Index

Welcome back to another guide to better photos here at AT. In our past guides, we have looked at techniques that can be applied to take better pictures. In this guide, we will be focusing on ways to improve the photos that you have with the use of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. If you don’t already have one of these programs, and you are at all serious about photography, you should really consider checking them out. Photoshop Elements 3 is a reasonably-priced alternative to Photoshop CS that offers many of the same features.

The quality of a picture right out of the camera will vary depending on the camera that you are using and its internal processing settings. For example, consumer digicams tend to produce images with high contrast and sharpness while higher-end models tend to be more conservative. It is a common misconception that every image needs to be post-processed. Depending on your camera’s settings and partly on your photographic ability, you may find that some pictures will look great right out of the camera. In such a case, there is no need to feel bad for not post-processing your images. However, it is far more likely that when you look through your photos you will see some that need straightening, lightening, higher saturation, red-eye reduction, sharpening, etc. This guide is designed to help you post-process your images with simple steps to produce impressive results. Feel free to work with our samples as we go through this guide. It will help you get a better idea of how each process is applied.

Getting Ready
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  • vladik007 - Saturday, March 19, 2005 - link

    if you're such a hot shot photographer , read dpreview's articles and subscribe to magazine that are FOR pros. This is a sire for hardware geeks , so this little tid bit is great and refreshing.

    Power to anand and his editors , great job.
  • vladik007 - Saturday, March 19, 2005 - link

  • hoppa - Saturday, March 19, 2005 - link

    In Soviet Russia, layers adjust YOU.
  • JarredWalton - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    Great stuff, Stephen. Now all I need is a way to make the crappy, grainy images from my digital camera not look crappy and grainy. (Note to others: The Fuji S5000 shoots *only* in ISO200 or ISO400 modes. So, my options are "grainy" and "really grainy". I'm going to see if I can pick up some halogen lights tonight and maybe they'll help.)
  • CrystalBay - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    thanks for the toot..
  • blackbrrd - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    Nice article!

    More articles like this is good :)

    (Don't go the tomshardware way.. 80% of the articles there are useless)
  • segagenesis - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    #2 - Wah wah... this is a good article, would you rather have your pictures look like mud?
  • Rocket321 - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    I found this information very useful and hope to see more photo guides in the future. As an amature this type of infomation is invaluble.
  • Questar - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    Typical amatuer stuff, adding way too much contrast and color saturation to punch up images.
  • InuYasha - Friday, March 18, 2005 - link

    power of phtoshop!

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