How to Fix Photos

Use the clone stamp tool to remove blemishes or other unwanted elements. Most portraits will benefit from the removal of stray hairs or splotches on your model's skin, while landscapes are often improved by the selective removal of unattractive elements like power lines, clouds or fallen trees.

Crop unnecessary elements from the photograph. If the sky in your landscape is too distracting and cannot easily be fixed, try cropping it out entirely; other parts of the photo might be usable. An interesting crop might salvage a photo you might otherwise discard.

Correct the white balance to remove any color cast. Adjusting the hue of the image to make it warmer or cooler can help to remove uneven lighting effects caused by tungsten bulbs or an overcast day.

Adjust the image's levels. The levels tool will give you a histogram of the photograph's lighting distribution. Move the arrows toward the top and bottom of the histogram to ensure your photo's brightest areas are interpreted as pure white and the darkest areas are interpreted as pure black. That helps remove a gray, foggy cast that appears on your image.

Fine tune the exposure using the brightness and contrast tools. If your camera metered at the wrong spot of the frame, areas may be over or underexposed. Adjusting the brightness and contrast sliders may correct these areas.

Increase the photo's saturation. Saturation refers to the "colorfulness" of the image. The higher the saturation, the more colorful the image. High saturation levels may make the photograph appear unrealistic; adjust sparingly.

Sharpen your image using the unsharp mask tool. This will make the lines in your image more defined, but may also make noise or grain more pronounced.