The first step to editing a digital photo is to determine what the purpose of the edit is. If the image is to be presented on the web/internet, we approach it one way, and if the object is to print the image, we approach it a different way.
Editing an image for web use:
The first thing I do with any image I am going to put on the web is to adjust the color so we have some accuracy. In Photoshop, with the image already open, click:
Image
Adjustments
Auto Color
or SHIFT+CTRL+B
That will adjust the image to a color set that Adobe thinks is correct based on the data collected when the image was created. Now, sometimes these changes will be significant, and make the image look better. On other occasions, it will make the image look completely unrealistic. On those occasions, just click on the History tab in th pallet, and delete the item called "Auto Color". That will reset the image to what it looked like before that adjustment was made. If the color looks off kilter, try using the following procedure to fine tune it. Click:
Image
Adjustments
Color Balance
or CTRL - B
When the control box opens up, move the sliders until a reasonable color representation is found. It will be pretty obvious that when you move the sliders some very significant color changes happen. With a little bit of practice, you will learn how to make changes in all areas: shadows, midtones, and highlights, and how the sliders affect each of those.
Once you have the color set that is pleasing to your eye, the next step I perform is an overall saturation. This makes the colors richer, and seemingly brighter.
To perform a saturation of the image, click:
Image
Adjustments
Hue/Saturation
or CTRL+U
To do a basic saturation, move the center slider (marked: saturation) to the right until you see the box above it read +20. Anything more than that, and the image might "pixelate". Of course you can experiment with the other sliders as well to further fine tune the image, but I have found that a generic setting of +20 on the saturation slider is usually sufficient for basic edits.
Once you are satisfied with the color saturation and hue of the image, the next step helps you sharpen your images so that they appear to be more clear. Photoshop has a built in tool called "Unsharp Mask", and in a nutshell, it cleans up the image so that it will appear to be more clear. To use the unsharp mask, click:
Filter
Sharpen
Unsharp Mask
When the dialog box appears, this is where it can get a little tricky. If you sharpen the image too much, it gets a pixeled effect that you won't like. If yo do not sharpen it enough, the image still appears to be raw. As a rule of thumb, I make my sharpness levels dependent upon the image size. Most full size images these days are in the 3000 x 2000 pixel range. Based on an image of those dimensions, the setting I sue for basic sharpness are:
Amount: 100%
Radius: 4.0 pixels
Threshold: 4 levels
If the image is larger than that, you can increase the radius to 5 or so, and if the image is a little smaller, decrease the radius to 3 or so.
When you see a before and after image with the adjustments we just did, you will be amazed!
Now for the final steps:
Remember when we needed to know what the purpose of the edit was? Now is the time to apply that information. We are going to crop the image based on what our requirements are.
If you are producing a web image, from the tool palette, click on the CROP tool or just click the letter C on your keyboard. With the CROP tool selected, look at the top of the screen and you will see some dialog boxes open. The first dialog box will be WIDTH, followed by HEIGHT, and followed again by RESOLUTION.
Type in the desired width of the image, the desired height of the image, and finally, for web use, type in 72 and click the tab next to it that says "Pixels per inch". We want to make sure that we have our resolution set at the proper parameters.
Now, with the mouse, select the area of the image that you wish to crop. You will see that as you drag any corner of the selection, it will scale up or down in the size you selected. You can also move the selected crop area by click anywhere inside the selected box and moving it with the mouse. Once you have it set the way you wish, hit the ENTER key on your keyboard, and your image will be cropped as you selected it. Save a copy, and it is now ready for web use.
In order to set the image up for printing, follow the exact same steps except, when setting up the crop, set the resolution tab to 300. Most commercial photo printers print in that basic resolution. Make the appropriate crop, save a copy, and now you are set to print.
Good luck, and Happy Editing!
About the author: Lee Randall Stewart is a professional wedding photographer with offices in Newport Beach, CA and Honolulu, HI. His work has been seen all over the world in numerous wedding photography editorials and magazines, and he remains one of the industry's leading professionals. To see his Newport Beach based website, please visit http://LeeRandallStewart.com and to see his Honolulu based website, please go to http://HawaiiPhotoStudio.com
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