Photoshop Tutorials: Making the Most of an Average Photo–Part I

By Stephen in Photoshop, Tutorials

Photoshop Tutorials: Making the Most of an Average Photo – Part I

Make the most of a lifeless photo using Photoshop’s entourage of tools.

We’re all familiar with the truckload of utterly mediocre shots we end up with after taking the camera out for a shoot somewhere. So what does one do when one of the photos they want to use just isn’t quite there? GO AND TAKE A BETTER ONE! *cough* Well, um, asides that . . . we hop skip and tumble into Ps.
Tools: Photoshop CS1, 2, 3 or 4
Skill Level: Intermediate
Requires An Understanding Of: Adjustment layers, cloning, blending modes
Time estimation: 30 minutes
Resources Necessary: All original files along with the layered .psd can be downloaded here

Final Product:

Step 1: Preparation
So, first things first, go find a photo that is pretty much technically OK, but just looks plain boring. While you do that I’m going to change CDs.

*Fumbles in CD rack . . . click*

Okay, so here’s the photo I picked.

Pros

  1. Good subject
  2. Good focus
  3. Interesting foreground
  4. Movement in the photo adds life to an otherwise boring shot

Cons

  1. Boring lighting
  2. Even though the background is slightly blurry sitting outside the DOF (depth of field), it’s still boring and cluttering the shot.
  3. The main subject bird looks like he has a conjoined twin

Well, there we have it. By identifying the pros and cons of any photo you can quickly work out whether it’s worth saving or not. In this case I definitely think it is. So, let’s get on with it!

Step 2: Identifying the Distractions
Extremely important to a good piece of art is keeping the focus of the piece clear and easily notable. By looking at this photo I can instantly see about a billion distractions. I’ve highlighted them below so you can see what I mean.

It’s important to clone these distractions out first as we will be using adjustment layers later on, along with blending modes which will make any cloning a jolly pain in the neck. So get out your Clone Stamp tool (shortcut S) and clone out the areas circled. Make sure to duplicate your background layer by pressing Ctrl+J (Cmd + J for Mac) first. (It’s always wise to keep a backup, just trust me there.

HELPFUL HINT: If you’re new to cloning, it’s essentially taking data from one part of the image and putting it somewhere else. To use the stamp tool, hold down Alt and click the area you want to use as a reference for copying, and click and paint that area over what you would like to erase.

To get a nice edge around the bird, I’m going to quickly draw a marquee around the edges of the bird so that the clone brush can’t touch the bird. Feather the selection by clicking Select > Feather (Alt+Ctrl+D, or Alt+Cmd+D for Mac) and entering 1px.

Next, add a layer mask to your cloned layer (second button from left at the bottom of the layers palette), grab a black paint brush and start erasing the harsh edges around the bird’s feet and tail feathers. Another benefit of duplicating layers is the ability to layer mask at any stage.

Step 3: Lighting
Right now our photo is suffering from a severe case of mid-afternoon, overcast and tremendously dull lighting. But I’m going to demonstrate a nifty technique to you which is called a “match color”. The best part is, it’s really quite easy.

The idea behind a colour match is that you take the lighting and colouring from one photo and apply it to another. So in this case we’re going to find a shot that has much better and more interesting colours than this one and apply it to our lackluster photo.

Here’s my match colour shot:

To do this, make sure both photos are open in Photoshop then click back to the photo you are working on. Merge your cloned layer to your background layer by selecting them both and pressing Ctrl+E (Cmd+E for Mac), and then click Image > Adjustments > Match Color.

HELPFUL HINT: If you want to apply the Color Match, or any other filter, to an isolated portion of an image, you can do this simply by making a selection with the Marquee Tool then applying the filter. Only portions included in your selection will be affected by the chosen filter. Adjustment layers also work very similar in that selections are turned into layer masks.

Select the image you are using to match colours from the “Source” drop down box. If you are using my example pictures and have ticked the “preview” box then the photo will already be looking much cooler, but we’re going to go a lot further and make it even better. Change your settings to the following:

Luminance (A type of exposure level for the final merged image): 200
Color Intensity (The intensity of the colours from the matched image): 173
Fade (How much of the original colour scheme you wish to retain): 0

Click OK. Now we are well on our way to eliminating the boring lighting in this photo.

Step 3: Exposure and Shadows
Our lighting looks much better now, but it’s still pretty flat and grossly over saturated. In fact, let’s fix the gaudy saturation first.

A quick and awesome (non-destructive) way to lower the saturation of the overall image is to create a new adjustment layer by clicking the circular shortcut button at the bottom of the layers palette (3 from the left) called “Create new fill or adjustment layer”. Choose “Hue/Saturation” from the pop up list.

Lower the Master saturation to -85.
Lower the Reds channel to -30
Lower the Yellows to -12
Completely remove the Blue channel (-100)
Completely remove the Magenta channel (-100)
Click OK.

Your image should look pretty desaturated now, but don’t worry, it gets better!

Next we’re going to bump the exposure by creating a Curves adjustment layer. Again, click the little adjustment layer button at the bottom of the layers palette and choose “Curves”.

Make a new node at the input “150″ and raise the output to 189. Click OK. Rearrange the Curves layer to be below the Hue/Saturation layer.

Make one more adjustment layer like we did above, but this time choose “Levels” and clip the blacks back to 114. Click OK. Move the Levels layer to the top layer and change the opacity to 70%

Step 4: Blending Modes and Burning
This is where we put the finishing touches on our image. It’s almost there but still looks lifeless. Not to fear, time to call on blending modes.

Duplicate the background layer by clicking it and pressing Ctrl+J (Cmd+J on the Mac). Set the blending mode of the new layer to Hard Light. Double click the layer to get into layer styles and add a Color Overlay. Leave the colour at the default fluorescent red and set the blending mode to Hue. Click OK.

Now all that is left to do is the burning. Grab the Burn tool (hidden under the Dodge tool, shortcut O) along with a nice and big brush size, select Shadows from the “Range” area and remove the final distraction: the car in the near background. You will need to change the Range to Highlights to get rid of the glares from the sun on the car’s exterior.

Finished!

There we go, that wasn’t so hard, was it? As you can see, boring photos can sometimes have a whole stack of potential hiding behind their dull exteriors. It just takes a little patience and some know-how to turn them into something special.

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and learned something from it. If you would like to request a tutorial, you can do so simply by clicking the button below and filling out a quick form.

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3 Responses to “Photoshop Tutorials: Making the Most of an Average Photo–Part I”

  1. Rachel Kate says:
    January 8, 2010 at 8:03 am

    how come i didn’t get the clever genes ???

    Reply
  2. Gartonious says:
    February 1, 2010 at 2:19 pm

    Perhaps you could point out that if you do not want your colour match to be applied to the whole bird image, you must select the portions that the colour match is to apply to before actually doing it. (eg the seagull)

    Reply
    • Stephen says:
      February 2, 2010 at 10:46 pm

      Yep, that’s a good tip, and it doesn’t only apply to the color match filter but to any effect or adjustment layer (these will turn your selection into a layer mask). Thanks, I’ll put it in.

      Reply

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