Photo Editing with Photoshop

Here is an example of photo editing that I recently did to improve a photo. This was a good photo of the subject, but unfortunately due to the background and bad lighting, the photo quality is poor. As you can see from the photo on the left, the background wasn’t exactly the most neutral of backdrops, so the entire background was removed and replaced with a more traditional photo-studio backdrop look. As you can also see from the photo on the left there is a significant yellow cast to the skin and heavy shadows, making the subject look rather ill. In the finished photo the skin color has been corrected, the red eye corrected and eye color improved, the shadows lightened, and the contrast has been increased in the hair for a shinier look. Overall our subject looks healthier, younger (though still very much his age), and now we can focus on the person, not the bad photo. Masking, blending modes, filters, colorizing, painting, the healing brush, and adjustment layers were used to correct this photo. The background was created using the Clouds filter and the Lighting Effects filters. Hopefully you’ll agree this is a good example of how to take a good photo gone bad, and make it good again.

Another Daily Dose

Anyone who plays around with Photoshop a lot and surf's the web frequently has likely come across another of my favorite sites, Worth1000. Worth1000 is a creative competition and photoshop contest site that features some of the most interesting photo"chops" out there. Sometimes it's bizarre, sometimes it's a simple photo retouch, but whatever it is, there's bound to be something to inspire. For a daily dose of inspiration, check out Worth1000's Picture of the Day at: http://www.worth1000.com/potd.asp