Monroe Camera Club
1. Never work on your original image. Make a duplicate (save as a copy) or make a copy of your background layer if your program allows it and work on it so you always have a way to back out of any edits you make you don't want.
2. A good place to start working on your photo is with it's brightness levels. Many times this will help with the quality of the colors also. Use "adjustment layers" if your program allows it. This will keep the file size down and does no damage to your photo and can be turned off or deleted if not needed. If you have a "levels" or "curves" tool, use these as they offer more control and options than just "sliders".
3. It usually works best to establish some kind of a workflow. A sample plan might be as follows (adjust to your own needs
and editing program) (do all your corrections on seperate layers and adjustment layers to avoid damaging your original)
a. Select your image-examin it and establish a game plan
b. Optimize in your Raw Converter--if you shoot raw images
c. Open image in your program and adjust brightness levels
d. Straighten image and clean up unwanted items
e. Make color adjustments on a global basis and then local adjustments
f. Apply any needed filters including noise reduction
g. Crop out unwanted areas around sides
h. Save as a master file>name
i.Open a duplicate image>resize for output(8x10, 4x6 etc.)>flaten image >sharpen image
October Photoshop Tips
1. When zoomed in on a photo and drawing a selection with one of the lasso tools and you come to the edge and can't
proceed any farther, continue to hold down on the mouse and press and hold the spacebar, the tool becomes a hand
tool. Still pressing on the spacebar ,use the hand tool to scrool the photo, return the hand to the end of the selection
still keeping the spacebar down and then release the spacebar and continue to draw.
2.Add a shot of color to your photo with just a couple of easy moves. Open your photo>go to Image>image adjustments
(adjustment layers if you have them)>Levels. Pull the right slider (white) into the beginning of the mountain and then
do the same with the left slider (black). Adjust the center slider (midtone) until satisfied with brightness and click OK.
Next > Image>adjustments>Curves. Place a point midway on the diagnoal line and then half way between the end and
center point, place another point and pull down slightly. Then repeat this procedure on the high end only push up slightly.
Click OK. Now go Image>adjustments>color balance and add or subtract color as you desire. Click OK.
3.Create a "Sepia Tone" in photoshop. There are many different ways and programs to create sepia tones. One easy way
in photoshop is to add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer above your photo and then click on the colorize button in the
dialog box and then adjust the sliders to season to taste. Click OK and you are done.
November Photoshop Tips
Sharpening a Photo. Book after book has been written on how to sharpen a photo and every one has their own technique or favorite plug in or program for accomplishing it and each photo will need a slightly different approch. Here are just a few simple guidlines for sharpening. Once you have done all you want to the photo and determined what size you want it , set the Pixels Per Inch (ppi) to 240 ppi to 300 ppi. Most people recommend 240 ppi because the human eye can not discern much beyond this with out some visual aid. Following are just some general guidelines for using the unsharp mask.
Subject Amount Radius Threshold
General Sharpening 125 1 2
Female Portrait 100 0.6 8
Male Portrait 125 1 4
Dramatic Landscape 140 1.3 2
Dreamy Landscape 100 0.8 4
Action/Sports 150 1.3 1
After all your hard work be sure to set your printer to the highest quality setting and use a quality paper.
DECEMBER TIPS
1.When you want to clone out an object that is close to another object, create a blank layer above your background layer. Place a selection around the object you want to preserve with " o feather" and then invert the selection with "Shift+Ctrl+I" and then clone out objectional object.
January 2009 Tips
Sharpening with the "High Pass Filter" Open an image and then duplicate the back ground layer. With this layer highlighted go to filter>other>high pass. When the filter opens you will see a gray image. Set the radius to one or less and then click OK. Now go to image>adjustments>desaturate. Change the layers blending mode from " normal " to overlay.
Prints not coming out the way you want ???????
Prints coming out too dark over all-try moving the midtone slider (1.) to make the image a little lighter on your monitor than what you want for a print and when you print it might come out closer to what you want. This is a trial and error thing so once you are satisfied record this setting and try it on your next print.
If your darks are coming out too dark with no detail, try moving the darks output slider (2.) in slightly to lighten these areas and if your light areas are too light move the output slider (3.) in slightly to darken these and then record these also so the next time you print you might not have to do so many test prints. Calibrating or recalibrating your monitor will also save you a lot of paper.
Sharpen with the High Pass Filter
Step 1. Duplicate the background layer.
Step 2. Set this layers blending mode to " Overlay"
Step 3. Go to the Filter menu>other>high pass. Set a radius of 1 to 10 pixels, just enough that you do not see any color in the gray preview window, click OK. You can now adjust the opacity of this layer or add a layer mask and paint out any areas you do not want sharpened.
Concealing Luminance Noise
1. Add a Selective Color Adjustment layer . Select black from the drop-down menu and select the Absolute button mode.
2.Use the Black slider to increase the black values in the shadow area. Click OK.
3.Now use the layers opacity slider to fine tune and paint on the layer mask to correct areas you did not want to affect.