Check out this trick on a photo you've taken that you think is a pretty damn good photo .... And see if it's even better after doing this.

(P.S. If you like this effect you'll want to record an action so you can do it at the touch of a button)

1. Open an image
2. Go to Image menu, select Mode, LAB Color
3. Go to the Channels palette (the tab right next to the Layers palette tab)
4. Click on the "Lightness" channel (image will now appear grayscale)
5. From the Filters menu select Sharpen, Unsharp Mask and use the following settings: Amount 85, Radius 1, Threshold 4
6. Click OK in the Unsharp Mask dialog
7. Go back up to the Image menu, select Mode, RGB

You are done ...

The image attached is an example. The above technique was applied to the right side of the image. Notice the detail in the grass, the palm trees, the panel lines on the car, the difference between the front and back wheels the retaining wall, etc. (OK, so at this size of image you can’t see much difference. Try this on one of your own images and see for yourself. Or email me and I’ll send you the full size image of the car above)

You can run this action twice in a row if running it once does not give you the desired results.

P.S. This should work on all versions of Photoshop except Elements since Elements does not support Channels.