I have a little motto I stick to when I create pages – the pictures are the focus! I know most of us aren’t professional photographers and our pictures don’t always look perfect, but I believe cropping and some small effects will help your ordinary photos look top notch!
1. Cropping can do wonders to an average photo. First you need to decide what you want in the photo. Most the time you are going to zoom way in – there always seems to be a lot of empty space. Do you want a horizontal or vertical photo? Get creative.
2. Brightness/Contrast Most photos need some brightening and I like to use extra contrast. Do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and then adjust to your liking.
3. Effects Lets look at some basic effects to ensure that your photo tells a story. Here are three different simple effects and the directions for using Photoshop (there are much more complicated ways of adjusting color in Photoshop, but I wanted to just stick with a couple easy ones).
• SEPIA FILTER – this does not necessarily change the color of your photo to shades of brown and tan, it just gives your photo an older, dreamy sort of feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter choose sepia filter and play with the density (I used 49% density on this photo).
• ENHANCE COLOR – this brightens all the colors in the photo and gives a more intense feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color, here you should choose the colors in your photo from the drop down list and adjust each line to get a bold effect.
• BLACK & WHITE – I love black and white photos - they have such a timeless look and feel. The key to making B&W photos look amazing is to play with the color contrast. In this case you will change your photo to B&W before you change the brightness and contrast. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White, then use your brightness/contrast tool generously.
Good luck and have fun with it!
1. Cropping can do wonders to an average photo. First you need to decide what you want in the photo. Most the time you are going to zoom way in – there always seems to be a lot of empty space. Do you want a horizontal or vertical photo? Get creative.2. Brightness/Contrast Most photos need some brightening and I like to use extra contrast. Do this by going to Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast and then adjust to your liking.
3. Effects Lets look at some basic effects to ensure that your photo tells a story. Here are three different simple effects and the directions for using Photoshop (there are much more complicated ways of adjusting color in Photoshop, but I wanted to just stick with a couple easy ones).
• SEPIA FILTER – this does not necessarily change the color of your photo to shades of brown and tan, it just gives your photo an older, dreamy sort of feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter choose sepia filter and play with the density (I used 49% density on this photo).
• ENHANCE COLOR – this brightens all the colors in the photo and gives a more intense feel. Go to Image > Adjustments > Selective Color, here you should choose the colors in your photo from the drop down list and adjust each line to get a bold effect.
• BLACK & WHITE – I love black and white photos - they have such a timeless look and feel. The key to making B&W photos look amazing is to play with the color contrast. In this case you will change your photo to B&W before you change the brightness and contrast. Go to Image > Adjustments > Black & White, then use your brightness/contrast tool generously.
Good luck and have fun with it!
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