Pam #181987

USM settings need to be optimized carefully and you cannot use the same settings for different resolutions.

I think radius was to high. I have never used 20 before and perhaps that’s why I don’t like the second picture.

You can see how the aspens call for our attention because the USM is stronger in areas where contrast is high, like in those aspens.

Try the following: lower the radius to around 5.0 pixels, and moved from 3.0 to 7.0 and look at the preview to find out which one you like the most.

Another thing you can do is duplicate the layer, apply your USM as you did in the upper layer, and then make a mask and apply a gradient to hide the sharpened aspens and revel the unsharpened version. That way the doe will look sharp, and the aspens remain out of focus and unsharpened.

Chances are, just by lowering the radius you’ll get better results.
#869028

I had originally tried unsharp mask at different levels and had gotten what I thought was a good balance on my computer. When I uploaded it to BP, the photo went really sharp. I purposely oversharpened to deal with the softening. I guess I went a little overboard. The formula I used (with threshhold 0 and a large radius) was one that was suggested to me.

I like your idea of having different layers for the aspens and the meadow/doe. I'll try that next.

Thanks again,
Pam #869072

Pam #869264