Hi everyone. Recently I've been asked questions like, "How do you get your pictures so clear and sharp?" So I thought I'd answer it. Mind you, it's a question with a long answer, but hopefully useful. It assumes the use of Photoshop, though you can use equivalent tools in other software.
To start with, let's select a photo as-shot, with no processing, either in our out of the camera. This means that the image was shot in the raw format, instead of JPG. This is the first step. It is not possible to do much processing on JPG images, as the format has already discarded a lot of the information we need to improve the photo. Here is our example image we'll start with in the raw format right out of the camera:
So what's wrong with it? A lot, actually:
- Too light: it may be a little overexposed
- Looks flat: there is very little contrast
- Lifeless colors: not very bright are they?
- A little on the dull side: it needs sharpening
We can take care of a lot of the contrast and color range problems with the Curves adjustments in Photoshop. Take a look at the photo above and notice that the blacks in there aren't very black. The whites are fine, they're nice and bright, though the clouds seem to lack detail (the detail is still there - we just need to bring it out). We will use the Curves dialog to tell Photoshop to make the darkest parts of the image black, which will also darken the rest of the image proportionally as well. Here's what the Curves dialog looks like before any adjustments (access the dialog using Ctrl+M):
The histogram in the middle of the box (the gray chart) represents color information in the image. Darkest colors are on the left, and lightest on the right. Notice along the bottom a large gap between the left edge, representing black, and the start of the color data. This means that black isn't really black. The same would hold true for the right side: if there was a gap between the data and the right side of the graph, it means the whites aren't really white. Our photo does not have that problem: The color information goes all they way to the right edge.
So what do we do about it? See the little black triangle under the chart at the bottom left corner? Use your mouse to drag it over to the point where the color information begins on the left. You're telling Photoshop to change the value it sees as black, and making it the same as the actual darkest point on the photo.
In addition, you'll notice the diagonal line through the histogram. You can use this to adjust colors. You can click anywhere on the line to create a new point that you can move around. For example if you click in the middle of the line you can adjust the midtones in the photo. If you drag the point up, it makes the midtones lighter. Drag it down, it makes them darker.
Click a point on the line about half an inch down and right from the upper-left corner and leave it there. We're doing this because we don't want the bright colors to change, and this point will keep the line in place. Now click another point about half an inch up and right from the lower-left corner. We're going to drag this point down just a little bit so we can darken the shadows in the photo. This is what it should look like when you're done:
The resulting photos should now look something like this:
We've already vastly improved the photo! Our shadows are darker, there's more contrast, and our colors are better (less washed out). So why bother with anything else? What else is there to do? Well, we're going to brighten our colors just a tiny bit more. Many people use the Saturation setting, but this can very easily over-saturate the colors in your photo.
The Photoshop Vibrance adjustment is what we want. It's more subtle, and works primarily on the midtones of the photo, instead of the whole thing. It's a simple slider. Access the Vibrance option from the Images/Adjustments menu. I set it to about +35, and got the following result (there's not a lot of difference, but it does add a subtle edge to it):
Lastly, we need to sharpen up the photo. Should we use the Sharpen filter? No! This filter is almost always too harsh, and gives you no control over the process. We'll use the unfortunately named Unsharp Mask filter. It actually does sharpening, and gives us more control over how much and what gets sharpened. Open the dialog by selecting the Unsharp Mask option from the Filter/Sharpen menu. It looks like this:
There are 3 settings to work with here: Amount, Radius, and Threshold. Start with Amount since it's the most obvious. The larger the number, the more sharpening that is applied. It works by looking for edges in the photos and sharpening them up. Drag the slider back and forth, watching the preview until it shows the amount of sharpening you want. This will vary from photo to photo.
The next setting is Radius. The higher the number, the more it sharpens around the edges the filter looks for in your photo, and the more obvious the sharpening looks. Usually a value between 1 and 2 is good, but drag the slider back and forth to see how it looks. Larger numbers make a more obvious sharpening effect.
The Threshold value tells Photoshop what defines an edge in your photo. Lower numbers mean that Photoshop will find more edges in your photo, and treat smaller variations from pixel to pixel as an edge. In effect, smaller numbers cause more sharpening. A value of 0 means sharpen every pixel in the photo. I usually don't use a value lower than 1, and often use higher values to prevent over-sharpening. As with the other settings, drag the slider back and forth to see what looks good for your particular photo.
I used the following values:
- Amount: 75
- Radius: 1.2
- Threshold: 2
My biggest single recommendation with sharpening: don't overdo it. It will be tempting to sharpen a lot, but don't, or it will look over-processed and unnatural. Here's how our photo looks now, and it's pretty much done:
And lastly, let's take a look at what we started with and what we ended up with. Here's a version of the photo with the after version superimposed on the before version:
Now that we're done, let's have a little more fun and make a black and white version of this photo. There are plenty of ways to do this, but we'll use my favorite: the Photoshop Black and White adjustment. Access this feature by pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+B (a crazy shortcut, but there it is). It's also on the Image/Adjustments menu. The dialog looks like this:
They way this dialog works is that it lets you lighten or darken selected parts of your image, based on the colors that were there before it was black and white. For example, dragging the Blues slider to the right with lighten anything in the image that was originally blue, and dragging it to the left will darken anything that used to be blue. Same for the other color sliders. Here's what the photo looks like before making any adjustments:
I darkened the blues, cyans, and greens to darken the sky, and lightened the reds and yellows to brighten up the rock. The result looks very different from the original:
Note that the conversion to black and white is a very subjective process, and this is just one of many interpretations for this photo.
So you've seen some of the standard processing steps I tend to use for most photos. Over time you learn what works and what doesn't, and you get a good feel for when to use a step and exactly how to adjust it to meet your needs. As a final bit of advice, I recommend playing around a lot and see what all your options are and how the various Photoshop adjustments work. The more you do, the more you understand your available options.
Good luck and good night :)
