Every once in a while I get questions like: “What do you do with a picture in Photoshop?” or “How much do you work on a picture in Photoshop?“.
Well, first of all let me make one thing clear: I love Photoshop. And as far as post processing goes, I usually spend quite a lot of time with a picture in Photoshop. However, I do strive for a perfect picture already in-camera, but – just like people back in dark room days – for me post processing is a must do, to get the results I want.
The answer to the post processing question is quite complex though, since it varies a lot depending on the image and what kind of feeling I want it to communicate. That being said, there are some basic adjustments that can be applied to most pictures. Basically I work a lot with focus – I want the eye to focus on the right parts of the picture, making it easier to look at. I do that already when photographing, as I almost always shoot wide open (low f-stop), but also in the processing phase by working with light. Light is a good way to ‘steer’ the eye to some parts of a picture, thus making the subject you want to be in focus ‘pop out’.
Let me exemplify to make it clearer. I’ve made this a three step mini-tutorial, with the three basic adjustments that I use a lot. I work in Adobe Photoshop only (after the basic RAW adjustments in Adobe Lightroom) but these adjustments can probably be done in a variety of image processing softwares.
Step 1: Contrast by S-curve
First of all, I almost always add some contrast to the pictures. Since I shoot in RAW-format only, this is done already in the RAW-processing. But I still usually add an S-curve in Photoshop as well. The S-curve (in-depth explanation here) is the ‘traditional’ way of adding contrast to a picture in digital post processing – making the dark parts darker, and the bright parts brighter to get the subject to ‘pop out’ of the image.
Here’s what a photo looks like before the S-curve and after the S-curve.
Step 2: Dodge and Burn
This is probably my favourite Photoshop feature. I love Dodge and Burn. Love. Use it almost always on all kinds of picutres, to darken some parts of a picture and lighten others. And to make that so popular vignette effect. There are many other ways to make vignettes, but the burn tool has replaced all of those techniques for me.
Here’s what the picture looks like before I’ve dodged and burnt, and afterwards:
Step 3: Sharpen
This is the final step that I do on almost every single image. Sometimes I sharpen parts of the picture more than others, but usually an overall sharpening is enough. But before sharpening, always (alway, always, always) resize the image to the size you want it to be. Whether it’s a 600×600 pixel image for online viewing or a 20×30 cm picture for print. If done the other way around (sharpening first, then resizing) the sharpening won’t be as effective, since resizing deletes pixels in a digital image.
There are tons of ways to sharpen a picture in Photoshop. The most common methods are perhaps unsharp mask and smart sharpening, both good techniques. I don’t use these, but instead a method a wee more complicated (the numbers below is for picture viewed on a screen, up to about 1000 px wide):
First, merge all layers so you get a new layer on top of the others (shortcut Cmd+Alt+Shift+E on a Mac, Ctrl+Alt+Schift+E on a PC). Then add the High Pass effect (radius: 0,3) to the layer and set it’s layer style to Linear light. This sharpens the image quite a lot, so I usually lower the layer opacity to about 50-70 %.
Here’s the before and after:
That’s it. Three quite simple yet effective techniques to improve a picture. You can get this effect in a variety of ways, and I’m not saying this is how it’s done. But it’s the way I do it.
Here’s once again the full before and after:
I probably would have worked some more on this picture to get it perfect, but this was a rough edit to show you some of the techniques I use.
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Since this blog is still quite the baby (about 3 moths old now), I haven’t really found the perfect recipe for it yet. That’s why it’d be great with some feedback from you. Is this something you’d like me to write more about? Post processing techniques. Or is there anything else you’d like me to cover, photography or Photoshop wise? If so, please let me know in the comments, or send me an e-mail. I’d appreciate it.
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