In the Trenches #3

Those shadows under the eyes are really bothering me now. But similar to the way an oncologist works with chemotherapy, I work destructively before I start building things back in -- Layer #3: Sharpening. OK, I never sharpen this early in a workflow, but this image was so soft and so exposure-challenged that I just dove right in here. In the back of my mind, I was thinking this was the critical step, and right away sharpening would tell me if this image had any future or not. Layer added with a generous Unsharp mask, normal blending mode, 100% opacity. Mask below for reference. There's enough sharpness here (eyes and the hair along the cheek) that I feel it's worth continuing. But sharpening on top of Topaz has put some pretty awful ruts in the face. Still not a printable image, but maybe it's sharp enough for onscreen.