Comments on: A Quick and Effective Way to Enhance Contrast in Photoshop

By: PO Cyborg

PO Cyborg — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 19:16:22 +0000

Great cleaner of the grey wash-everything-together haze! It gives the last extra after lightroom treatment.: Subtle and beneficiant. Will definitely use it. [B T W Ilan: the vignetting effect is due to optic flaws, not the action itself. ]

By: SteakHouse

SteakHouse — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 14:51:52 +0000

Good post, thank you.

Now to be silly and pedantic (I am definitely not taking this seriously, it just amused me as I tried to unravel it)

I loved the highly confusing multiple-negative in the opening paragraph :)

“…there is not a single photo I have ever taken that does not look better without it. NEVER.”

*head explodes*

“There is not a single photo I have ever taken” i.e. “every photo I have taken”
“…that does not look better” i.e. “looks better”
“without it”… here is the confusion: this should be “with it”… even if you use the original double negative.
“Never” an expertly chosen addendum to further confound the mind before the without/with issue has been figured out!

:^D

By: Dustin

Dustin — Mon, 10 Aug 2009 07:00:47 +0000

I just thought that I should finally comment on this. I read this tip wuite a while back on here, and started using it right away. It’s Great! There is truly no image that I’ve found that this doesn’t improve on some level. I’ve even made it into a little action. The only things I have learned to watch out for is images with a lot of dark areas and sunsets. In images with really subtle shadow detail, I usually run the equalize/soft light action, and then erase out the dark areas as it usually makes them too dark. As for sunsets, well it can wash them out a little. To remedy that I usually still use it, but then I’ll duplicate the layer and play with the curves and/or saturation to get the sunset right, then use a mask or eraser to just show the part of the sunset that I want.

Thanks for the tip!

By: Gbenga Loveeyes Images

Gbenga Loveeyes Images — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:13:29 +0000

Photoshop…. Just when I think I am almost done, nw skills keep coming up. Thanks DPS

By: Landscape Photography

Landscape Photography — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 02:34:59 +0000

Hmmm, I’ll have to give it a try, I can’t see why you wouldn’t just use one curves adjustment layer though? .. what are the benefits of this method?

By: Rick Noelle

Rick Noelle — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:56:44 +0000

This is a really great tip, thanks. I have duplicated these steps with GIMP using the following steps:

1) Colors -> Levels. On the pop-up, click the “Auto” button to the left of the three dropper icons.
2) Duplicate layer with “Layer->Duplicate Layer” or CTRL+SHIFT+D.
3) In the layer toolbox, make sure the layer copy is highlighted (top one) and change the Mode drop-down to “Soft Light”. Use the Opacity slider to adjust it down to 30-35% or whatever looks best to you.
4) Merge layers with “Image->Merge Visible Layers” or CTRL+M.
5) Save and you are done.

By: Jason

Jason — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 22:27:23 +0000

That was a great tip! I also used it to just brighten my image evenly and it worked great. I just stopped at step 3, and then set the opacity of the duplicated image to 50% and it gave it a great look.

Thanks!

By: latoso

latoso — Sun, 31 May 2009 13:14:02 +0000

love it. absolutely awesome

By: BellaAz

BellaAz — Tue, 26 May 2009 19:49:07 +0000

how do you get the yellow tone off the face??? I have followed this step but the kids face has yellow tone highlights now?

TIA

By: Bailey

Bailey — Wed, 20 May 2009 15:19:26 +0000

Thank you soooo much. I just read this and created an action immediately. This is going to save so much wasted time. Again, thank you.