PHOTOGRAPHY 02 | EDITING

Editing photo's is such a vast subject and I wasn't completely sure where to start, or how to lay it out. Trying to explain all the steps I take to 
make a pic look the way you see it is surprisingly not that simple, even though it's second nature to me. I was in two minds about doing a tutorial 
and instead thought I'd just talk about my favorite tools to use when editing images on Photoshop. I'm dividing them up into 2 posts, and today's 
one is about curves, textures, selective colour, and blur.

* Before I start, I want to emphasize how important it is to begin editing on the best canvas possible by using camera raw to ensure your colour 
and white balance is correct, and that nothing is blown out.

** This is just the way I edit, I'm not saying it's the right way. There are many different routes you can take to reach the same result in Photoshop.

*** Everything below refers to Adobe Photoshop CS5 on PC, and will be a bit different on Mac

Curves

I use curves on the majority of my photo's. It's definitely not the only thing I do, but I can guarantee that popping a lovely curve on your image 
can do wonders. Wonders I tell you! I've built my curves library up for just over 2 years and although it's taken some time I absolutely love them 
all. If you're interested in making your own, there are some very good youtube tutorials out there, basically youtube is the god of everything. 
Yes, everything. So for a more in depth tutorial I'd recommend you go there as I think I'm absolutely rubbish at explaining this and it even 
confused me when I read through it, but here goes:

1. When you open a curves adjustment you are faced with a graph ranging from black to white tones, black on the left and white on the right, 
as well as a RGB curve running through it. You can move this curve by making little anchor points along the line & dragging these points 
up and down, and this allows you to change the tones in your image. 

2. On the graph you will notice it runs from black to white not only from left to right, but also bottom to top. Basically, the bottom row refers to 
the tones you are working in, and the side row shows you how you will affect your curve by pulling it up and down. 

3. If you make an anchor point towards the left of your graph, therefore working in the darker shades, and pull upwards, you will be making all 
those tones lighter.  Similarly, if you were to drag downwards, you would be making them darker. 

4. When working in one of the colour channels, things are a bit different. Pulling down on the curve reduces the colour you are working in and 
increases it's complimentary colour. Eg, if you were working in red, pulling down will increase your cyans. 

5. Start small people! Play around with the RGB channel by moving the bottom left anchor point up a little and top right down a little. You'll
notice that your blacks are not as black and whites not quite as white now, this is something you'll notice in most of my images as I like that 
effect. Once you've done that, play around with the Red, Green, and Blue channels as well, and see what you come up with!  

Of course, if A: you're a lazy bugger, or B : my instructions are shit, simply have a look around the internet and you'll find loads. Julia Trotti &
Nirrimi are just 2 photographers of many who make beautiful curves available for purchase (and sometimes for free)

Textures

I'm not a big fan of textures, but it's no secret I enjoy a good old "light-leak" every now and then. There are some perfectly good ones you can 
use available online, which you then just layer over your image and set on the "screen" setting. I wasn't finding any that I really loved, or if 
I did they weren't a big enough resolution, so I made my own. It's ridiculously easy, and consists of a transparent or black layer with gradients 
of colour which will act as your light-leaks. On your image, make a new layer and leave it transparent or fill it with black. Then choose the 
gradient tool (right-click the painbucket on the left toolbar) choose a colour, and click-drag your gradient along the black until you like how 
it looks. Then go to the blending mode dropdown box and set it to screen. You're probably going to need to change the opacity as well. 

Selective Color Tool

I use this all the time for colour adjustements and it's brilliant, but I usually just work within neutral and white (and sometimes red) for the 
purpose of the blog. I find it works really well for skin tone and overall picture tone.

Choose which colors you want to work within, and then move the sliders. To start, move the black slider within the neutral channel a little to 
the left and notice how much nicer everything looks? And doing the same in your white channel leaves everything a little brighter. Also, if 
you'r skin is looking a little red, work in the red channel and move the black slider to the left. Once again, mess around and figure out how it 
works best for you! 

Blur

Just don't do fake blur, ever. I'm not saying I haven't been there, because I definitely have. This is one of those situations much like your mom 
telling you not to make the same bad mistakes she made. Yup, I'm your virtual editing mom.


And that's it for now! 
I know this is a bit of an information overload, sorry! If there's anything you'd like some more info on or any other questions, comment or send me 
a tweet and we can chat. I think a lot of people are under the impression that there's some kind of magical one-step trick to editing, and I'm sorry if all 
these steps come as a bit of a disappointment! The truth is it takes a bit of time and effort, but is really not difficult at all once you get into it. 

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