Photo Editing Q + A

Two weekends ago was my Studio Saturday post, and in it, I asked a few questions readers could answer to enter a giveaway. There were some really good questions in those comments, I took some time last week to answer them on my blog. I'm reposting those answers here, in case you were one of those who had a question!



Lighting Issues

A few people said that they struggled with lighting when taking photos. Right off, I can tell you that this is something you really want to work at getting it right while you're taking photos versus something you try to fix with editing. Bad lighting is bad lighting, and it's going to show. While there are some things you can do to minimize a few bad spots in Photoshop, you really don't want to rely on trying to "save" it during post-processing. One, because it takes so much more time to edit a photo versus just working on getting good lighting when you're taking it. And two, too much editing can make a photo look very heavily processed, which is probably not what most shop owners are looking for.

There's no one trick when it comes to lighting because everyone's set up is different. I can say that I've tried both an indoor setup and natural light outdoors, and between the two, I like the look of natural light better, but that's personal preference. Here's what I used to with my shop photos: My Photo Formula

If you prefer natural light, you need to pay attention to the light around you and set aside some time to experiment. What's the sunniest room in your house? What time of day do you get a lot of sunshine in that room? Can you shoot close to a big open window? Can you shoot on a patio? Avoid direct sunlight, as that was too harsh a light source. Instead, shoot next to a bright window or outside in the shade versus out in the sun.

If you like shooting indoors, you want to work in a confined space with lots of light. If possible, use a light box that you either buy or construct (there are links on My Photo Formula post), and use two or three daylight light bulbs as your light source.





How do I eliminate shadows I don’t want?

There are a couple ways: photograph out of direct sunlight or bounce light off of a white surface when you’re photographing.

Photographing in the shade or indoors next to a bright window will minimize the harsh glares and shadows you get when you photograph in direct sunlight. To go a step further, prop up a white piece of foam core or poster board directly opposite your light source next to your object. This will allow the light to bounce back onto the object, reducing the shadows. To eliminate them completely, use a secondary light source, like a daylight lamp, in place of the white board.

If neither of those gets you the results you’re  looking for, try adjusting the levels in your photo editing program. If you’re working on a white background, and want a pure white background, I’ve got a Tip Share for that.





How do I make a photograph look more dramatic?

First, get clear about what you mean by dramatic, because that can mean different things depending on the photo.

Are you looking to make the colors pop? Then increase the saturation a little on your photo. Elements users, go up to Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation. Photoshop users, go to Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation. Keep in mind that will change your photo permanently, so if you’re looking for a more flexible option you can adjust over and over, use an adjustment layer instead. Go to your Layers Panel and click the circle that’s half black, half white. Then choose Hue/Saturation from that menu to create a layer you can fix over and over. Make sure to move it directly over your photo layer.

Are you looking to change the entire tone of a photo? Then play around with some Photoshop actions. This post gives a quick list of actions I've used.

Are you looking to increase contrast? Elements users can do that by going up to Enhance > Auto Contrast, or Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Brightness/Contrast. Photoshop users, go up to Image > Auto Contrast, or Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast. You can also create adjustment layers for this, too; just follow the steps I outlined above, and choose Brightness/Contrast instead of Hue/Saturation.

If there's something else you're looking to do, I've got a bunch of editing Tip Shares, so browse through if you've got some time.





How do I get crisp, clear photos?

Crisp photos start with a steady hand when you’re taking the photo. If your hands shake a little or if your camera’s heavy, try working with a tripod and an external shutter release. This way, your camera remains flat and stable at all times, reducing any shaking that might create fuzzy photos.

It’s also a good idea to spend some learning the settings on your camera. If you've got a point-and-shoot, read your manual to learn about the different scenes your camera has for you to shoot in. Then, spend time photographing the same thing in different scenes to find which one you like best.

If you've got a DSLR, same goes – learn what the different settings and controls are, and what you can do with them. It’s also a good idea to figure out the basics of ISO, shutter speeds, aperture, white balance, and what different lighting conditions need. If you’re feeling a little confused with these terms or the manual setting on your DSLR, check out this helpful cheat sheet I posted a while back.

Now, regardless of the type of camera you have, there is something you can do to sharpen up your photos in either Photoshop or Elements: the Unsharp Mask. Photoshop users, go to Filters > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. Elements users, go to Enhance > Unsharp Mask. Make sure Preview button is selected, then play with the Amount toggle – try it at 50% first, then increase or decrease as needed. Once you’re happy, click OK.

You have other editing options, either a Sharpen filter or Adjust Sharpness, but I like the Unsharp Mask best because it’s adjustable and can be really subtle. Couple things to remember: 1) It’s possible to over sharpen, so go slow. 2) Sharpening should be done last, after any other edits or resizing. Otherwise, you’ll have to redo this step. 3) Not every photo really needs this step, and it’s not going to magically fix a blurry photo. All this is going to do is sharpen what’s already in focus.





How do I focus on the parts of my object I want to focus on?

As far as focusing goes, what I said above applies. Read your manual on how to change the focus; most cameras will have an auto feature as well as a few others. You want to choose a focusing setting on your camera that you can remember, like dead center, and use that to line up your shot every time.

Press the release button down halfway to focus, and make sure what you want to focus on matches the highlighted area on your screen (it’s usually a little dot or a box). Keep doing this until what you want in focus is highlighted, then go ahead and press the release button down all the way to take the photo.If you’re looking for more detail, you want to either get close to your object, change your settings, or grab a lens that allows for close-up/macro-type shots.





How can I enlarge a photo without it getting grainy?

Unfortunately, you can’t make photos any bigger than what they are when they come out of your camera.

The thing that’s confusing is that Photoshop and Elements (and other programs, too) allow you to change your image size to whatever you want it to be. This lets people think that they can resize over and over, up and down, without any loss of quality, but unfortunately, that’s just not the case for photographs.

See, a photo is made up of millions of pixels; think of them like microscopic squares. When it comes out of your camera, it’s a set size, like 3888 pixels wide by 2594 pixels high. You can reduce it down to anything smaller, like 600 pixels by 400 pixels, with no real problem. What’s happening when you decrease the size is that those pixels are getting compressed down to fit into that new 600 x 400 pixel size. Some finer details may be lost during the compression, but you wouldn't be able to tell a difference at the smaller size.

But if you try to take that 3888 x 2594 pixel photo and make it bigger by just changing the size, it’s not going to look the way you expect it to. Why not? Because no new information is being added; Photoshop can only work with the original number of pixels in the original size. So, while Photoshop will let you increase any photo beyond the original size, it doesn't mean it’s putting in any new information. Instead, it’s simply stretching out the photo into a bigger shape, and the individual pixels become distorted. That’s the “grain” you see, and why photos can become fuzzy if you try to increase the size.

So, if you’re  looking for a larger size, you need to back to the original photo you took. That’s the biggest size your photo can be without losing quality. Most cameras these days take photos that are fairly large, so you’ll want to either bring that original photo into Photoshop to check how large it is or read your manual.

What you want to remember when it comes to sizing is this: Size down, not up. I always, always leave the original photo intact, and save any edits I make as a separate, new file; actually, I tend to save three copies – the original, the original + edits, and the edits + a new smaller size. This way, I have something to come back to should I need a larger size later.





In addition to my Tip Share page, check out my Tips & Tricks pin board for more photo and editing tips. There’s a bunch of photo-related pins in there, as well as others, that might answer your question. Or if you've got a burning question, leave a comment and I’ll do my best to answer it!

Studio Saturday with Brandi Hussey

Welcome to Studio Saturday! Each week one of our contributors gives you a sneak peek into their studio, creative process or inspirations. We ask a related question of our readers and hope you'll leave comments! As an incentive we offer a free prize each week to bribe you to use that keyboard. The following week we choose a random winner. 

This week's winner is Shelley Graham Turner of Tori Sophia Designs! Congratulations, Cheri! You have won the Dream Catcher Pendant Kit from Erin Siegel! Send Erin an email with your address and she will get your prize out to you soon! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

This week we visit the studio of 

Brandi Hussey of Brandi Girl Blog

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Hey ABSers! It's strange to think that I've been a contributor for over a year now, but that this is the first Studio Saturday I'm hosting. I'm excited for the chance, though a little nervous, too.

Why? Because I'm kind of the oddball contributor, in that I don't sell jewelry anymore. My focus these days is on blogging, color theory, and photography, so I'm in a slightly different position from other contributors - I'm more of an art bead lover, versus maker. This means my studio isn't so much a room in the house, but programs on my computer. If that's the case, then what can I share with you?

How about a quick and easy editing tip to make your photos look good?

After taking thousands of photos over the last few years, I've come to realize that every photo needs a little help. No matter how perfect I may have gotten the shot in-camera, 99.99% of the photos need a boost.

Maybe you've had the same experience, where you're a little disappointed at how your photos look once you've uploaded them onto your computer. This doesn't mean your camera isn't good; even basic point-and-shoots nowadays are vastly better than the cameras from just a few years ago, so the camera isn't the issue. The issue is that just taking the photo is only half of the equation; the missing half is editing. Getting a perfect photo you don't have to edit straight of the camera is like winning the lottery; it's possible, but not necessarily probable. To give you an idea, out of the thousands of photos I've taken, there have been only four I felt didn't need any work.

There's a lot of cool tips and tricks you can learn to make your photos pop, but let me share one quick thing you can do today to improve your photos. It's subtle, but really effective: adjust the levels for your photo. What are levels? The levels of your photo refers to the mix of your highlights, shadows, and midtones. When you adjust those levels, you're changing the way your photos appear.

To do this editing trick, you're going to need a program like Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, GIMP, or an online-based editor (I like Pixlr.com's Editor best - it functions in a similar way to Photoshop). I tend to shy away from the editing programs that come with a camera because they don't allow me to edit the way I want to. If you don't have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements, try either GIMP or Pixlr.com, both of which are free (GIMP is a program you download, Pixlr works in your web browser).



Step 1: Go ahead and open up a photo whatever program you're working in, then locate the levels menu in that program.

For Photoshop Elements, you can find the levels menu by going up to Editing on the top Program Bar, then down to Adjust Lighting, then over to Levels. For Photoshop, go to Image > Adjustments > Levels. For Pixlr, make sure you're under the Advanced Editor, then go up to Adjustment > Levels.

The menus, when they come up, will look like this:

Step 2: Adjust the levels by moving the toggles underneath the graph.

Once the levels menu is open, take a minute to look at it. You'll notice a section called Input Levels that holds a graph. That graph is your photo broken down into highlights, shadows, and midtones. The spikes or hills you see on that graph correspond to information in that photo. If you see a large hill on the right hand side, your photo has a lot of lighter tones. If there's a large hill on the left, your photo has a lot of darks in it.


Each photo will translate into a graph like this, but keep in mind each graph will vary in appearance because each photo will have slightly different amounts of highlights, shadows, and midtones in them. So if your graph looks different than the example, it's suppose to.

Underneath that graph are three toggles. The black one controls the shadows of your photo, the gray one the midtones, and the white one the highlights.

Click and drag the white and black toggles to right next to the graph. What you're doing here is cutting out the parts you don't need, the flat parts of the graph. Those flat areas don't contain any information vital to your photo, only the spikes do. So by moving the toggles next to the graph, you're readjusting the range for the shadows and highlights.

The closer to the graph you move with your white toggle, the brighter the highlights become. The closer you move your black toggle, the darker the shadows become (and the richer the colors become, too). As for the gray toggle, you can move it a little left of center to brighten up everything, or a little right of center to darken up everything.

Be careful when moving the toggles. You can cut off a little bit of each hill's ends, but you don't want to go too far.For example, if your graph touches one of the edges, like it does near the white toggle on my graph, you don't have to move it at all. Remember, that's information, so if you eliminate too much, you can blow out your highlights and shadows. Same goes for the gray toggle in the middle; moving it too far left or right will give you dramatic, not subtle, results. Instead, use the graph as a guide, and move the toggles right next to the hills.



Step 3: Save!

Easy, right? And it only takes a minute. With just this one trick, you've improved a bunch of things: you've made the dark areas richer, the brights brighter, and improved the tones and colors in your photo. It's subtle, but really powerful.

Photoshop/Photoshop Elements Tip:

If you're working in either Elements or Photoshop, consider using an adjustment Levels layer instead of going through the levels menu directly. Instead of going up to Enhance/Image, locate the adjustment layers button on your Layers Panel - it's a circle that is half black, half white. Click that and choose Levels from the dropdown menu.

The benefit is to doing it this way is that you can adjust the levels over and over without touching the main photo. By going through the Levels Panel directly, you're permanently changing the levels. If you'd like to adjust that later, you'd have to undo everything you did up to that point or start over. With the adjustment levels layer, you have the freedom to come back later and tweak over and over.



Giveaway!

This week, I'm giving away a set of actions for use in Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. These are actions that I've made for myself to simplify my editing workflow, and include quick shortcuts for resizing, brightening a photo, and a few fun actions, too. They aren't for sale, but one lucky commenter will get a set they can use to help them edit, too!

What if you don't have Photoshop or Photoshop Elements? I'll send you two Palette Club prints instead, your choice.

To enter, answer one of these questions: What's your favorite editing/photo trick? What do you struggle with the most when taking or editing a photo? What look are you going for with your shop photos - a more subtle, natural look, or something more drastic?




For more photo tips, take a look at the Tip Share page on my blog!