Photography tips – editing process

A few weeks ago Anna inquired as to whether I would try my hand at other’s photos in the processing department.  “Sure!”, I said.  Here are the results and the processing:

Anna’s photo 1:

Original:

 

Processed:

 

Processed black and white: 

 

Steps:

1. Defog (Filter->Sharpen->Unsharpen Mask 20/60/0)
2. Add a Levels adjustment layer with the # for the Input Levels at 0/1.54/252
3. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer with the # -10/+20
4. Erase away the areas on the adjustment layers where her face was too bright/blown.
5. Use the dodge tool at 20% over areas on her face that were still a little dark.
6. Add a Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the # 0/20/0
7. Flatten layers
8. Sharpen (Filter->Sharpen->Unsharpen Mask 80/1/4)
9. Save the color .jpg
10. Add Gradient Map adjustment layer
11. Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the # 30/8/0 (make sure the colorize box is checked)
12. Save the b&w .jpg

Anna photo 2 (couldn’t resist doing this one!):

Original:

 

Processed:

 

Processed black and white: 

 

Steps:

1. Defog (Filter->Sharpen->Unsharpen Mask 20/60/0)
2. Add a Levels adjustment layer with the # for the Input Levels at 10/1.64/233
3. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer with the # +5/+25
4. Erase away the areas on the adjustment layers where his white shirt was too bright/blown.
5. Use the dodge tool at 20% on and around his eyes to brighten them up.
6. Go to Enhance ->Color Variations and set the midtones at the lowest level and add red once and reduced blue once.
7. Flatten layers
8. Sharpen (Filter->Sharpen->Unsharpen Mask 100/1/4)
9. Used the burn tool and went around the edges.
10. Noticed there were some remnants of something on his face and used the clone tool to get rid of it (the best friend of those with little children!  There is always something on their faces.) 
11. Save the color .jpg
12. Add Gradient Map adjustment layer
13. Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the # 30/8/0 (make sure the colorize box is checked)
14. Save the b&w .jpg

Alissa’s photo (she gave me a hard one!):

Original:

Processed:

Processed black and white: 

 

This one was hard because her oldest had the sun hitting his face, causing some blowouts (erasing all detail and color) and then her youngest was in his brothers shadow.  What I tend to do to save pictures with the blowouts is that I use the clone tool at a light opacity and copy it over where the blowout occurred.  You have to be careful when doing this.  I know I could have done a better job at this, but I was pressed for time.  You just have to make sure to step back and look to see how natural it looks. 

Steps:

1. Defog (Filter->Sharpen->Unsharpen Mask 20/60/0)
2. Used the clone tool on the burned out areas
3. Add a Levels adjustment layer with the # for the Input Levels at 0/1.78/245
4. Add a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer with the # 0/+15
5. Erase away the areas on the adjustment layers where Drew’s face got too bright again.
6. Erase the sky and some of the landscape as brightening up the photo took out a lot of the rich colors.
7. Use the Saturate tool at around 25% and go over the sky and landscape to pop the colors.
8. Use the dodge tool at 20% on and around their eyes to brighten them up.
9. Flatten layers
10. I ran the free Noiseware program on the picture since there was some color noise after brightening up the photo.
11. Save the color .jpg
12. Add Gradient Map adjustment layer
13. Add Hue/Saturation adjustment layer with the # 30/25/0 (make sure the colorize box is checked)
14. Used the burn tool around the edges
15. Save the b&w .jpg