Photography Tutorial: Quick And Simple Way To Boost Your Photographs

This is a tutorial for photographers who want to give their images an extra boost.
We'll be using photoshop in this tutorial, but the effect can be achieved with other graphics programs.

End result:

Author:

Views: 17705

Score: 7.85 / 10

Author earned: $5

Practice tutorial

Tags:adjustmentboosthighlightslayers

Step 1

This image doesn't look very wrong. But wait until it's edited.

Step 2

First duplicate the background layer by pressing Ctrl+J.
Then open the curves. image->adjustments->Curves or Ctrl+M.

Step 3

Make an "S-shape" with the curve. This makes the Highlights lighter and the shadows darker which adds more contrast to the whole image.

Step 4

Look! That difference is already HUGE!

Step 5

Next open up the Levels. image->adjustment->Levels or Ctrl+L
Drag the sliders to something like this. This adds even more contrast.

Step 6

Open up color balance. image->adjustments->color balance. And drag the sliders to something that looks just right for your image.

Step 7

The eyes looks a bit dark but that will be fixed now. Make a selection around the eye using lasso or pen tool.
Then right click inside the selection and choose "feathers" give it an amount of 3. This will make the selection a bit softer.

Step 8

Then open the curves again. image->adjustments->curves and make the eye as light as you want.

Step 9

The hair has a lot of BOH (blown out highlights (the highlights don't have any details at all)) this is easy to fix. First make a selection and give it a feather of 15 as in step 7.

Step 10

Open up the curves once again and drag it downwards to make the middletones darker.

Step 11

11. Now we will fix this "baby-acne" This is done by opening the tool "smart healing brush".
Now choose a soft brush and a good size by rightclicking anywhere and then just press on what you want to remove.

Step 12

Smooth as a baby butt :)

Step 13

Now make a selection around the lollipop. Add feather if the object has a soft edge.

Step 14

Drag down the curve to give it more contrast.

Step 15

Press Ctrl+alt+c to open up this dialog. Make sure "relative" is checked and insert a number. 0,5 cm in each worked good on this image.

Step 16

Now you have a 0,5 cm frame arond the whole image.

Step 17

That difference is HUGE!

Step 18

There you have one good image. This effect works for almost all photos.

This can also be done with adjustment layers and layer masks, but this was made in photoshop CS3.

Good luck choppers!

19 Comments:

ponti55 says:

Nice, clear instructions. Thanks!

(2 years and 97 days ago)

fille says:

not bad, but too much work - that all is possible to make with shadows/highlight with whole picture (not detail by detail) and with better result (shadow area don't go totally dark and invisible). cheers!

(2 years and 95 days ago)

Lodd says:

Tnx guys, Fille: i know it takes some time. but if you wants to do the image as perfect as possible it will take some time.

(2 years and 94 days ago)

fille says:

actually i don't talk about time but rationality - i started too with this method, what you show here, but i found that i loose in this way some information, and needed to think out something else... but anyway is here showed some good tricks, if you need somehow very detailed work.. aaand ofcourse you know i don't attack you cheers!

(2 years and 94 days ago)

wind says:

I find this very useful... Thanks!

(2 years and 94 days ago)

adeincyprus says:

Guys, we all have our own methods for achieving these results.........this is another good one, no one method is better than the other, it all depends on how we work individually. So, just look at it, make sensible comments, and vote on it. Well done author, I will try it! Thank you for your time and efforts.

(2 years and 92 days ago)

Guest says:

What is the best way to achieve these results with photoshop elements 2.0 (that's all I have)

(2 years and 92 days ago)

Lodd says:

Hi guest, i don't really know since i don't have elements.
I guess you can use almost all of the methods i did.

(2 years and 91 days ago)

Guest says:

very good learn a lot

(2 years and 90 days ago)

Guest says:

thanks I'm gonna try some of your tips

(2 years and 85 days ago)

Guest says:

thankyou for sharing.

(2 years and 49 days ago)

MaRkSqUiRrEl says:

Nice tutorial Lodd. Well written.

(2 years and 43 days ago)

Guest says:

Not as good as i expected. It looks only 20% as beautiful after editing as would have been if i had done it. Well try kid, but brush up your talents, otherwise, you cannot convert them to the original HD image.

(2 years and 31 days ago)

Lodd says:

I think i can make it more beatiful to Guest. tho this workflow takes minutes not hours...

(2 years and 20 days ago)

k5683 says:

very good! Simple AND QUICK! Thanks

(2 years and 16 days ago)

Lamantine says:

great tutorial ! thanks Lodd !

(1 year and 299 days ago)

Guest says:

two thumbs up for your quick and simple tutorial!

(1 year and 235 days ago)

shanimhhs says:

good tutorial

(279 days ago)

Guest says:

thank you

(116 days ago)

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