer made a

small difference, but not very much, so I duplicated the overlay layer. The combination of

layers made a significant difference, so if you aren't satisfied with the results of Comb's

method, then try duplicated the layer again and see what you get.