Sharpening Photos with Picasa

Can you see the difference between the photo on the left, and the one on the right? The one on the left is the original. The one on the right has been 'sharpened' by Picasa. In Picasa, you double-click on the photo you want, then, in the left column of Editing commands, click on 'effects'. Sharpen is the first one. Each time you click it, it gets 'sharper.' Once is usually enough - I clicked this one twice to be sure you can see the difference.

The first picture is not out of focus. I took it with my Canon Digital SLR camera. It's a very good camera, with a very good lens. It's a fact of digital photography that, where two different colors come together, it blends them slightly, giving it a soft look. The 'sharpen' command finds those 'edges' and increases the contrast. I find that every photo can benefit from one click of the sharpen effect, so here's the real kicker: in Picasa, if you click on the Picture menu and then 'Batch Edit', you can sharpen all selected photos at once! If you decide you don't like this effect on any given picture, you can always 'undo' it!

For a video that shows how to do this, go to the Picasa tutorial page and click on 'Improving Photos.'