Thousands of photographers around the world dream that their work will be recognized and loved. But to achieve this is impossible without professional photo processing. It happens that a shadow from the sun covers half a face, or because of the wind, the hair of a beautiful girl is shaggy at the time of taking the picture. It is not always possible to prevent such force majeure. For this reason, the graphic editor Adobe Photoshop was created. Every photographer must know how professional photo processing in Photoshop works correctly.
Why do I need to edit a photo?
In addition to problems with disheveled hair and excess shadows, there are other reasons why you need to make changes to photos:
- There is a "light / overexposure." There is also an excess of shadows. When nothing is visible on the image except dazzling white or when it is too dark. It should be fixed.
- The picture is not juicy enough. Not enough contrast.
- The color tones in the illustration are not true.
- The person in the image is poorly positioned or makes certain movements, because of which the outer clothing takes an unnatural form. Or you need to try to "fix" the strange facial expression of the character in the photo.
- If you want the person for whom the photographs were created, it becomes necessary to remove the stomach or “draw” the muscles.
- You need to apply a filter to the image to give it a plot-appropriate effect.
- In some situations, you need to turn the work into an art image (photography will have a fantastic genre).
- Remove excess objects from the image in case of excess.
This is only a third of the list of how and why you need to do photo processing in Photoshop. There are an infinite number of reasons, it all depends on a particular job, model and circumstances. And also from the desire of the customer.
How to edit?
During the existence of the graphic editor, people have developed many unique styles of photo processing in Photoshop. Lessons on some are uploaded to the Network for general use, and someone simply teaches people how to work properly in person, calling it "exclusive professional retouching."
Whether you are a photographer or not, it doesn’t matter if you dream of making photos colorful, vibrant and vibrant. In any case, it is best for you to resort to the artistic processing of photos in Photoshop.
To do everything right, you need to follow a simple algorithm of actions.
Start. Lighting Alignment
Once you have selected a file and are ready to start editing, you need to carefully examine it to understand what needs to be fixed. Most often, first you need to stabilize the lighting:
1. Open your document in Photoshop and create a new layer using the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + j.
2. Select the "Curves" item in the panel located above the layer menu.
3. Hook your cursor over the curve line and pull up. Look carefully at how the lightened object will look. Do not make it too bright or leave it very dark. During this action, the whole picture will become clarified, but this is normal, we have not finished yet.
4. On the curve layer, press Ctrl + I. This command is called "Invert Image". If you did everything correctly, the image will return to its original lighting, but the curve layer will remain.
5. Select the Brush tool. Ask her the size that will be convenient for you. Having set the color to white, begin to paint over dark areas.
6. After you carefully paint over all the necessary places, click on the “Opacity” item and select the optimal intensity for applying this effect.
7. Next, you need to crank the same with the background. Create a new layer that will preserve your past changes by using the keyboard shortcut Shift + Ctrl + E.
8. The background on the example of a photograph from this article is too "white". It is necessary to darken it. Select the Quick Selection tool and place the brush on the + sign. Gently highlight the girl in the photo. The background should remain unselected.
9. When done, click on the "Highlight" (it is located on the top panel), and then "Invert".
10. Press the "Curves" item again, but do not raise the line on the diagram, as you did when you lightened the object. On the contrary, lower it to such a level that the background becomes a little darker. Just do not overdo it. All colors in the illustration should be in harmony with each other.
So, you got the lighting done.
How to apply "Plastic"?
Many girls, for example, turn out to be fuller in the pictures than they really are. Or the clothes stick out unsuccessfully from different directions for some reason, like a strong wind. This is removed in the following way:
1. Create a new canvas again: Shift + Ctrl + E.
2. Click on "Filter" and select "Plastic" from the menu that opens.
3. A new panel will appear. Set the size of the brush and begin to gently pull up the sticking patches of clothing. It’s as if you are “doing worse” than the person in the photo. This is your goal. Be careful and do not overdo it, otherwise the human anatomy will be violated. Do everything to your liking.
4. After clicking OK, the result will appear in the photo. To see how it was and what became, click on the eye located on the left side of the layer you are working on. When the eye disappears, you can see what happened before the effect was applied. As soon as you click on it again, your finished result will return.
Sharpening
Improving the sharpness of the image is very important, since blurry borders may appear when viewed on a large screen. Not everyone has powerful lenses that can create the highest quality work. To add clarity, you must:
1. Select "Filter" and "Sharpness." You need Contour Sharpness.
2. A panel will appear where you will set the sharpness indicators that suit you. There will also be a small screen where you can see all the changes. As soon as you set the necessary settings, click "OK".
You can change the opacity if you want to slightly reduce the sharpness. Stop when you reach the perfect fit for you.
3. You can change the opacity if you want to slightly reduce the sharpness. Stop when you reach the perfect fit for you.
Color filters
The steps described above are enough to achieve an excellent result in processing.
But if you wish, you can use various filters to make the photo even better, deeper and juicier. If you have downloaded filters, use them. If they are absent, do not worry, many of them are free and it will not be difficult to get them. Type in a search engine, for example, Nik Collection. Analog efex pro 2. Follow the instructions, and you can set interesting filters for processing photos in Photoshop.
This article presents a photograph processed using such a filter with shades of dark blue.
How to remove shadows?
Sometimes, no matter how you pose the person, whatever aspect you take for photography, the sun still falls unsuccessfully, which is why ugly shadows form on your face. The picture is good, but the dark elements interfere. Do not worry, you do not have to throw out work or redo it. Here's what you need to do:
1. After opening the desired file, create a new layer (Ctrl + j). Select the repair brush tool.
2. Holding the Alt button, click on the place on the skin of the face where there are no shadows and there is a clear color that prevails throughout the face. Click on the left mouse button.
3. Now move the cursor to those areas where there are shadows, and click there. Smooth them smoothly so that the shadows begin to gradually disappear, "merging" with the skin of the face.
4. It is important to remember that situations are different. If the shadows are too black or will be in those places where it is difficult to remove them with a “recovery brush”, use additional tools. For example, "stamp" or "patch." They perform almost the same function as a brush, but the effect on the shot is different. It is worth using these tools together in order to achieve a better result.
5. If you do not want the dark areas to disappear completely, and you need them to be hidden only slightly, make the opacity lower.
Thanks to these simple steps, you can do photo processing in Photoshop from unnecessary blackouts.
Change the color of hair or objects
Often you want to change the color of outerwear, an object, or even a person’s hairstyle. This is done simply:
- Create a new layer: Ctrl + j.
- Need the Quick Selection tool. A brush on the + sign.
- Select the object whose color you need to change.
- Open the "Color balance" item and start changing the color indicators until you come to the color that you need.
This is how you can change the color of some objects in the photo. Processing photos in "Photoshop" in order to change the color of hair or objects can be made in other ways. But this one is one of the simplest.
What are operations?
There are some "actions" or, as they are called in other words, operations. Their meaning is to automate or speed up the process of restoration of a large number of photographs, if the same commands are used.
The editor “remembers” your every action after pressing the record button. It stops recording only after your command. Ready-made "records" are stored in the "default operations" folder or in the one you create yourself.
The actions for Photoshop for processing photos are convenient when, for example, you have 50 similar pictures and you need to crop them all the same way.
You will need to "create a new operation", do the process of cropping the picture, click the "Stop" button and that’s it! After that, every time you open a new photo, by clicking on "Operations" you can find the created action in the folder and apply it to the new file without repeating the cropping procedure step by step.
Such actions here are not convenient for every photographer, as some process all their work very differently, using different effects and settings. Unless it’s convenient, it will only be in the case of cropping images or using a color effect that you want to apply to several pictures at once.
It is worth noting that the methods for processing photos in Photoshop described in the article are also suitable for beginners, since there is nothing complicated in them.
Note to browser
There are a few things to keep in mind before you get started with Adobe Photoshop:
- Filters with cool shades of blue are great for processing winter photos in Photoshop.
- If you see that the picture is good and without any editing, do not spoil it. Use the editor only when absolutely necessary.
Whether you are a photographer or an ordinary person, the ability to work in a graphical editor is useful to anyone, especially these days.