Quick Fix: Sharpen

It's time again for another photo-tip. I love to use the photos from I heart Faces' Fix-It Friday challenges because it gives me a focus to my tips.

And speaking of focus, today's tip is boosting those slightly out-of-focus photos so that they are a little more sharp. There are a few ways to do this, the most popular being using Unsharp Mask. Today, however, I'm going to show you a quick way using one of the Filters in Photoshop. This way allows you more flexibility than unsharp mask.

Let's start with the BEFORE:


Step 1: Open your photo to be fixed and duplicate the layer (CTRL-J on your PC). On the top-most layer, select the blending mode "Overlay."

Step 2: Go to Filter>Other>Highpass

Step 3: Finally, you will have a window that shows the photo with this tint of gray over it. Adjust the slider to your liking (I stay around 1.5-3.5) and then click OKAY. You can adjust the opacity if it's too much. Flatten the image and you are good to go!



Now, here's the BEFORE and AFTER side-by-side. See the difference the slight sharpen makes?

AND I decided to play a little more, so here's my final edit for the photo. (I used several actions from My Four Hens and the frame is from Paislee Press)

SO, that's it!! Be sure to leave comments for all of the other I Heart Faces members who participated in the challenge.

I do have a SUPER AMAZING announcement coming up that you are ALL going to be excited about, so stay tuned!! Wanna keep up with my blog? Click on the "Follow Me" button so that you can stay up to date with my tips, freebies, product debuts and giveaways.
Leora

Quick Fix: HOT SPOTS

SOOOooo...it's been too long!! I meant for my Quick Fix Monday feature to happen every other Monday, but life is just too crazy busy for that to happen. I will try to do one on a monthly basis, so here goes for September.

Most of you know already how much I love I Heart Faces. It's a fantastic resource for new and seasoned photographers. Every Friday they have a feature called Fix It Friday.
They post a photo for you to have the chance to use your mad photoshop skills to give the photo a make-over, whether it's fixing a minor issue OR going dramatic and revamping the entire thing.

It's been awhile since I played, so when I clicked on the photo to "fix" I decided to do my Quick Fix Monday on one problem that stood out to me on this adorable photo. I immdiately noticed the hot spots on the subject's face. "Hot spots" are spots on a photo that are overexposed due to direct light hitting the subject when taking the photo. We try as hard as we can (or maybe not) to adjust our lighting and camera settings to prevent this from happening, but sometimes it's just inevitable.

To fix this after you've already taken the photo, we can use photoshop to remedy this problem. It's super easy, too.

First, the photo we are using:
I selected the areas that I think are "hot" that stand out the most.

This photo isn't really too overexposed, but it is just enough that it was the first thing I noticed when I saw the photo.

To get started, open up the photo you want to edit and then go to select>color range. Then select "highlights" from the drop-down menu.

Once you click OKAY you will notice that all of the highlights in the photo will have the marching ants around it. This selection of the photo may or may not be what you want highlighted...it's just selecting ALL of the highlights. For example, I don't want to change the whites on her shirt because it's supposed to be white, so I need to get rid of what I DON'T want adjusted.

Use your LASSO tool on your tool bar to do this. You will need to click on the lasso tool and holding down your ALT (option) key, lasso the areas that you DON'T want selected (this de-selects the areas).


Don't worry too much about getting EVERY spot you want unselected. We can use the feather tool to even out the areas. Go to Select>Feather and then pick your radius. I went with 5 px.

Next, you will create an adjustment layer. Click on the black/white ball that's at the bottom of the layers palette. Select Brightness/Contrast. Adjust the brightness and contrast levels until it looks right. This will all depend on how overexposed the areas are. Keep in mind that in most cases if you brighten, you will need to adjust the contrast as well.

And the final result??

and side by side for comparison... (click on image for larger view)

Of course, I couldn't stop there. This last image is my own personal, creative play. I ran the action, Summer Angel from the Sweetheart Collection I by My Four Hens and then added one of my overlays from my Celebrating Light kit.


Be sure to visit the other fixes from Fix It Friday. :)
Leora

I'm Back plus ::Quick Fix Monday::

Helloooo! Thanks to everyone for your thoughtful comments. It really meant a lot to me. I have a quote that is included in one of my most favorite kits...the Promise of Tomorrow.

That is so true. Going through some trying times is a part of life. Some people's trials are more challenging than others but the one thing that everyone gets to have during these times is an opportunity...an opportunity to grow and an opportunity to learn things about yourself. Sometimes you learn that you have more strength than you thought you originally had. Sometimes you learn that you have courage to deal with it all, even if it is the little voice at the end of the day. Tomorrow always comes and tomorrow is always another opportunity.

It's Monday and I realize it's been some time since I last did my "quick fix" post so without further ado, here it is...


This is another quick fix that I didn't come up myself, but learned in a photo forum...so please don't give me the credit.

Skin in portraits can really stand out, and sometimes in an unflattering way. When doing close-ups of the individual, you tend to capture, well, a close-up of their skin. This can detract from the features you are trying to enhance. Try this quick-fix to lightly (or dramatically) smooth out the skin of your subject.

Here's the photo I worked with...the before.

Step 1:
If your photo is a jpeg, it will be flattened and be labeled as Background. Just double-click that layer and a window will pop up asking you to name the layer. Name it and click OK. Duplicate the layer of the photo by either clicking layer>duplicate layer, OR dragging the layer to the little button on the layer palette that looks like paper folded at the corner.


Step 2:
Once you have your duplicate layers, add a smart blur to the TOP layer (the copied layer) by going to Filter>Blur>Smart Blur.
This will open a box that will ask you to adjust the radius and threshold. I set it all as the following: Radius: 27%, threshold: 25%, Quality: low and Mode: Normal. Then click OK.

This is going to make your image look REAALLLY blurry. It's OK!! :) It only did this to the TOP layer.

Step 3:
Now you need to "hide" that blurred layer so that we can "paint back" in what we want. Do this by going to layer>layer mask>hide all.

Make sure your color foreground is set to white). Using a soft brush with a low opacity (about 25%) start painting in the blur of that top layer. What you are really doing is un-hiding the mask that you put on before, but now you can only blur the places you WANT un-blurred. I am careful to only blur the areas that really need it it, such as under the eyes, forehead, and anywhere the subject has noticeable, deep pores.


You want to make sure you don't get too crazy...the subject should still have their natural laugh lines, dimples and other features that make them unique. Just use your best judgement. If you feel like you have added too much blur, adjust the opacity of that top layer.

On the final image, I boosted the eyes a bit and the curves level and then I burned the edges a bit. I also cloned out a few of the blemishes...only the ones that detracted from the subject's face.

and again, the before (to compare):

And that's IT!! Flatten the layers and do your other editing. Feel free to ask any clarifying questions below. I've had the request to create PDF documents for these fix-its, and I REALLY wish I had the time. Maybe sometime this summer I can, once school is over, but for now this is all I can do.

Enjoy!! :)
Leora

Quick Fix Monday

Happy Monday!! I'ts my official first day of Spring Break and I thought I would bring you a quick fix tip. I'm planning on bring you this feature once a month, so be sure to check back on Mondays.

This week;s tip is one I learned from a photo forum a couple of years back and I WISH I could remember who gave it...I hate to take credit for things that aren't mine. With that said, here's a quick HOW TO on how to fix eyes that seem dull or dark. All fixes will be done using CS2, but would work in most Photoshop photo editing programs.

In MOST cases, you are going to want to do this fix after you run your actions because the action may cause the eyes to pop already. If the action doesn't brighten the eyes, you may want to try this! Open the photo you wish to "fix."

The action I ran on this was purposely used to give the photo a little bit of a dull look, but I don't like that the eyes seem lifeless. To remedy this, I used the lasso tool to create a a figure eight around the eye area, I then copied this selection by clicking Layer>New>Layer Via Copy OR CTRL-J.

Once I had my new layer I used the b;ending mode, SCREEN to make the layer brighter. As you can see this will make it OVER the top bright but I will take care of that in a minute.

I then used my eraser tool to erase back everywhere around the up to the whites.

After erasing all but the layer right on the eyes, the eyes look like alien-eyes!

Don't worry!! I fix this by adjusting the opacity of the new layer to my liking (around 40-50%). How much depends on your own preference. I prefer a pretty natural look, but some like the eyes to really pop!


And one more look at the before and after...

It's pretty subtle, but it does make a difference!! :)
So, that's it! Pretty easy, huh??!!