Assignment - Show some techniques that really help make pictures stand out.

[photosbymorgan2]

Are you a photoshop guru? Do you have some techniques you have found work really well and make your photos pop? Well lets see them so that others may learn. We all love photography and this community is growing and looking real well. I think it would be great if people would pass along their knowledge to others so that they too can have photos that pop. Some may ask why they should show their tricks. The answer is simple. It will make the world of photography that much better, make those folks feel good about their photos when they see how the tricks work and it will make you feel better also. Yes, it will make you feel better.

So lets see some posting.

[Mr. Pickles]

I use this for colorful images, such as lanscapes and flowers.

Make a duplicate layer of your image.
Go to Filter, Stylize, Emboss.
I start with 5 pixels, set at 80%, but you can play with the settings.
Click OK.
Set the layers blending mode to overlay.
Look at how much "pop" this gives your image.

Here is an example, with a straight out of camera image on top:

[Paul Shields]

That is a very good tip Mr Pickles. Also seems to work well in other modes - 'Vivid Light' acts like a USM, easily controllable via the Fill/Opacity sliders. Nice one

[photosbymorgan2]

Originally Posted by Mr. Pickles

I use this for colorful images, such as lanscapes and flowers.

Make a duplicate layer of your image.
Go to Filter, Stylize, Emboss.
I start with 5 pixels, set at 80%, but you can play with the settings.
Click OK.
Set the layers blending mode to overlay.
Look at how much "pop" this gives your image.

Thanks for the information. Can you post an example of a before and after of a photo using this technique?

[Mr. Pickles]

Okay, here is another one I use to get rid of some "lens fog" (like a "film" or "haze" on the lens that makes it seem dull)

Go to Image - Adjustments - Equalize.
Now go to Edit - Fade Equalize (Shift-Ctrl-F), and set Opacity to about 50% (you can play), and for Blend, choose "Soft light".

Here is an example, with a straight out of camera image on top (same image as above example):

[Jetsprinter]

I can see this thread is going to be one of the great ones. I have had a bit of a play with the two techniques posted so far and can see there will be benefits from each.
Cant wait for some more tips.

[paulhodson]

Very interesting changes with the Equalize command - I have not used this one before (in fact I only got CS2 recently - not sure if it was in PS7?). Can you elaborate on what is is doing or what it was intended for?

Hope Mr Pickles does not mind - but here is his original and a revised version plus the steps I took which achieve a similar effect. Probably slightly more controllable - but more effort!

First of all I ran this
action
Reduced opacity of the new layer to 68%
Used a brush on the mask to lighten boat
Applied USM at 10,200,0 to increase contrast on new layer set to luminosity
Added layer mask and used a brush on the mask to lighten boat and tree line
Applied a Digital Velvia action from Fred Miranda - saturation increase would have similar effect
Sharpened very slightly

Hope this is helpful

[BigB]

Adding contast to an image, I either do it in Curves (click three points diagnolly, pull top right up a bit, bottom down a bit, making an S) or if that's too much for the desired picture, I start over and start applying USM to the full image. I usually start at 20, 50, 0, but sometimes use 20, 70, 0. The good thing about this method is that you can do it twice in a row and not get artifacts for fine tuning.

As for saturation, I used to just use the saturation bar in the RAW converter. Now, I just convert with Olympus software (instead of ACR) and fix the WB or EV only, and convert to JPEG. Once in JPEG, to saturate a bit more, I use the channel mixer instead of just the straight Saturation adjustment. You can really choose which colors you want to stand out. I suggest you keep the changes at 100% (ie, if you change the Red channel by 20 (120) then change the Blue and Green by -10 (-10 overall)). Far better color control.

Sharpening, I usually keep the radius at .3 or .5 and play with the amount. If I have a large image for print or original resolution, I'll use 1.