Texture and detail

Use any of these techniques to enhance the fine detail of textures in your photos

- James Abbott

Regardless of the subject, detail – or the lack of it – is an important element of a photograph. But when you’re focusing on abstract images and those that feature interesting textures, working with the fine detail present in these types of shots and enhancing it can make the world of difference.

The most obvious way to enhance detail is through sharpening, but the problem with this approach is that if you over-sharpen images you can introduce artifacts that have a detrimental effect on the overall image – although some sharpening techniques are more effective than others when it comes to accentuating texture.

In this month’s four techniques we’re going to look at four completely different ways of enhancing detail in photographs. Some of these approaches may be more familiar, while others will almost certainly introduce you to unexpected ways of achieving a specific result. But regardless of how well-known the techniques are, they all do a fantastic job.