Sharpening

Watch as an animation →

In plain words

Raise edge contrast to make the picture look crisp. Too much creates a white band (halo) around the edges.

When to use it

After upscaling, for AI clips that came out blurry, and for previews enlarged from 480p.

Example videos

You're Sharpening Video Wrong - Resolve Tutorial — Explainer: Compare the edge bands that over-sharpening makes with the right way to apply it.
Beat the Compression! How to Get Better YouTube Uploads — Explainer: See why over-sharpening ruins quality even more when YouTube recompresses.
The True Way to Sharpen Your Video in DaVinci Resolve - Day 12 — Explainer: See how to sharpen only the detail in DaVinci Resolve.

In AI video, like this

AI clips often already have detail painted in, so apply only a very light amount. In ffmpeg, unsharp=5:5:0.4:5:5:0 (luma only, a little). Add film grain after sharpening (so the grain doesn't get sharpened too). Check at 100% that halos and noise don't increase on faces and sky gradients.

One-click prompt

Add a very light luma-only sharpen to a soft AI clip: ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf unsharp=5:5:0.4:5:5:0 -c:a copy out.mp4. Check faces and sky gradients at 100 percent for halos, and add film grain after sharpening so the grain itself does not become harsh.

See it in real films and ads

Wikipedia — Unsharp masking

AI-made examples

Not verified

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