Photo Correction and Enhancement for Beginners: Part Three

Maximize Your Composition

   

This was a beautiful photo to begin with; but a little tweaking makes it look like a professional portrait.

Using Photoshop, first I cropped the picture to get Jean and baby Anna centered.

Select the Crop Tool. I don't know how to describe this symbol.

It looks a bit like one of those collapsible clothes drying racks. It sort of works that way too. Bring the Crop Tool to the image by clicking where you want one of the new corners to be. No need to be precise; you can adjust later.

Click and hold while you move the mouse toward the opposite corner. See how the "rack" opens up? Release the clicker when you have the detail you want included inside the "rack". To fine tune, you can move any of the four sides individually, or you can pull/push the corners to expand/contract the view. You can also move the whole crop frame if it's off center by clicking anywhere within the frame. Hold down and move.

When you're satisfied, right click and select Crop.

I wanted to remove the bricks in the background because they distract the eye from the two beautiful smiles. I decided to use the Smudge tool to give a soft portrait-like background.

The icon for the Smudge tool is a hand with pointer finger in the position of rubbing or smudging something. It might not be showing on your Tool Bar because it's in a box with two other tools.

Your Tool Bar might be showing the Blur Tool icon, which is a drop of liquid; or the Sharpen Tool icon, which is a pointed triangle like a pencil point.

[ Any Tool Box which has a small arrow in the lower right corner has multiple tools inside. Right click to display the list to choose from. ] With the Smudge Tool selected, go to the Option Bar and set the brush pixel to the desired diameter (I used a 23 pixel brush).

Then smudge the bricks away.

Notice how Mom Jean's arm cradling little Anna's head forms a semicircle. To enhance this, I added a round spotlight. Click on Filter, Render, then Lighting Effects.

I used the Default style and Spotlight light type. Then I played with the various sliders until I got the effect I wanted. There's no formula or step-by-step I can provide on Lighting Effects because each photo will be affected differently. Isn't it nice when we adults get to play too?

Finally, I went back with the Smudge Tool and touched up the background. This is kind of a chicken and egg type of thing.

The contrast between background and foreground affects how Lighting Effects work; so I wanted to smudge the background before spotlighting the shot. But, spotlighting the shot adds highlights to the smudged area; so it was necessary to go back and retouch some work.

For more on photo enhancement, visit:

Part One: Bring Out the Details
Part Two: The Evil Red Eye