Tried and true Photoshop adjustments?

[capturedbybrooke]

What are your tried and true Photoshop adjustments (Levels, curves, shadow/highlight, hue/saturation, variations, etc)? What settings do you apply the most and are the most helpful?

FYI: I have PS3. I use Levels a lot (moving sliders on both ends to the beginning of the hill). I remember learning about using the white point eyedropper, but forgot about the concept and it doesn't seem to work right for me?

I am curious to what other photographers do to enhance their photos. Please enlighten me!

[teaking]

I think it depends on which each photographer would call the point of too much Post processing for my self the post processing I would apply before I think it starts turning the picture into something I didnt take is Gamma, Curves, Contrast, Saturation and sharpness.

I think using them as a basis for basic photo editing then adding other suggestions to them would get you on track. Happy editing

[edbayani]

the nice thing about levels is it has a histogram ahere you can place the black and white sliders at the beginning where the histogram starts to rise. you can also see the blown out highlights when you press alt (option for macs) as you move the white slider to the left. the image turns to black and as you move the slider to the left you will see spots of white and as you move further to the left more whites whill appear. these are the blown out highlits. you can also do this for the black slider.
the eyedropper tool is very helpful in correcting color casts. just be careful where you click it. if you use the mid dropper, click it on what you think is grey, like raw cement or shadows on white clothing or objects.
but different photographers have their own system of postprocessing.

[zona5101]

For routine adjustments try lightroom (you can download a trial version). It is very easy to do, easy to apply the same correction to a group of picture and easy to record an save an acton. I still use photoshop but for more complicated manipulations .

[JCatara]

After a levels adjustment, make a duplicate layer. With the duplicate layer selected, add a gaussian blur. Somewhere between 4 and 12. Change the blend mode of the blurred layer to either overlay,softlight,or hard light. Reduce the opacity to kick it back a little.

[FirstLight]

Originally Posted by edbayani

you can also see the blown out highlights when you press alt (option for macs) as you move the white slider to the left. the image turns to black and as you move the slider to the left you will see spots of white and as you move further to the left more whites whill appear. these are the blown out highlits. you can also do this for the black slider

WOAH!!! See, this is why I love LOVE Photoshop! I have been using PS since just before CS was introduced. I can do just about anything you'd ever want to do in Photoshop, but I have NEVER EVER EVER heard of this til now! Man, I love learning something new!!! thanks so much, edbayani!!! You made my DAY! What a simple but BEAUTIFUL tool. Wow... I am just speechless (now) lol.

[FirstLight]

Oh yeah, sorry Brooke. I got sidetracked a bit - lol.

One of my favorite things is USM )Unsharp Mask) at settings of 20, 40, 1. You'll hear talk from a lot of folks about a "DeFog" setting. This is what I like. Others I have heard use different settings. 20,60,1 is another I have used. It increases the clarity in your image by increasing the contrast a bit. Lightroom has a built in slider for this.

Neat Image - I know you said PS stuff, but NI does have a plugin that you can purchase. And I would recommend it 100%. Noise Ninja and several others work just as well though, I hear. I use this even on shots with perfect exposure at ISO100.

Like someone said above, all of this is different for every photog. Even different for one photog depending on the image purpose and subject. If you have any questions, feel free to ask though. I am self taught but could not have been were it not for forums and friends like you have here.

[Sarah-]

Levels:
First thing I ever did was "enhance" black and white. Open up your levels window and then click on options and click the black box next to shadows window. I changed the RGB values for black to 12,12,12 and then changed white to 245,245,245. Check "save as default" and then it never has to be done again. The reason I do this is because black and white by default show no detail. If you change it to something very close to black and white you'll get some detail. That's the theory anyway!

Now onto the photograph, you want to tell PS what parts of your photo are black and white. Starting with black, hold down the alt key and click on the black slider under your histogram. Slowly move it towards the centre looking for the first spec of black to appear. It's up to you how exact you want to be with this. Once you've found the first black dot, return the slider to it's original position. Select your black eye dropper tool and then click on that spot. This process works with white as well. I always leave grey out. After this I put the sliders back to were they belong and leave them there!

Ruler Tool:
There's another little tool I like to use if the picture needs it. The ruler tool! I use this to straighten up images, for example a picture of the horizon taken without a tripod. You can find it hidden under your eye dropped tool. Decide which line on your picture is supposed to be straight (horizontal or vertical) then with the ruler tool click at the start of the line. Keep your mouse button held down as you "draw" across to the end of your selected line. Now go to Image>Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. There you'll find the angle has already been calculated for you, all you have to do is click "Ok". Then just crop of the corners and your done!

Most other things I do have been mentioned or are pretty self explanatory. Hope this helps

[capturedbybrooke]

Originally Posted by Sarah-

Levels:
First thing I ever did was "enhance" black and white. Open up your levels window and then click on options and click the black box next to shadows window. I changed the RGB values for black to 12,12,12 and then changed white to 245,245,245. Check "save as default" and then it never has to be done again. The reason I do this is because black and white by default show no detail. If you change it to something very close to black and white you'll get some detail. That's the theory anyway!

Now onto the photograph, you want to tell PS what parts of your photo are black and white. Starting with black, hold down the alt key and click on the black slider under your histogram. Slowly move it towards the centre looking for the first spec of black to appear. It's up to you how exact you want to be with this. Once you've found the first black dot, return the slider to it's original position. Select your black eye dropper tool and then click on that spot. This process works with white as well. I always leave grey out. After this I put the sliders back to were they belong and leave them there!

Ruler Tool:
There's another little tool I like to use if the picture needs it. The ruler tool! I use this to straighten up images, for example a picture of the horizon taken without a tripod. You can find it hidden under your eye dropped tool. Decide which line on your picture is supposed to be straight (horizontal or vertical) then with the ruler tool click at the start of the line. Keep your mouse button held down as you "draw" across to the end of your selected line. Now go to Image>Rotate Canvas > Arbitrary. There you'll find the angle has already been calculated for you, all you have to do is click "Ok". Then just crop of the corners and your done!

Most other things I do have been mentioned or are pretty self explanatory. Hope this helps

Thanks Sarah! I think I might have seen the black and white enhancement tip on some Photoshop training years ago, but forgot about it. I'll have to try it out. Same with the levels trick. I use the Rulers trick all the time too! It's great!

Originally Posted by FirstLight

Oh yeah, sorry Brooke. I got sidetracked a bit - lol.

One of my favorite things is USM )Unsharp Mask) at settings of 20, 40, 1. You'll hear talk from a lot of folks about a "DeFog" setting. This is what I like. Others I have heard use different settings. 20,60,1 is another I have used. It increases the clarity in your image by increasing the contrast a bit. Lightroom has a built in slider for this.

Neat Image - I know you said PS stuff, but NI does have a plugin that you can purchase. And I would recommend it 100%. Noise Ninja and several others work just as well though, I hear. I use this even on shots with perfect exposure at ISO100.

Like someone said above, all of this is different for every photog. Even different for one photog depending on the image purpose and subject. If you have any questions, feel free to ask though. I am self taught but could not have been were it not for forums and friends like you have here.

Thanks for giving the exact settings! Good to know. I usually just guess, but it's nice to know some exact settings to start with as a guide. I'll check out Neat Image too. Thanks!

[Kvikken]

I take most of my pictures in RAW, do some editing in Camera RAW (mainly on the white balance, exposure and recovery sliders and maybe increase the contrast slightly without getting any areas completely black or white) before I open the picture as a smart object in Photoshop (I like to be able to change anything at anytime, so if I after a time decides that I should have lightened the picture some more in Camera raw, or maybe I didn't get the wb right the first time I can fix it without having to start all over again on the Photoshop editing).

In Photoshop the tool I use the most is the curves adjustment layer. Before Adobe started to show the histogram in curves (I think they started with CS3) I used levels to set the black and white point, but now I can do that in curves as well. I usually have different layers for different parts of the picture or different edits (if I want to both lighten and turn up the contrast I usually find that it's easier to first lighten the picture with a curves layer and then use another curves layer to increase the contrast).

I also use the colour channels in curves to adjust colours, be it to fix a colour cast, cross-process, make a more vintageish look or just completely manipulate the colours.