Hobbies And Interests
Things You'll Need
Instructions
JPEG Format
Open your image in Adobe Photoshop by going to File>Open and selecting the desired image. This will open the image.
Adjust the color balance of the image. This can be done in one of two ways by going to the toolbar at the top of the screen and selecting Image>Adjustments>Color Balance to open the color balance sliders. Move these sliders until the tones in the image are satisfactory. Selecting the radio buttons for shadows, midtones or highlights will affect different areas of the image. Color balancing can also be done automatically by going to the toolbar and selecting Image>Auto Color.
Correct the contrast of the image. Go to Image>Adjustments>Levels to open the Levels palette. You will see a histogram, which represents the tones in your image. Beneath the histogram are three sliders--on the left is shadows, in the middle is midtones and on the right is highlights. Adjust the shadows and highlights sliders until they are underneath the points where the histogram begins to rise, and adjust the midtones if necessary. The midtones slider can be used to correct minor exposure errors up to about two stops.
Adjust the white balance of the image. Go to Image>Adjustments>Cueves to open the Curves palette. On the palette you will see several eye droppers. Select the dropper on the far right, and click on an area of the image that should be pure white. This will alter the white balance of the image.
Correct any blemishes, dust specks or imperfections using the Healing Brush tool or the Clone Stamp tool. To use the healing brush tool, go to the left toolbar and select the tool with a Band-Aid icon. Click directly on the spot to be corrected to use. To use the Clone Stamp tool, select the tool from the left toolbar and adjust the brush size at the top of the screen. For a less invasive fix, select as small a brush as possible and feather the edges--both of these options may be adjusted from the sliders at the top toolbar. Select an unblemished area you wish to clone, or copy, and hold alt and click (option + click on Mac). Then click on the area you wish to change, in the same way the Healing Brush tool is used.
Sharpen your image. Go to Filter at the top toolbar and select "Sharpen." There are several options--Sharpen, Sharpen More, and Smart Sharpen which will sharpen the image for you based on algorithms. Unsharp Mask allows you to control the radius and intensity of the sharpness.
Save your image--it is now post-processed!
RAW Images
Open your image in Adobe Photoshop by going to File>Open and selecting the desired image. This will open the image in the Camera Raw Palette.
Adjust the image by adjusting the sliders on the Camera Raw Palette. This adjusts color balance, hue, saturation, exposure, contrast, white balance and more.
Click "Open Image" to edit the image in full Photoshop.
Correct any blemishes, dust specks or imperfections using the Healing Brush tool or the Clone Stamp tool, as above.
Sharpen your image, as above, and save. You will be asked how to save the image. A RAW image is like a photo negative in that changes are not applied to the RAW file directly. They are saved as a "sidecar" file, which is opened with the file the next time it is opened. The other option is to save as a JPEG, which creates a copy of the corrected file and still leaves the RAW images untouched.