Photoshop Tips?

[echoyjeff222]

I have to play around with photoshop for a school project, and was wondering how I could make this photo better w/ techniques in photoshop. No need to edit for me -- just tell me what to try and I'll give it my best shot I'm using a photo I took over the winter.

 

[KmH]

You have little there to work with since 80% of the image is OOF, and what is in focus is tonally very close to the rest of the image.

It would help to know what version/release of Photoshop you have, and if the origianl file is a Raw file or a JPEG. (JPEGs have litttle, if any, editing headroom since they have already been edited in the camera.)

First make a copy of the original to do your editing on. (Never edit an original)

I would use ACR and first adjust the Temperature/Tone, Recovery, and Clarity. Then I would use the Adjustment Brush to darken the background about 1.5 stops.

Then open the photo in Photoshop. Duplicate the Background layer. On the new layer use your favorite selection tool to select your main subject back into the background. Use the Refine Edge feature to feather the edge of the selection 3 to 5 pixels.
With the selection active go up under Filter > Sharpen > UnSharp Mask. When the USM dialog box pops up, set the Amount to 10, and the Radius to 200. That will enhance the local contrast of only what is inside the selection you made, and not actually so much in the way of sharpening.

For whatever reason you uploaded the photo here as a .png file which ACR won't open.

 

[echoyjeff222]

Okay, I have Photoshop CS 5.1 Extended ... no ACR?

 

[MTVision]

Okay, I have Photoshop CS 5.1 Extended ... no ACR?

Photoshop comes with ACR. If you shoot in JPEG you'd have to go to open as - change the file type at the bottom of the dialog box to camera raw - then choose your file and it will open in ACR.

If you shoot in RAW and ACR won't open your raw files then go to (I think) help and then updates to update your ACR.

 

[echoyjeff222]

Thanks So what's the difference between using ACR vs. regular photoshop?

And also, can you clarify "Temperature/Tone, Recovery, and Clarity" -- I'm a newbie In what way should I adjust?

 

[echoyjeff222]

BTW - it asks me width and height when I open as camera raw help?

 

[STM]

Honestly, I think first thing you should do is re-orient the image. It is just not very aesthetic the way it is presented. I rotated it 90 degrees and flipped it horizontally. The lack of front to back sharpness is somewhat problematic. Do you have any other images you can use?

 

[MTVision]

BTW - it asks me width and height when I open as camera raw help?

Can't help you with that - I've never had that issue. The picture you are opening should already be a set width/height.

Difference between camera raw and photoshop - camera raw is mainly for raw processing. There are a lot of great - user friendly - tools.

 

[KmH]

Photoshop CS5 includes 2 other applications, or plug-ins: Camera Raw (Adobe Camera Raw - ACR) and Bridge.

CS5 uses ACR 6. FWIW, Lightroom 3's Develope module is also ACR 6.

Bridge is a image browser, organizer.