Hae-Yu
04-21-2006, 10:58 PM
Photoshop Workflow
Reading this takes longer than doing it, so read through it once, pick a good photo and follow along. Afterwards, it'll take you 5 minutes to make ANY picture better.
So what do you do in Photoshop? First, you are trying to bring out the beauty in a photo that you saw when you decided to snap it. I personally do not delete or add items (wires, people). Plenty of pros do.
These quick tips will help any amateur.I am not great at photography or Photoshop, but I’ve used these tips to make my photos at least not so embarrassing to regular people and I can hang a few on the walls.
Typically most PSE adjustments do not need to be drastically altered. Just tweaks. In many instances, as you adjust the sliders and look back at the image, you will not see a big difference. Most adjustment dialogs contain a Preview checkbox. You may have to check/ uncheck this several times to see any difference at all. However, the end product will look dramatically better after the adjustments accumulate. If you want just use the default settings below and run a picture through them. I’d say 90% of photos will look better.
I will not discuss creating adjustment layers or layer masks. This is just basic to let the user get a feel for what they can do to a given photo. After this, there are plenty of web resources to improve your Photoshop. I’ll focus on using Photoshop Elements (PSE). Photopaint offers similar settings.
Select a good photo with decent color. Sky is blue, grass is green, no deep black shadows, no washed out white skies.
In Photoshop, zoom the image to 100% (magnifier>actual pixels). If it’s blurry, it isn’t any good. I have a hard time distinguishing between slightly blurry and pixilated at that size though, but a really blurry photo is easy to see.
My first step is to use a plug-in called Noise Ninja to remove the noise (graininess) my camera produces. It’s cheap and works great. I use the default settings as I haven’t had a chance to study it. If you don't have it don't worry about it.
The histogram is your #1 tool. Window>Histogram. By this tool, you can tell the difference between a composed photo and a snapshot.
If your histogram shows all the way to the right, you have over-exposed the image aka “blown the highlights.” The image is too white. If all the way to the left, you have underexposed. The image will be too dark. When a portion is under- or overexposed, that portion of the photo can never be recovered. No matter how hard you try, those areas will always stay black or white. This article (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml) shows the ideal settings & gets more in depth for exposure/ histogram/ levels.
Overexposed (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/overexposed.jpg)
Underexposed (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/underexposed.jpg)
Good Exposure 1 (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/goodexposure.jpg) and exposure 2 (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/GoodExposure2.jpg)
Just Right (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/BestExposure.jpg)
On initial views, I tend to prefer the slightly overexposed images, but after running them through Photoshop, the ones with good exposure look best.
Adjusting Levels – This is the single largest adjustment to punch up ANY photo. Select Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Adjust Levels. Using the top bar only, drag the leftmost slider to the left edge of the curve and the right-hand slider to the right edge of the curve. Adjust the center slider to taste. The center slider will rarely ever go above 1.10 or below .90. See the example. Don’t forget to click Preview off and on to see the difference.
Level After (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/AdjustLevels.jpg)
Saturation – This brings out a bit more vivid color. Many digital cameras already have oversaturated images though. I know Canons (SLR or point n shoot) rarely need saturation tweaks. Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/ Saturation. Adjust the saturation bar. My typical adjustment is 10%. There is a large difference in steps higher than 10%. I never exceed +20%.
Retouching - Use the Spot Healing Brush to fix hot pixels/ stuck pixels, dust, water drops, etc.
Crop – The whole time you’re working on the image, really look at it to determine what makes you like it and crop any unnecessary features. To crop, you open the Selection Tool and drag a square the size you want to save. After you get it right, Image>Crop.
Resize – If you plan to print, Image>Resize change the resolution to 300dpi. In fact, if you change your Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers setting to 300 pixels/ inch you’ll thank yourself. Many home prints look like crap because PSE defaults to 72dpi (screen res). If you add text to an image in Photoshop Elements and it appears jagged (no AA) or blurry (with AA), this is your culprit. File size increases, but so will print quality. Before you print, upload to Costco/ Shutterfly, or burn it to CD to print at Wal-Mart/ Ritz, change this to 300dpi.
Unsharp Mask – This is the secret sauce. Unsharp mask sharpens your image and adds clarity. This is the last stage after everything else has finished, all layers merged. I’ve found many recommended settings on the web but the following list works best. Pick one and try it. If you don’t like the results, try another. I use the first listed setting the most. Too much introduces noise (graininess) or makes surfaces like rocks look like wet paint is on them. Here’s an explanation of what it does (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml). You can Google plenty of others (Photograph Unsharp Mask).
Threshold will make the largest difference and the only real range is 0-4. 0 has the most sharpening, 5 the most subtle. Anything above 5 isn’t too noticeable. As you adjust the Threshold, don’t forget to Preview it.
Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.
Amount / Radius / Threshold (biggest difference)
DEFAULT: 20 / 50 / 0-4
125 / 1.5 / 1
100-150 / 1-1.5 / 0-1
20 / 30 / 4 (light haze)
20 / 60 / 4 (strong haze)
Save As a copy at the highest quality jpg/ tiff (12) and compare to your old photo. Alternately, open the Layers Pallet (Windows>Layers) and alternately select the topmost setting (Open) and the bottommost to see the changes.
Above all, if the only thing you do are 1) levels, 2) resize the resolution, and 3) use the unsharp mask, you will be much happier with your prints.
Extra Tip #1
For Drab, Slightly Underexposed Images. This following adjustment isn’t often needed. This occurs BEFORE the levels adjustment. For images that have a tendency to be underexposed with the histogram largely (but not all the way) to the left, the Shadow Highlight Adjustment can possibly recover them. Select Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadows/ Highlights. Under Lighten Shadows, tweak it to @ 5%. Rarely will this go above 20%. Under Darken Highlights, adjust to roughly the same amount. It may not make a framed wall hanging photo, but it can recover the finer details in that one image you took of Aunt Suzie before she died.
Hope all that helps.
Reading this takes longer than doing it, so read through it once, pick a good photo and follow along. Afterwards, it'll take you 5 minutes to make ANY picture better.
So what do you do in Photoshop? First, you are trying to bring out the beauty in a photo that you saw when you decided to snap it. I personally do not delete or add items (wires, people). Plenty of pros do.
These quick tips will help any amateur.I am not great at photography or Photoshop, but I’ve used these tips to make my photos at least not so embarrassing to regular people and I can hang a few on the walls.
Typically most PSE adjustments do not need to be drastically altered. Just tweaks. In many instances, as you adjust the sliders and look back at the image, you will not see a big difference. Most adjustment dialogs contain a Preview checkbox. You may have to check/ uncheck this several times to see any difference at all. However, the end product will look dramatically better after the adjustments accumulate. If you want just use the default settings below and run a picture through them. I’d say 90% of photos will look better.
I will not discuss creating adjustment layers or layer masks. This is just basic to let the user get a feel for what they can do to a given photo. After this, there are plenty of web resources to improve your Photoshop. I’ll focus on using Photoshop Elements (PSE). Photopaint offers similar settings.
Select a good photo with decent color. Sky is blue, grass is green, no deep black shadows, no washed out white skies.
In Photoshop, zoom the image to 100% (magnifier>actual pixels). If it’s blurry, it isn’t any good. I have a hard time distinguishing between slightly blurry and pixilated at that size though, but a really blurry photo is easy to see.
My first step is to use a plug-in called Noise Ninja to remove the noise (graininess) my camera produces. It’s cheap and works great. I use the default settings as I haven’t had a chance to study it. If you don't have it don't worry about it.
The histogram is your #1 tool. Window>Histogram. By this tool, you can tell the difference between a composed photo and a snapshot.
If your histogram shows all the way to the right, you have over-exposed the image aka “blown the highlights.” The image is too white. If all the way to the left, you have underexposed. The image will be too dark. When a portion is under- or overexposed, that portion of the photo can never be recovered. No matter how hard you try, those areas will always stay black or white. This article (http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/expose-right.shtml) shows the ideal settings & gets more in depth for exposure/ histogram/ levels.
Overexposed (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/overexposed.jpg)
Underexposed (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/underexposed.jpg)
Good Exposure 1 (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/goodexposure.jpg) and exposure 2 (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/GoodExposure2.jpg)
Just Right (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/BestExposure.jpg)
On initial views, I tend to prefer the slightly overexposed images, but after running them through Photoshop, the ones with good exposure look best.
Adjusting Levels – This is the single largest adjustment to punch up ANY photo. Select Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Adjust Levels. Using the top bar only, drag the leftmost slider to the left edge of the curve and the right-hand slider to the right edge of the curve. Adjust the center slider to taste. The center slider will rarely ever go above 1.10 or below .90. See the example. Don’t forget to click Preview off and on to see the difference.
Level After (http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h248/Hae-Yu/AdjustLevels.jpg)
Saturation – This brings out a bit more vivid color. Many digital cameras already have oversaturated images though. I know Canons (SLR or point n shoot) rarely need saturation tweaks. Enhance>Adjust Color>Adjust Hue/ Saturation. Adjust the saturation bar. My typical adjustment is 10%. There is a large difference in steps higher than 10%. I never exceed +20%.
Retouching - Use the Spot Healing Brush to fix hot pixels/ stuck pixels, dust, water drops, etc.
Crop – The whole time you’re working on the image, really look at it to determine what makes you like it and crop any unnecessary features. To crop, you open the Selection Tool and drag a square the size you want to save. After you get it right, Image>Crop.
Resize – If you plan to print, Image>Resize change the resolution to 300dpi. In fact, if you change your Edit>Preferences>Units & Rulers setting to 300 pixels/ inch you’ll thank yourself. Many home prints look like crap because PSE defaults to 72dpi (screen res). If you add text to an image in Photoshop Elements and it appears jagged (no AA) or blurry (with AA), this is your culprit. File size increases, but so will print quality. Before you print, upload to Costco/ Shutterfly, or burn it to CD to print at Wal-Mart/ Ritz, change this to 300dpi.
Unsharp Mask – This is the secret sauce. Unsharp mask sharpens your image and adds clarity. This is the last stage after everything else has finished, all layers merged. I’ve found many recommended settings on the web but the following list works best. Pick one and try it. If you don’t like the results, try another. I use the first listed setting the most. Too much introduces noise (graininess) or makes surfaces like rocks look like wet paint is on them. Here’s an explanation of what it does (http://luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/contrast-enhancement.shtml). You can Google plenty of others (Photograph Unsharp Mask).
Threshold will make the largest difference and the only real range is 0-4. 0 has the most sharpening, 5 the most subtle. Anything above 5 isn’t too noticeable. As you adjust the Threshold, don’t forget to Preview it.
Filter>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.
Amount / Radius / Threshold (biggest difference)
DEFAULT: 20 / 50 / 0-4
125 / 1.5 / 1
100-150 / 1-1.5 / 0-1
20 / 30 / 4 (light haze)
20 / 60 / 4 (strong haze)
Save As a copy at the highest quality jpg/ tiff (12) and compare to your old photo. Alternately, open the Layers Pallet (Windows>Layers) and alternately select the topmost setting (Open) and the bottommost to see the changes.
Above all, if the only thing you do are 1) levels, 2) resize the resolution, and 3) use the unsharp mask, you will be much happier with your prints.
Extra Tip #1
For Drab, Slightly Underexposed Images. This following adjustment isn’t often needed. This occurs BEFORE the levels adjustment. For images that have a tendency to be underexposed with the histogram largely (but not all the way) to the left, the Shadow Highlight Adjustment can possibly recover them. Select Enhance>Adjust Lighting>Shadows/ Highlights. Under Lighten Shadows, tweak it to @ 5%. Rarely will this go above 20%. Under Darken Highlights, adjust to roughly the same amount. It may not make a framed wall hanging photo, but it can recover the finer details in that one image you took of Aunt Suzie before she died.
Hope all that helps.