Who wants Pop!

[William]

PP is a necessary part of our work flow and we all want our images to "POP", so I thought we could share some simple ways we go about achieving this. Here are some quick and dirty tricks that I have come up with while fiddling around in Photoshop. Forgive me if these are already well known techniques - I'm no boffin (tech geek). Please add some of your own.


Technique 1:

• Create an Exposure Adjustment layer
• Drop the Offset to about -0.0026 (more if needed)
• Raise the Exposure slightly but usually this is not required
• Done

Simple. Toggle this layer on and off to see a slight pop and increase in contrast. Good for hazy images.





Technique 2:

• Create a Black and White Adjustment layer
• Find a filter style you like such as Infrared
• Set the Blend Mode to Overlay
• Adjust the layer opacity to about 15% (just a guide)
• Done

Toggle this layer on and off to see some contrast pop.


Remember 'Less is More', don't over do it. Find what looks good then back-off just a touch. I'm the worst offender when it comes to over-baking an image [:P]

[w349]

I'll add one (N.B. thereare better ways to do this, look up high pass sharpening to find some more detailed techniques).


Lazy high pass sharpening

• Add a background copy layer, or a merged copy layer (if you'vegot other adjustment layers acting on the backgroundby pressing Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E, or whatever the Mac equivalent is)
• Add a high pass filter to this layer by going through Filter > Other > High Pass
• Adjust the radius to your liking, perhaps 5.0 pixels is a good starting point.
• Change the blending mode of this layer to Overlay and reduce the opacity, again, to your liking. Around 50% might be a good starting point.

If you want to spend another minute, use a layer mask to confine the effect to key areas of your picture (e.g. eyes).


Here's a quick before (left) and after (right)of an eye using that method.


[img]/resized-image.ashx/__size/550x0/__key/CommunityServer-Discussions-Components-Files/13/5140.Before_5F00_after.jpg[/img]


Another thing to remember when sharpening is just because you can make something sharper, doesn't mean you always should.

[Steve U]

Thanks William and W349, these sort of tips are great for us beginners.

[bob williams]

Thanks William et.al. This is the kind of stuff I am looking for in the upcomming "Tips from Forum Members" ---please check out the post "call to all forum members"


Thanks again,


Bob