Photo Touch-ups in Photoshop
That's all there is to it.
21. Then gently click and drag over some of the
light.
If you took
the sample right, it should follow your movements and paint whatever is
under the sample cursor.
22. Repeat steps 20 and 21 until you have
painted over the entire light.
This is very
important, The Clone Stamp Tool won't work unless you do this:
19. Make sure you have the
Background layer selected. (The layers window is usually in the
lower right hand corner of the program.)
The clone
tool is sort of like a cut and paste tool, wherever you take a sample it
will reproduce what's in that area even if you move while you paint.
20. To take a sample hold Alt and click where
you want the sample then release the Alt key. Take the sample somewhere dark that's close to
the light like shown here.
Now we will
try to take out the pesky light that is above the subject on the right.
18. Click on the Clone Stamp
Tool (keyboard shortcut (S). And select a brush size that's a good
size to work on the light.
17. Then we use the brush and click the spots
that are dark on their faces. Then to accent the vests we just lightly
click and drag the brush over the vest patterns. The subject on the
right's tie is a little too bright and overexposed so we switch brush color
to darken by pressing X and drag it over his tie. We also darken the
rose on the subject in the middle. And if you change your mind and
don't like the changes you can just delete the layer you created in steps
10-12. These are very subtle changes that don't matter all that much
on this picture but this technique can be invaluable in all sorts of
pictures especially in accenting small details.

13. Then click on the brush tool (keyboard
shortcut: (B))
14. Choose a softsided
brush and set the diameter to about the size shown in respect to a face.
15. This is very important:
Put the Opacity down to around 9%
16. The two squares shown here
(circled in pink) should be black and white, if they are not click on the
smaller squares (in the smaller circle of pink). When its on white and
you paint on the new layer you created (steps 10-12) it will lighten the
picture where you are painting. To switch and darken where you are
painting click on the little arrows (also in the circle of pink, keyboard
shortcut: (X)) to switch color so the black is on top.

Now we're
going to try to take out some of the shadow that's on the subject's faces,
mainly the subject in the middle and the one on the left.
10. Create a new layer (keyboard shortcut:
Shift+Ctrl+N) and when it asks you what kind:
11. Change the Mode from Normal
to Overlay.
12. Click the box which appears
that says Fill with Overlay-neutral color (50% gray). Then click OK.
That's pretty much all you need to know to do basic
touch-ups, but if you want to learn the more technical stuff that's fine
too. In the next part we will show you more advanced photoshop tips
like how to brighten little spots where you want to take away shadows or
just spots you want to emphasize. We will also show you how to take
out certain items in the picture that you don't want.
Now you could
be done, but to get a little picky it seems like there is a little too much
magenta in their faces (digital cameras usually add too much magenta to
photos for some reason). Here's how to fix it:
7. Create a new Selective Color adjustment layer.
8. Make sure your only adjusting the reds in the picture.
9. Then click and hold the magenta slider and drag it a little to the
left (more or less depending on how much magenta you want to take out).
When your satisfied click OK.
*If you change your mind later you can always re-adjust the Brightness and
Contrast by double-clicking on the Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer in
the layers window.
*Remember that if you don't like what the levels adjustment layer (or
any other adjustment layer) did to the picture, you can just drag it into
the trash in the layers window.
After your
done with the levels adjustment layer,
4. create a new Brightness/Contrast
adjustment layer.
5. To brighten or darken (this
picture needed brightening) the whole picture click and hold on the
Brightness slider and drag it to the right or left (this picture only
required me to drag it to the right +12%).
6. To adjust the Contrast of the
whole picture click and hold on the Contrast slider and drag it to the right
or left (this picture only required me to drag it to the right +5%).
When your satisfied click OK.


First, open
the picture in photoshop and in order to try to balance the exposure a
little:
1. Open a new Levels adjustment layer
2. Then use the black eye
dropper and click it on what you think is the blackest part of the picture, that
will adjust the colors to match the black, it may make an unwanted change, if it
does hit undo.
3. If the colors
are way off the scale(like with the white in this picture) then drag the white
or black (the white one as shown in this picture) markers in to balance the dark
and light tones, you should experiment how far to drag them in depending on the
picture, you might want to experiment with the grey marker that's between the two
also. When your satisfied click OK.
This section
is to help you learn simple photo corrections and how to fix the minor imperfections and make a
photograph look the best it possibly can. This photo is underexposed
and has almost completely darkened half of the left subjects face.
Also the yellow light in the upper right third of the picture draws too much
attention away from the subjects.