I’m always mentioning what I do in photoshop. It’s time for a little demonstration. Here are some before and after versions. I don’t usually save the originals once I’ve done corrections, so putting this together was a challenge! I use version 7, which is old but effective. How these look on your computer will depend on your screen and how it is balanced, but hopefully the “afters” will be much improved.
Here’s an example of cropping and improving contrast:
Hadley Fraser and cast in The Phantom of the Opera
No matter how good a movie looks on DVD, the stills can always be better. The original here was a few seconds before the one I used in my post for A Little Princess:
Liam Cunningham as Prince Rama in A Little Princess
I enjoy working with images from The Rifleman, because there’s no worry about color balancing. It’s fun to restore the contrast, but I have to be careful not to wash out the lighter parts. It’s also fun to remove unwanted elements using my favorite tool, the clone stamp:
Johnny Crawford in The Rifleman (The Pet, season 1)
Old family photos fade. With my Epson scanner, I can scan them and restore the color and contrast quite a bit:
Christmas Party, 1970 (I'm on the far right in red)
I’m certainly no expert at photoshop, but I have a great time learning new tools and techniques. As I learn, I’m tempted to go back and fix the images in older posts, especially since getting a new laptop with a different screen. I just have to resist the urge!
Posted by Grace on January 6, 2012 at 12:17 pm
Neat! I’m not that skilled at photo-editing…
Posted by Katelyn on January 6, 2012 at 2:18 pm
Wow that’s quite a difference! Your photos always looks beautiful. I especially like your version of the Prince Rama one.
Posted by Nelia Green on January 7, 2012 at 3:45 pm
Beautiful – amazing improvement on all photos – Prince Rama is decidedly the most dramatic – keep up the good work.