Sharpen an Image With GIMP: Two Methods Demonstrated

In this video I show you two ways to sharpen an image using the free photo editor GIMP.
Image used for the demonstration:
pixabay.com/photos/sea-lion-australian-sea-lion-8232312/
Techniques used in the demonstration:
1) Duplicating a layer in GIMP.
2) Using the High Pass filter on a copy of a layer with GIMP.
3) How to use a blend mode (in this demo I use the Overlay blend mode).
4) Decomposing and image in GIMP and recomposing after sharpening.
5) Using the Sharpen (Unsharp Mask) filter.
A simple task that is very helpful if you have an image that needs to be sharpened. In GIMP there are several ways to sharpen a photo to make it look better. In this demonstration, I show you two ways to achieve this.

[@markgholson9222]

Thank you Matthew for a very explicit explanation of these two sharpening methods in Gimp.
I like floating dialog boxes so I instantly see the changes after recomposing.
I make a tiny box with my LAB image. Then when I recompose, I can instantly see it on the original.
Why can't Gimp have real time LAB adjustments like Rawtherapee or other editors??
It hasn't changed for more than 20 years.
We have to "decompose" change then "recompose" over and over, until we get the desired result.
Thanks again Matthew.

[@halofreak644]

I like your explanations nice vid

[@johnstephenson3098]

Thanks. Good content well explained. Will definitely give it a try.

[@MatthewWay1]

Glad it was helpful!

[@piotrjee3918]

good, thx

[@MatthewWay1]

No problem!

[@ahmadswalih439]

Nice Content

[@MatthewWay1]

Thank you.

[@sebastianodepriscoespinola7828]

I layered the high pass over my image so many times and couldn't believe the difference it made to the quality. the method works! the only issue I'm having is when trying to export it as a pdf, it will show the high-pass version of it, no matter how I toggle the settings. is there a way around this?

[@MatthewWay1]

I haven't tried this to test the results, but here is what I would try first:
Depending on what you are trying to get as a result for the PDF, you could try one of the following workflows:
1) Merge the layers down so that the only thing left is a single layer that is sharp. Then export the PDF. After the PDF is exported, you can simply undo the merges using the edit undo menu action or the Ctrl-Z hot key. Then save your GIMP source file.
2) Drag the original image to the top most position of your layer stack and then export your PDF. After you get the PDF, you can put your layers back in the sharpened order.
Option 1 is for saving the PDF as the sharpened image.
Option 2: is for saving the PDF as the unsharpened image.