Warning: These 9 Photoshop Techniques May Result In Great Photos

Post-Processing (or photo editing) is what makes a good photo great. Cameras produce a good starting point, but post-processing is where the magic happens. If you’re feeling a little bored with your current arsenal of Photoshop techniques, try out some of these creative post-processing tricks to boost your artistic style.

High Contrast Color

Boosting the contrast in a color photo can produce some stunning results. Bump up the contrast, play with the colors, and add that sort of “grunge” mood to your photo.

High Contrast B&W

I love black & white photos, but I really love a good high-contrast black & white. This method creates a focus on the shapes, lines, and patterns rather than the tones. Also be sure to read my other black and white photography tips.

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High Color Saturation

One way to make your photo “pop” is to really push up the color saturation. Just be mindful of color clipping and banding if you push it too far.

Vintage Look

Making a photo look older than it really is gives it a lot of character and mood. To get this look, you can toy with color saturation, color tinting, and adding imperfections.

Lomo Look

The real lomo photos have a very distinct look to them, but it’s a look that can be replicated through post-processing. They tend to be saturated in a very interesting way.

Oversharpen

Most photos need to be sharpened anyways, but some photos can actually benefit from oversharpening. This method gives the image a “harder” look and feel.

Texturize

Overlay texture to bring in subtle elements to your image. It’s a great way to deal with flat and bland portions of the photo by introducing detail and complexity into i

Add Vignette

Some images really stand out with some applied vignette. It helps create a natural frame around the image and it draws the eye toward the center of the photo.

Add Noise & Grain

This is another way to spice up the bland parts of your image. Adding noise or simulated grain adds texture and feeling to a photo, and can sometimes produce very “gritty” results.

As you can see, many of these photos apply multiple Photoshop techniques in addition to other techniques not listed here. So if you see a photo that intrigues you, ask yourself why. If you like it partly due to the post-processing, try to imitate the technique on your own photos.

And as for how to do some of these things… maybe we’ll save that for another day.

The Top 5 Black & White Photography Tips

Black & white photography, for me, is one of the most interesting and inspiring aspects of this art form we call our hobby and passion. It’s raw & refined, natural & unusual, bold & subtle, mysterious & open, emotional & impassive, simple & complex, black & white & everything in between. The monochromatic image has been with photography since the beginning, but what began as the only way to capture images has turned into something much deeper.


Interested in stepping-up your black & white game? Here are five tips to get you going in the right direction. If you want to learn more about the actual black & white conversion process in Photoshop, see my past entry that lays out 12 Ways to Make a Black & White Photo.

PRACTICE PRACTICE PRACTICE

An experienced black & white photographer can see the world without color. They’ve trained their mind to pick up contrast and tone while blocking the distraction of colors. This isn’t a skill that you can pick up in a short amount of time; it’s something that comes naturally in time. I can’t say that I’m gifted enough to have monochrome vision, but I have been able to notice certain scenes and subjects that would lend themselves to black & white.

One way to help train your brain is to make a conscious effort — in other words, practice. Trevor carpenter gave us the perfect example when he started his October Challenge. Basically, he decided to limit his photography to black & white for an entire month. This gave him a chance to experiment with the medium and learn from his own work, and in his project recap he states “I have found, especially in recent days, that as I’m shooting and conceiving a shot, I see the potential impact of the composition in black & white.”


FOCUS ON CONTRAST

Black & white photography is about the black, the white, and all the tones in between. The human eye is built to pick up two things: light intensity and color. When you remove the color, your eyes become more sensitive to the light intensity. We naturally pick out areas of contrast — it’s how we distinguish one thing from another. As a black & white photographer, your main objective is to make your point with shades of gray. Use contrast to show your onlookers what’s important and what’s not. Seek out scenes that naturally show signs of high contrast, and your black & white photos will be more compelling right from the start.

When post-processing a black & white image, the use of Photoshop techniques like levels, curves, and layer blends give you a wide variety of output options. In addition to these things, burning and dodging are highly effective methods of improving contrast. They work so well because they allow you to focus the edit on a localized portion of the image without affecting the surrounding areas.


FOCUS ON TEXTURE

Texture is really just a form of contrast, but it is perceived quite differently. If you think about it, texture is the regular or irregular pattern of shadows and highlights at various intensities. Black & white photos really lend themselves to texture because color generally add another layer of complexity, thus masking most subtle textures. Look for areas of interesting texture that can be photographed by zeroing in on specific surfaces and examining them for signs of patterned contrast.

The choices you make in post-processing can really make a difference in the texture too. During the black & white conversion, you can usually pull texture out of otherwise smooth surfaces based on your choice of conversion methods. In digital photos, blues and reds generally contain more noise than greens, so tools like the channel mixer and the black & white adjustment layer in Photoshop can really accentuate those embedded textures.

CAPTURE IN COLOR

This is mainly aimed at digital photographers… If your camera gives you the option of shooting in color or black & white, NEVER shoot in black & white. The camera is really capturing color, then converting to black & white. Photo editing software can do a much better job at the conversion, and you’ll have more flexibility on the output of the final image. It’s really amazing how different a photo can look solely based on the post-processing, so it’s best not to limit yourself before the photo even makes it out of the camera.

The one exception to this rule is if you wanted to use the black & white capture to give you a preview of what the scene might look like as a monochrome image. It may help you identify good black & white scenes more immediately, but once you find your shot switch back over to color capture and shoot it again.


USE COLOR FILTERS

Black & white film photographers make use of color filters to change the captured tones in their photographs. Ever see those monochrome images with dark skies and puffy white clouds? That’s not natural; it requires the use of color filtering to produce the desired effect.

Using an actual color filter with a digital camera is perfectly acceptable and it has its merits, but it’s not completely necessary. Software like Photoshop has the ability to apply non-destructive color filters. It also has the ability to produce the same results as a color filter during the black & white conversion. For those of you using Photoshop CS3, you’ll see that the black & white adjustment dialog has several preset filters that can be applied and modified to suit the photo.

So if you’re interested in pursuing a little black & white photography, really think about these things — before, during, and after you shoot. Anybody can produce black & white photos, but it takes a little more thought and skill to produce good black & whites.

Why black and white?

Why not? It is crisp and clean with its patterns, shapes and lines to intrique our minds. Black and white photography is honest. No flashy punched up colors to get in the way. It's art, plain and simple. From the deep dark richest blacks to the crisp clean clear whites, it tells a story. With its gentle gradations of gray, it holds our attention and makes us want to see beyond the surface.

This is the way photography was meant to be before color took over and clouded our vision of what a great print should look like. Now we often look at a photo as an exact rendition of a scene and that is all. "Oh look, my couch is green, what a lovely shade of green." Black and white photography is different. It is about textures and emotions, light and the absence of light.

Lately there has been a resurrgence of interest in black and white photography. So much so that the major film manufactuers are now marketing newer black and white films designed for the consumer market. The new chromogenic films or C41 films can be developed by minilabs in the regular color processing. This allows consumers who do not have their own labs to shoot black and white film and have it developed at the local one-hour photo store.

It's been said that there is something sexy about black and white photography that you just can't get from color. I think it's true. Once you remove the color, it is like stripping a scene down to the bare bones removing the layers and leaving the form. You do not have to be an expert photographer to try black and white photography, after all, it was black and white film that not so many years ago captured the memories of many generations.

Why not give it a try. Research some of the different types of black and white film on the market today. One of my favorites is Kodak's Technical Pan film. It is very contrasty, but it makes fabulous enlargements and if developed in C41 developer(yes that is a color developer) it turns out gorgeous. Experiment with it. Black and white films are exciting because you can literally process your own film in a bathroom sink.

For those who like to drop off their film at the local one-hour photo place, try the new chromogenic films that can be processed in C41 along with the color negative films.

Get back to basics and try the classic look of black and white photography. To learn more about the different film types, click on the links below to read the datasheets in .pdf format.

Read more at Suite101: Why black and white? http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/photography/79428/2#ixzz0dQjnYiQ1

Composition: Getting Beyond the Snapshot

With today's high-tech pro cameras and IS and VR lenses, learning to take perfectly sharp, expertly exposed photographs is a snap. There are thousands of technically perfect photographs in print and on the web and it seems there are as many talented amateurs emerging every day. But there is a notable difference in the work of a photographer who takes the time to think about the composition of their image. The composition sets the mood for the shot and tells the story. Compositions can be used to evoke powerful emotional responses in a viewer, a goal for many photographers, but something that is achieved by few.

In order to create a technically good, visually pleasing photograph it would make sense that a photographer have a solid understanding of both the technical and aesthetic sides of photography. The ability to intertwine the two is what propels the work of masters like John Shaw and Galen Rowell far above the seas of documentary shots.

I have always felt that the best way to improve composition skills is to first learn how to see compositions. Try to see the compositional elements in every photograph you can find. Look at the lines in the image. Do they work together or against each other? How does your eye travel around through the image? Does it flow smoothly from one thing to the next or jump all around in the image? Look for space distribution, color, mood, perspective, depth, light and time of day, shapes, etc. How did the photographer use major components of the image like light and shadow, shape and form, background and foreground?

Below I have created what I call "composition maps." They are photographs that I have marked in Photoshop highlighting various aspects of the composition. I use them as visual teaching aides to break images down to their basic parts and see the underlying composition. There are many aspects of these photos that could be addressed such as quality and direction of light, patterns and repetition, balance, weight, shape vs. form, negative space, perspective, contrast, etc. The list goes on but there is not enough space to put it in writing here, so I focused on one compositional element for each graphic.

Many other maps discussing different highlights could be drawn for a single photograph. I recommend practicing at home with your own photographs. Studying compositions builds good design skills even though you are not actively designing the image. Seeing is half of the art of photography and this exercise will help you to recognize that prize-winning shot when you have it in your viewfinder.

If you keep composition in mind when in the field, it will eventually become second nature to you. It will go from being a source of uncertainty to a powerful tool that will enable you to speak to the world through your images, exactly how you want and on your own terms.

Framing Your Photos

A good argument could be made that one of the most frequently used if not popular digital imaging software tools is the crop tool. Not necessarily because people really want to use it, but because they have forgotten to frame their shots properly before snapping away.

Granted, it is easy enough to crop away unwanted areas after the fact and thereby make them look like they were well composed in the first place, but unless you have a high-megapixel camera and have remembered to shoot at high resolution, cropping can put severe limitations on the size at which your photos can be presented onscreen or in print without looking jaggy.

f you don't intend to run full-screen slide shows for friends and family or print out any enlargements, then the limitations of cropping won't worry you. But if you'd like to retain as much flexibility in your images as possible and avoid having to bother with cropping, then here are a few easy-to-remember things to think about.

First, if your photo is going to include people, take a moment to reflect on what you'd like to have in the photo before you request that your subjects hold still. Once they are standing still and holding a smile you'll be under pressure to get on with it and will likely spend less time thinking about image composition.

Second, look for both natural peripheral (side) borders that might frame your shot nicely and for objects near the sides of your shot that might be distracting. Think of it like this: While fitting the full trunk of a tree into your border might look great, including the public trash can in your shot of a cathedral probably won't.

Finally, with the above in mind, try to ensure that you are getting just the right amount of foreground and background. There is no hard and fast rule for specific amounts as they will change according to what kind of photo you are taking. But here are some general guidelines: The horizon should usually be above the middle of the photo. In people shots, foreground should be minimized, while in landscape shots more foreground can lend better perspective. Likewise, don't allow too much additional space on either side of your subjects in people shots.

These tips should help keep you from having to use your crop tool too often. Happy snapping!

photography TECHNIQUE,S

SPOTLIGHT
Another possibility to enhance the importance of the main subject is to look for spot light. The dark areas around you subject take the role of a frame. Obviously metering is a bit more tricky here - using spot or center-weighted is certainly a good idea here.

HI-KEY/LOW-KEY
A contrast between an object and its surrounding can either stress the importance with a high contrast or hide it via low contrast..

The following pictures shows bright (colored) objects in front of a dark (colored) background ("Low-Key" environment).


BACKLIT

Taking advantage of backlit in scenes with semi-transparent objects is quite favourable in many situations. Just take a look at the wings of the bird or the flower below. The shiny effect here provides a pretty interesting contrast to the "solid" body. Further objects that fit very well for this kind of composition are e.g. hairs (portraits!), ice or shells.
This light situation REQUIRES! a lens hood - otherwise your pictures will suffer from extreme flare problems and a significant loss of contrast!

The bird on the following picture receives some midday sunlight so the feathers glow quite beautifully.


MONOCHROMATIC LIGHT
The following pictures don't show any significant color differences - they're quite "monochromatic". The effect on us is often a bit weird because we don't have any anchors in the image where we could start to analyse it. However, just this "confusion" make monochromatic pictures so interesting because we need a 2nd thought to make sense of the situation.




MOODS
This section is actually no description of a photographic technique but the key issue of a great nature photo is often just "being there". Many photos cannot be planned. So feel the moods and exploit unusual light situations. One main problem here is that these light moods disappear as fast as they come. Overall it's a good idea to shoot first and ask later - waiting for the perfect moment often results in missing the moment. A few pictures for the trash bin surely doesn't hurt as much as no picture at all so experiment and SHOOT, SHOOT, SHOOT!



COLORS, COLORS, COLORS!
Image composition is about light and light is about contrast/brightness and colors. It is either a good idea to surpress as many different colors as possible (resulting in monochromatic pictures when going to the extremes) or to make use of color contrasts by looking for complimentary colors - red, green & blue. The more pure the base color the more extreme is the difference (color contrast) making an image interesting. There're various possibilties to increase color saturation and therefore contrast. Polarizers are the most popular option. These filters work pretty good to enhance the blue sky or shiny objects like the sea or other non-metallic object. The effect is maximized at a position 90 degrees of the sun. Often it is a good idea not to go for the max here. Graduated color filters can help as well here and there. There're also various sorts of direct color enhancers like "Redhancer" filter etc. pp. Just make sure that you know what you're doing ...

Anyway, the following picture is a quite typical example for contrasting colors - here red vs blue.

Journey – From Photographic Prints to Films

Photography has come a long way since the invention of the Daguerréotypes and the Calotypes. Photographic prints are as important to photography as is the camera. You can have the camera, the technology but if you can’t take a photographic print, you can’t see how the picture has come out. Though, with the advent of digital cameras, the use of photographic prints has been taken to the point of becoming obsolete. The Daguerréotype process involved the use of metal sheets and a positive silver image was fixed on top of the metal sheet. William Henry Fox Talbot was the man responsible for moving a step ahead by using a negative through which multiple prints could be made.
Around 1856, Hamilton Smith patented a process termed as Tintypes. The process used a thin sheet of iron as the base to yield a positive image. In 1889, it was made simpler by George Eastman, who realized the true potential of the photography market. He released a film that had a flexible base for easy rolling. The emulsion coated cellulose nitrate film base made the process of shooting images easier. Now photographers could carry their boxed cameras without worrying about the large and cumbersome plates. Eastman’s first camera was launched in 1888 and came with a preloaded film. Once the pictures were taken, the camera with the films had to be sent to the Kodak factory where these films were translated into photo prints.
Even though the camera was well on its way to popularity, the film rolls were available only in Black and White. So Photography of that period was devoid of colors. B&W films were made of cellulose nitrate that is a chemical compound that is similar to guncotton. A film with a nitrate base will deteriorate with time and in the process would release acidic gasses and oxidants. The nitrate base film was also highly flammable. Nitrate films actually built the foundation for the first flexible roll films. It also created the base for development of the 35-mm roll film in the mid 1920’s. By the end of 1920, the medium type roll film came into existence. This film roll was 6cms wide and was covered with a paper sheet to make it easy for anyone to carry it along in broad daylight. Nine years later, the TLR or the twin reflex camera was developed.
By the beginning of the 1940’s, the film roll market had gained momentum and color films were born. Though by 1935, Kodak had already developed their color film called Kodachrome. The new color films used the dye-coupled colors technology. This technology used a chemical process, which connected the 3 layers of dye together to create a color image. This system is still in use. The next discovery and development was that of a Triacetate film that was fireproof and more flexible. Most of the photographic films till the 1970’s were using this technology. The films used now come with T-grain emulsions. These are basically light sensitive silver halides in the shape of a T to render a fine grain pattern.
In the age of the digital cameras, it is hard to really imagine what next will come out of the Pandoras Box.