Regardless of how one goes about it, sharpening simply increases the contrast between light and dark pixels bringing out the hidden details that were captured in the original image right out of the "can". That's a good thing... Huh? Well, it is to a degree.
I liken increasing contrast (sharpening) to my Goldilocks Scale. On the left is Too Cold, right out of the camera. To the right is Too Hot, oversharpened (AWFUL). Goldilocks wanted her porridge Just Right, well sharpened.
(Left-click for larger image.)
(Left-click for larger image.)
We reach in our bag-of-tricks and find there are a ton of tools to sharpen our image... High Pass, Smart Sharpen, yadda, yadda, yadda. Picking one, we start cranking our sharpener. However, we are having so much fun that we crank way too long and the image comes out looking like this... AWFUL.
(Left-click for larger image.)
Aristotle once said that a virtuous man has the habit of selecting the mean between extremes. That's true in life and processing solar images. Yes, your sharpening tool has a wide range, but it's important that you don't fool yourself into believing that Too Hot is great... In fact, Just Right should be your goal.
Climbing off my soapbox now.
Clear Skies & Stay Safe
