My standard processing

Today I'm going to show you my standard processing. I do these basic edits on almost every photo. Since I'm working with PS-Elements 2.0, I don't have the option of running actions - but oh how I'd love to create actions for these steps! For now, though, I do it all the long way.

Note: I started the tutorial using this picture, and afterwards I realized it probably wasn't the best choice: the final results are rather understated, without a dramatic change from one step to the next. Oh well, I'm too lazy to start again with another photo! So you'll just have to try it yourself to see what an impact these quick little edits can make.

SOOC photo


The first thing I do is create a duplicate layer and run Auto adjustments for Level, Contrast and Color Correction. I know some people feel that's cheating, but I'm lazy and I like to see what the program suggests first. If Photoshop will do my work for me, I'm all for that! Not uncommonly, I don't like what I see and immediately delete the layer; but equally often, I do like the automatic corrections and I go with it. The nice thing about using a duplicate layer is that I can adjust the opacity according to how strong I want the effect to me. I think in this case, I gave the "automatic adjustments" layer an opacity of about 45% and then flattened.


Next I sharpen the image. It seems an unsharp mask is the most popular way to sharpen, but that's not how I do it. Quite a while ago, I was warned that the unsharp mask can cause unwanted noise, and, while I can't vouch for the accuracy of that statement, it has become habit to sharpen using an alternate method. I create a duplicate layer, change the blending mode to Soft Light, and then go to Filter -> Other -> High Pass. This gives you the option to select your radius; I've found that most portraits work best with a radius around 10, but more dramatic sharpening works with faceless images. For this one, I went with a radius of 25.


At this point I flatten and do any cropping or rotating necessary. I did crop/rotate this picture a bit, but the change is not very noticeable.

Now it's time to really make the picture pop. I create two duplicate layers; the top one gets a Soft Light blending mode, and the second layer gets Screen for blending mode. Just like that, the picture is bright and cheerful with colors that pop off the screen.


But often, full strength is too much. The good thing is that since we're working with duplicate layers, we can once again adjust the opacity to taste. I usually keep Soft Light at almost full strength, but adjust Screen to around 30%. It all depends on the photo. Another trick I sometimes use is to tweak Soft Light in curves, moving the middle slider left which decreases the shadows. Here's the result for this photo:


Once again flatten, and now we just have one last little thing to do. I like to put my subject in the light by putting a vignette around the edges. There are a lot of ways to do a vignette, but since I do this so often I want it to be quick and easy. So I do it the quick and easy way, not necessarily the best way. Using the Burn tool, I take a big, soft brush at around 20% exposure and sweep it around the edges of the picture to darken them just a bit.



Final comparision:


Let me know if you have any requests for next week!

One more quick note...Carrie just reminded me that I forgot to mention noise reduction. I use Imagenomic NoiseWare, the free community edition. It works pretty well and has helped save a lot of photos, but use it with caution as the results can look somewhat plastic-y. I used to run it on almost everything, but now I only use it on pics that really need help with noise. Of couse, it's a lot easier to skip noise reduction now that I have a rockin' camera that does pretty well even at higher ISO! ;o)