This tutorial will explain how to post-process a photo using Adobe Photoshop. You will find most of the techniques and tools I discuss can be found in other photo editing programs like GIMP and InfranView, too. Before we start, I’ll emphasise that it is always best to avoid a poor quality photo as much as possible than try to fix it later, and it's also easier to post-process a photo that was taken using the right settings, so for a guide on how to do this,
click here. Some of the following steps may or may not be applicable to the image you are editing. Subtle editing is more effective than over-editing, so don't spend too much time on one section of an image, and always zoom right out to look at the image as a whole and see if it still looks natural. If you can't find some of the tools mentioned in this tutorial, try clicking and holding on the tools that have a tiny arrow below them to see if the tool is listed. For example, the Healing Brush tool is normally hidden under the Spot Healing tool like so:
Click on the images in this tutorial to see them in full size.
CroppingThe first thing you should do when post-processing an image is to crop any unwanted parts of the photo out. Use the cropping tool (represented by a
icon in the toolbar) to crop the image. It's best to keep the original proportions of the image by selecting the entire image, then holding shift when you resize the cropping area. If you want to crop a portrait image from a landscape one or vice versa, you can hold shift when you turn the selection. This will make the selection turn at sharper, more precise angles so you can make a crop that is perfectly diagonal or perfectly horizontal/vertical.
Brightness/ContrastThe second step is to adjust the brightness and/or contrast. The easiest way to do this is via the Image menu> Adjustments> Brightness & Contrast. All you need to do is adjust the slider/s to your liking. Some photos will only need minor brightness/contrast adjustments, so don't go overboard with it. Take this photo, for example. It's too dark and could use a contrast boost to highlight the blue sky.
Background RemovalIn this step, you will learn how to use the
lasso tool to remove the background of an image. If you have just opened your image, it might be called 'Background' in the
layers palette. If so, double click on the layer and click Ok. This will allow you to easily replace the background of your image later. If you cannot see the layers palette, go to the Window menu and ensure 'Layers' is ticked.
Select the lasso tool. Roughly select a part of the background by drawing a line around some of it. You might need to zoom in (using the zoom slider in the top right corner - if you can't see it, ensure the 'Navigator' is ticked in the Window menu) if you want a more precise result. Hold shift while selecting more of the background. This will add whatever you are currently selecting to what you have already selected. Holding alt will allow you to remove parts of the selection.
When you have selected all of the background, right click on the selection and choose 'feather'. Feathering your selection helps to smooth any jagged edges and gradually blend your selection into your new background. Experiment with different values of feathering, probably between 2 and 10 pixels depending on the size of your image.
Once you've done that, hit the 'Delete' or 'Del' key on your keyboard. Viola! Background removed. You can add a new background by opening another image, then dragging the image using the
Move tool into the one you just removed the background from. Your new background will appear as a layer above your original image in the layers palette. Click on that layer and drag it below your original image to apply it as a background.
Skin Retouching (including Acne removal)The easiest and most effective method of removing a specific part of an image is to use the
Healing Brush tool. The healing brush works by sampling a similar section of an image and blending the textures and colours in with another section. To do this, select the healing brush tool (remember, it may be hidden under the Spot Healing tool) and hold alt while you click on a section of the image which most closely resembles your desired texture and colour (e.g. the smooth skin surrounding a pimple). This is called the 'source'. Then click away on the area you want to fix, and it should look like the problem was never there.
Be careful, though, because if you use the healing brush in areas where the colour or texture changes abruptly (e.g. where the edge of the face meets the background), the colours or textures mix together to create an undesired result. Use a small brush (you can change the size by clicking the down arrow next to the word 'Brush:' in the top left corner) for small details like near eyelashes or on the tip of the nose, and a large brush for large areas of similar texture and colour like the cheeks. You can also change the hardness of the brush (found in the same place and the brush size). A 'soft' brush will blend in more of the surrounding textures and colours and create a more subtle effect, while a 'hard' brush while have a more defined outline and can be used when you don't want to blend much of the surrounding textures or colours, e.g. around the eyebrows or between the eye and nose.
You can set the healing brush Mode (top left corner) to 'Replace' if you want to copy the exact texture and colour instead of blending it in, e.g. when removing a TV antenna from a photo of a building.
Red Eye RemovalThe best way to avoid red eyes in photos is to turn off the flash and if necessary, alter the camera's settings to compensate for a lack of light. Visit the link mentioned in the first paragraph of this tutorial, or read your camera's manual to find out how. Red eye removal can be performed by using a nifty little tool called the
Red Eye Tool, which is usually hidden under the
Healing Brush icon. All you need to do is select the Red Eye tool and click on the red eye to neutralise the redness.
If that doesn't produce the results you were after, you can do it manually, by using the
lasso tool in a similar way to that described in the background removal step. Select the red part of the eye, holding shift to select more than one red eye if needed, then right-click on the selection and select 'feather' from the drop down menu. Depending on the size of your image, you will probably need to feather the selection around 1-5 pixels. Once you've done that, go to Image> Adjustments> Channel Mixer and set the Red slider value to 0%. Set the Green and Blue sliders to between 40-70%, until you get a more natural looking pupil.
Eye/lip/hair Colour ModificationIt's surprisingly easy to change the colour of the eyes, lips, or other parts of the face. All you need to do is select the area you want to change the colour of using the
lasso tool, then go Image> Adjustments> Colour Balance and fiddle around with the sliders. For example, if you were going from red to green, you would move the cyan/red slider closer to the cyan side to make it less red, or the magenta/green slider closer to the green side, or both. You might need to put your colour mixing skills to the test with more complex colours like purple or brown. Another even easier, but image-quality-compromising method of changing colours is using the Hue/Saturation (Image> Attributes> Hue/Saturation) controls. Move the Hue slider along and you'll go through a rainbow of new colours. You may also need to alter the brightness or contrast (Image> Attributes> Brightness/Contrast) afterward to make the new colour appear legitimate. You can use this technique with a higher feathering value to add blush or eyeshadow, too. The feathering technique gradually fades the selection from both sides of the selection boundary, so when applying a blush colour, start with a selection that is smaller than the area you intend to apply blush to.
SharpeningSharpening can make a blurry image appear clearer by increasing the contrast between adjacent pixels along outlines and details in an image. Photoshop's unsharp mask is probably the most effective way of sharpening an image while minimising the amount of noise (speckly stuff) added. It can be found under Filter> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask. Experiment by setting the Amount between 20 and 60%, the Radius between 1 and 10 pixels and the threshold between 0 and 5 levels. The Amount controls how dramatic the change in contrast is between adjacent pixels, while Radius determines the size of the edges that will be enhanced in the image, and threshold affects where the unsharp mask will be applied and how much of the image will remain show through after it is applied. A low threshold means most or all of the image will be sharpened, while a high threshold means smoother areas will be left unsharpened. A small radius is used for fine details like hair strands or skin pores and a large radius for the contours of an ear, for example.
Add a Border
When you're done editing your photo, you might want to add a border. First, set the background colour (represented by the large white square in the image on the right) to the desired colour of your border by clicking on it. The go Image> Canvas Size and use the drop-down menu to change the units to pixels. Tick the 'Relative' tick box and enter double the width of your border into each box. This could be anywhere from 50 to 300 pixels, depending on the size of your image. Remember to double whatever you want your border width to be, as the amount will be shared evenly between two sides. You can then add some text to the border using the
type tool, e.g. 'Copyright John Smith' or the title of the photo.
WatermarkingA lot of photographers add what's called a watermark to their photos to discourage people from stealing them, or simply to identify themselves as the photographer. A watermark can be the photographer's signature, their name, or their company name placed over the top of a photo where it would be difficult to remove. You can add a watermark by using the
type tool to type your full name and maybe the © symbol and the year the photo was taken, then right-clicking on the type layer in the
layers palette and selecting 'Blending Options...'. Here you will see a multitude of effects you can add to your watermark text. Tick 'Bevel and Emboss' and change the direction to down. You can fiddle around with the rest of the bevel settings if you like, but the default ones should be fine. Click Ok. The next step is to lower the opacity of the watermark text. Opacity determines how transparent the text will be. Set the opacity to around 20% by selecting the text layer and typing 20 in the opacity field at the top of the layers palette, then pressing enter. If you can't see your watermark well, try changing the colour by highlighting all of the text with the type tool and selecting either solid black or white with the colour picker.
Sepia & Other Filter EffectsSepia is probably the most commonly known and used filter in digital editing programs. The sepia filter adds a brownish-orange tinge to photos, similar to those in aged photos. To access this and other coloured filters, go to Image> Adjustments> Photo Filter and select a filter from the drop down menu. With the Sepia filter, you can make a photo fit the aged theme better if you drain some colour (this is called 'desaturation') from it first via Image> Adjustments> Hue/Saturation. Just slide the Saturation slider into the negative area until you're happy, then apply the sepia filter. You could also download an old paper texture from somewhere like
DeviantART and apply it to the photo for an even more genuine look. See the next step on how to do this.
Textures and BrushesFree Photoshop textures and brushes can be downloaded from a plethora of websites for use in photo editing. One of the major providers of free, quality stock (stock is images or other resources which have been made available by the artist/s for others to use) textures and brushes is
DeviantART. Most stock artists have rules for how their resources can be used, so make sure you adhere to them - otherwise you could be breaching a copyright law or two! When you download a texture, open it in Photoshop, then click and drag it onto the photo you want to apply it to.
If you download a brush, you may have to use an archiving program to unzip the file/s first. If the file has a .abr extension, you can install it by just double clicking on it. You can blend textures and brushes it into your existing image in a few ways. First, try experimenting with blending modes by selecting the texture layer in the
layers palette, then selecting a blending mode from the drop down list at the top of the layers palette. Overlay and multiply are probably the most commonly used blending modes with textures as they seem to create a fairly legitimate and good-looking blend.
The second part of blending textures and brushes into your image is to erase the parts you don't want. For example, you don't want the texture to have visible corners, do you? First, create a layer mask on the texture layer by selecting the texture layer and clicking on the
add layer mask icon at the bottom of the
layers palette. Layer masks are a reversible way of hiding or showing parts of a layer using shades or black, grey and white. The white sections are where the layer is shown, while the black is where the layer is hidden and the grey areas are used to partially hide the layer. Then, select the
brush tool and set the hardness to 0% by clicking on the down arrow next to 'Brush:' in the top left corner.
Before you start painting on the layer mask, always ensure it is selected (just click on it if it hasn't got a box type thing around it) otherwise you could accidentally paint on the layer itself. Make sure that the foreground colour is set to black by clicking the small double headed arrow if necessary. Start painting on parts of the layer mask and watch the texture disappear! Use a bigger brush if you want the blend to be softer or more subtle.
