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# Sharpen video with unsharp
- URL: https://ffmpeguru.com/sharpen-video-with-unsharp/
- Published: 2026-08-13T09:00:00.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-13T17:59:37.000Z
- Author: FFmpeguru
- Tags: ffmpeg

![](https://picsum.photos/seed/ffback9/1200/630)

If a video looks soft after encoding, scaling, or denoising, a one-pass unsharp sharpen restores perceived detail. The filter builds a blurred copy of the frame and subtracts it, leaving the high-frequency edges that read as 'sharp' to the eye.

## The command

```
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -vf "unsharp=5:5:1.0:5:5:0.0" -c:v libx264 -crf 20 out.mp4
```

## What it does

The two triplets are: luma matrix size, luma amount, luma sigma, chroma matrix size, chroma amount, chroma sigma. The first triplet sharpens the brightness channel; the second sharpens color. A common luma-only setup is \`unsharp=5:5:1.0\`; the chroma values are set to 0 to avoid amplifying color noise. The amount is in arbitrary units — start at 1.0 and adjust by taste.

## Requirements

Any video input. The filter is part of the standard libavfilter set. No special build flags, no GPU. Runs on the CPU, so the encode is single-threaded per frame; budget for the cost.

## Things to avoid

- Sharpening already-sharp footage. It does not add detail that was not there, it amplifies edges, and over-sharpened content looks like a 'halo' around every contrast boundary.
- Setting the matrix size too small. A 3x3 matrix only sharpens very local edges; 5x5 or 7x7 gives a more natural result.
- Sharpening the chroma (color) channel. Color noise is far more visible than luma noise; keep chroma amount at 0 unless you have a specific reason.
- Combining unsharp with a heavy denoise and expecting both to apply. The filter chain runs in order; if you denoise then sharpen, the sharpening amplifies the surviving detail, which is what you want.