Post Processing Enhancement Exercise

Hello Students,

Your new assignment is to enhance a portrait with the methods detailed below. Use a good portrait and a good landscape image and work through the following tutorials. Read through the color enhancement assignment and find a way to enhance the colors in your image to make it rich and vibrant. Next try the process listed afterward to modify additional images using the cross processing, tilt-shift affect and the "Dragan"method to create deep shadow and gritty detail in your images.

Post Processing Project:

• Work through the 3 methods below, color enhancement, cross processing and dragan effect
• Use pictures you have taken for the exercise, look for colorful images to enhance
• Work through the tutorials carefully and follow each step. Your results should show similar improvement. Experiment for best results!
• Post your 3 processed images to the flickr group, along with the 3 unedited images as well

Part 1: Color Enhancement Post Process:

• Choose your favorite colorful images from previous photo shoots and create a copy of it, open the copy up in Photoshop (it's always a good idea to edit copies and keep backups of your original images)
• Read the entire tutorial below and try each step out on your photo, adjust settings as needed to boost and enhance the image for best results, this will be different for each image
• Create an image border

For many beginning photographers, any version of the image editor, Photoshop, can look quite daunting to use. With all the menu options, palettes, tools, filters, layer styles and various changes you can make to an image, it’s difficult to know where to start. This article provides some ways to get started.

Here’s a photo I took at the San Jose Rose Garden. Notice it’s lacking control and saturation of color. It’s a little flat and lacks depth. We can adjust it with Photoshop.

To get started, simply open a colorful photo that could use a little enhancement, or an image that needs a lot of improvement...

1. Duplicate The Background Layer

The first thing you want to get used to doing is making a copy of the background layer of your image. The Layers palette should open by default, but it is also found by clicking on Windows>Layers in the menu bar of Photoshop.

Select the Background Layer and click on the little triangle at the top right of the palette. When the palette options open, click Duplicate Layer, or you can use the shortcut keystroke, Command+J.

By duplicating the background layer, you can make all types of adjustments to duplicate layers without permanently changing the original layer. If you make some adjustments you don’t like, you can drag the duplicate layers (with all the adjustments and effects you made to them) to the trash at the bottom right of the layer palette and restart the process.

2. Automatic Image Adjustments

When you start learning how to use Photoshop to improve your photos, you might want to try out some of the automatic adjustments that can be made, even if you don’t understand the tools themselves.

The basic image enhancement and adjustment tools in Photoshop are found under Image>Adjustments in the menu bar. In the Adjustment palette, there are various tools like Levels…, Auto Contrast, Curves, Brightness/Contrast.

To introduce you to these adjustment tools in this introductory photoshop tutorial, I’m going to suggest that you use the automatic and preset features of these tools. As you begin to understand them more, you will make use of manual adjustments. Try sliding the adjustments around, by exploring and experimenting you will become more fluent in expressing your artistic vision in your images.

So with your background layer duplicated and selected, click on Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels in the menu bar. When you release the mouse of the menu item, the automatic Levels adjustment should enhance or at least affect the shadow (dark), midtones, and highlights (bright) areas of your image. Often, a photo can be improved in Photoshop with just the automatic adjustments applied.

3. More About Layers

Now let’s revisit how layers work. Go back to the Layers palette and click on the little eye next the Duplicate layer that you just applied the Auto Layers adjustment to. When you toggle that little eye off, it means that you’re turning off the adjustment or effect that you made in that layer. Since the adjusted layer is on top of the background layer like a clear transparency, you can toggle the eye off and on to see how the adjustments are applied to the background layer (also remember: you can drag the duplicate layer to the trash to get rid of the adjustment(s) all together).

4. Automatic Curves

Okay, let’s return to a few other automatic adjustments and enhancements you can make to your photo. Go back to Image>Adjustments and then click on Curves. The Curves box will open. This box may look seriously scary with its grid, points, lines, and ear droppers. But don’t worry about that. We’re simply going to use some automatic adjustments to see how Curves can impact your photo.

Click on the button next to the word Preset. In the drop-down box, select Medium Contrast (RGB). If you don’t see much of a change in the contrast of your photo, go back to the Preset button and try Strong Contrast. You should be able to see the effect of the Preset on your photo before you click OK. Curves works similar to Levels but with more intensity in contrast.

Much more could be said about Curves and Levels, but this is just an introduction. You can play around with the points in the Curves box and see how they affect your photo. Remember, the changes you make are non-destructive to your photo, so you can experiment as much as you like. The illustration below explains a little about how the three main points in the grid function. If you make a mess of things, simply click Cancel and start over, or click OK when you’re satisfied with how the photo is looking.

5. Make Colors Pop

Okay, now lets move on to learn about other enhancements that can be made. One of the tools I use on nearly all the images I bring into Photoshop is one called Soft Light. Here’s how it works.

Go back to the Layers Palette, drag all the layers, except the background layer to the trash. Click on the Background layer and create another duplicate of it. Now click on the Normal button at the top of the Layers Palette. In the drop-down box, select Soft Light. When selecting this adjustment, it should make the colors of your image pop, or at least intensify the contrast of your images. The contrast of most digital images always need to be improved. This technique does that job extremely well without too much loss to detail.

If the Softlight application is too strong, select the Opacity button at the top of the Layers Palette and decrease the opacity of the layer/effect.

6. Image Border

Another tool that beginning Photoshop users might want to know is how to add a border around an image. Again there are a few ways to do this. One way is to select the top layer in the Layers palette. Next click on Image>Canvas Size. In the dialogue box that opens up, change the Width and Height to both to .2. Choose a color for your border. Make sure the center of the Anchor box is selected. Click OK and you should see a border around the image.

Part 2 and 3: Cross Process and Dragan Method:

Take your favorite images from your recent portrait assignments and create 3 different versions of each image by working through the online tutorials posted below. Post your 4 post-processed images and 4 unprocessed images (before and after) to your blog when complete:

Cross-Processing:

Cross processing is an effect where the film is developed with the wrong mix of chemicals. Work through the tutorial to recreate this effect and make your photo look like it's source was film and not digital. The border around the film is called the "film rebate". Search for one on google images to use on yours.

Link: Dragan Effect:

Andrzej Dragan's photography is known for having an intensity in detail and tonal depth. Try to mimic his technique with photoshop by working through the video tutorial.
Prefer a plain tutorial? Check out this link: Dragan Effect in 5 steps

Have fun!

 - Mr.W