Level: Intermediate

Here's an easy but useful post-processing technique for you to experiment with Adobe Photoshop. There are a lot of ways to achieve this desaturated look and this is just one of the few techniques you can use. The objective is to create a moody, desaturated photo but still with a tinge of color in the scene. How much or how little color you want to leave in depends on your opacity settings and color tint choice. Feel free to experiment. Continue Reading

Technorati Tags: Adobe Photoshop

Level: Easy

I want to share with you this awesome technique taught by Deke McClelland in his Adobe PhotoShop - Mastering LAB Color DVD disc that I loaned from the library recently.  This tutorial is about maximum saturation without clipping and using the contrast slider in LAB mode.

Adjusting your image using Photoshop's Brightness/Contrast slider has been considered the worse adjustment tool you can ever use when working in RGB mode as these controls affect the whole tonal range of the image. For example, if your image only requires the shadow part to be lightened up, adjusting the brightness level up would affec the whole image, causing the midtones and highlights to be overexposed. Using adjustment tools such as Levels and Curves can isolate the specific tonal areas without affecting the other, hence the Brightness/Contrast controls are rarely used.

However, when used in LAB color mode, adjusting brightness and contrast become powerful tools for adding contrast and brightness of the COLORS only, without affecting the luminosity of the image or clipping colors. Continue Reading

Level: Easy

Here's a very simple way to make colors come alive in almost any photograph using Photoshop. I use it in many of my outdoor photos where there are vibrant, solid colors in the background that will complement the entire scene if the bold colors are part of the composition. Continue Reading

Technorati Tags: colors, Photoshop, vibrant

by David Tong

Level: Easy

Software: PhotoShop

How many times have you taken a colorful scene but you feel that the image needs a little bit more "pop"? I have an easy tutorial for you that should solve most of your flat images. Continue Reading

Technorati Tags: David Tong, PhotoShop, tutorial

by David Tong

Level: Advanced

While most people do shoot RAW and can tinker their white balance settings (WB) by GUI sliders from their software (such as Lightroom, and PhotoShop), sometimes, it's beneficial to know how to do it from scratch as well.

Of course, it'll be best to make sure your WB is accurate to begin with, but the world is not perfect, hence image editing software are made available.

Portraits, in general, require a certain level of color accuracy to make the skin of the subjects flattering. Light skinned subjects has a tendency to look too pink with wrong WB, while dark skinned people can be too orangey.

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Technorati Tags: David Tong, RAW, white balance, Lightroom, PhotoShop, accurate, Portraits, color accuracy

by David Tong

Most of us bought a camera for the same reason, to take portraits of our love ones. Quite a number of people are content with the idea of "I'm after the person in the picture, I could care less about photography techniques!". While that reasoning is justified, as capturing the subject take precedence over technicalities of photography, you have to ask yourself, "if I'm taking a photo anyway, why not make the photo nicer since it'll take the same amount of effort, film, storage, anyway?"

Here are some simple tips and pointers to improve your day-to-day snapshots to make your love ones look better in your photo album!
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