New to Photoshop - Hints?

sergiotheonly

Hi there,
just started playing around with Photoshop CS3 - working on a shot from a trip to new zealand last summer. Was never happy with the original photo so thought I'd have a go at making it seem less washed out.
Comments and suggestions welcome.

The original can be viewed here

Thanks

sergiotheonly

sorry meant to insert the image in the message
doh
does it have to be hosted somewhere first?

pauldiv

I like the photo very much and think it is a great shot so well done.
If it was one of mine I would likely just leave it as it is.

The shadows in the foreground could maybe be lightened a bit to see if it makes an inprovement in the overall picture.

Always work on a duplicate layer before playing with the photoshop tools so that you dont permanently change the image.

I'd use the Shadow/Highlight control that can be found under

Image/Adjust/Shadow - Highlight.

Make sure the highlight amount is at zero and then increase the shadow amount using the slider.

Another great tool is the curves tool and you can use it to change the whole image or each of the Red, Green and Blue channels separately.

If you play with the red channel you should see a difference in the foreground

Curves is great for boosting contrast and to do that you need to create an 's' shaped curve that rises from the bottom left to the upper right.

The Hue / Adjustment control found under Image/Adjustments is also a good tool for changing colour balance.

If you play with these tools you might get the image looking slighly better but I think you will not be able to push up the exposure by much because the highlight caused by the sun behind the tree wil blow out quickly so I would go for the shadows instead.

Have fun.

sergiotheonly

Thanks pauldiv, I'll give that a go now.
I do like the shot a lot, it's just a little too red.