Image Improvement Workflow
- Examine image carefully.
Consider the following:- Composition
- Color balance
- Tonality
- Dust, dirt, or scratches
- Check image resolution
- Choose Image>Image Size
- Is resolution adequate for output needs? Ie: Inkjet printer, Dye-sublimation printer, 4-color press, Web etc.
- Crop your image
Using the crop tool:
- Remove unnecessary borders
- Improve composition
- Adjust tonality
- Does the image possess rich blacks, bright whites, as well as good shadow and highlight detail?
- Yes. Move on to Step 5
- No. Choose Image>Adjust>Levels and adjust highlight and shadow sliders. Lighten or darken image with middle (Gamma slider.
- Consider making overall tonal corrections as well as localized corrections using selections.
- Correct the color
- Are skin tones believable?
- Are known grays neutral?
- Yes. Move on to Step 6
- No. Choose Images>Adjust>Color Balance and adjust color sliders.
- Consider making overall color corrections as well as localized corrections using selections.
- Photoshop Magic-Using Layers for each step!
- Remove flaws on:
- -skin; clothing; overall image
- Use Portraiture Imagenomics : used for skin softening, skin warmth and contrast are also adjusted. It only affects the skin and nothing else if you wish.
- Eyes: apply eye shadow, add lashes or make longer ones
- Eyes: Changing the color of eyes- use the lasso tool and encircle both iris of the eyes. Feather by 3. Open Hue and Saturation and move sliders. If you don’t get the color you like try clicking the colorize box. You can also add selective color to the mix. Many times you may need to dodge the color portion of dark brown colored eyes to lighten them up so that they accept a color change. A 50% gray layer with blending mode on overlay should be used to do your dodging no matter what type of dodging you do.
- Eyes: remove small light reflections in corners of eyes (not catch light)
- Checks: apply blush to the cheeks. Fix Hot spots on cheek using clone stamp in blending mode darken. Select 30% opacity. Adjust the opacity on a layer if you need to and then merge it down when it just right.
- Lips: change the color of lipstick
- Lips: fill in unwanted gaps/spaces. Zoom in very close, use the patch tool in very small pieces working your way across the lips. Zoom out to check your works.
- Teeth: whiten up the teeth
- Hair: Adding Hair- add several pieces of hair image. Using the lasso tool encircle a piece of hair. Feather the radius by 5 pixels do a control copy clear the “ants” and do a control “v.” The piece of hair will now show up on a new layer. Now do a File new making sure it is going to open up on a transparent layer. Open and drag the layer over onto the new file. Cleaning up the images is easy on the new layer. Drag the hair to models head then use transform warp to help ease it in place. The hair can also be reversed, erased to be shortened or opacity reduced to fit in. Remember, each piece of hair needs to be on one layer.
- Sharpen
- Is the image sharp enough?
- Yes. You’re finished.
- No. Choose Filer>Sharpen>Unsharp Masking and adjust Amount value.
- OR Use Smart Sharpen - 150% Radius 1.5 set Gaussian Blur, Basic checked, & more accurate unchecked
- Two last things to do!
- Check your levels. Decreasing the mid-tones make a big difference. If you feel you need to add Hue & Sat to boost your colors this is the place to do it.
- Last but not least do a double hit of the “F” key to view the image on a black background. This way you can check the cropping and make sure the image has that “POP” you are looking for!
- Save your work
- Are you satisfied with your new and improved image?
- No. Return to the appropriate step.
- Yes. Choose. File>SaveAs.
- In the Save As dialog box name your image and choose a format. Click Save.
by Bonnie J Matthews-Franke
Bonnie has been taking pictures since she was a little girl, but she didn't get into digital photography until about 2009, just before she joined the club.
Matthews-Franke finds the club to be very beneficial to her. The interaction with other members, being able to ask questions, the workshops and the knowledge that I take away from the club is phenomenal.
She believes the meetings, workshops and field trips are very beneficial, specially to the new members. Her favorites were the Fall Color Trips; Mono Lake Trips and the workshops were she had her camera and could play along.
She love landscapes. She just finished a vacation trip to Oregon where she photographed lighthouses, old barns and covered bridges. The older the structure the better
.
She also loves portraits, and shooting in her own studio.
Matthews-Franke has more than a few Canon's, a Canon 7D, a Canon 5D MKII and a few more with a variety of lenses and accessories. Her favorite lens is a 28-135mm ,70-200mm. & 100mm.
Matthews-Franke was our secretary of the club for a few years and helped made many changes to help us grow.
Matthews-Franke finds the club to be very beneficial to her. The interaction with other members, being able to ask questions, the workshops and the knowledge that I take away from the club is phenomenal.
She believes the meetings, workshops and field trips are very beneficial, specially to the new members. Her favorites were the Fall Color Trips; Mono Lake Trips and the workshops were she had her camera and could play along.
She love landscapes. She just finished a vacation trip to Oregon where she photographed lighthouses, old barns and covered bridges. The older the structure the better
.She also loves portraits, and shooting in her own studio.
Matthews-Franke has more than a few Canon's, a Canon 7D, a Canon 5D MKII and a few more with a variety of lenses and accessories. Her favorite lens is a 28-135mm ,70-200mm. & 100mm.
Matthews-Franke was our secretary of the club for a few years and helped made many changes to help us grow.
