Adjusting Images for Maximum Quality.

Adjustments are a great way to enhance your photo.

When you bring in a photo, it often looks "OK", however there are many tricks that will enhance your photo before your eyes.

The Image>Adjustments tab at the top will correct or enhance your image.

The first thing to do would be to adjust the levels (Image>Adjustments>Levels).  Even if the photo looks fine, this will make it look better! We suggest to use the manual levels over the auto levels, as you have more control of the end result.

The picture below is an example of manually adjusted levels.  If you decide to adjust the levels after you have used another adjustment tool, the levels will not work as well. We recommend to do this as the first step with any image.

the best tip to learn when working with Photographs is to take a good shot from the beginning. If this is achieved, it is much easier to fine tune your photo in Photoshop. Go to this page to find out about good resolution.

Another great trick in the Image-Adjustments is the "Curves" tool.

For example, with the image we are using for this tutorial has a very washed out background, but the foreground is fine. Curves are useful to adjust a particular part of the image only, whilst keeping the correct part the same.

Firstly, open the curves box, your normal pick tool will turn into an eyedropper tool, click on the area you need to adjust and watch the curves box, a small circle will appear indicating where you should adjust the curves.

Remember! You need to "lock" the rest of the image first so the correct curves stay the same. To lock the image, click in the centre of the line.

There are many color adjustment tools in Photoshop. The three best ones are the "Color Balance", "Variations" and "Photo Filter". All work slightly differently, so play around and see which one best suits what you need to achieve.

Color is a very important in the printing industry, the more you learn about color, the better you will understand the color adjustment tools in Photoshop.

Check out this link to learn more about color.

There are many different brands of films and digital cameras, all with different in built color settings. Remember, they can't see how the eye sees. To obtain a more natural looking color, these tools are fantastic.

The first example below is the "Color Balance" tool, this photo had a lot of blue, making the person's skin look grey. So by adding a bit more yellow and magenta, we get a cleaner, more natural looking image.

The second example is using the "Photo Filter" tool. New to Photoshop CS2, this tool is a photographers dream. It also gives a more natural look, and with this tool, you can add warmth, or cool down the picture easily.

The third example is of the variations, a typically original Photoshop tool, and loved by many. This tool is simple and self explanatory, so check it out for yourself!

Another important tool, which is also new to Photoshop CS, is the "Exposure" tool. With this tool, you don't even need to take good photos anymore! This tool is absolutely amazing, and you should always use this tool to see if it enhances your photo, it usually does..

This photo is overexposed and has a milky look to it because the lens was open too wide.

Once the Exposure Levels have been adjusted..

Important Tip! Don't go too far with these tools, only slight adjustments are necessary to gain maximum quality.

Also, once one adjustment has been made, it will effect all the others, so use layers!

 Find out more about layers