MMC140 - Wk 5: Photo editing Adjustment layers

Now we're starting to get interesting! Photo editing! THIS is why I wanted to do this unit. :) I've got a couple of blank walls in my house, and quite a few "almost fantastic but not quite there" shots I've taken over the last few years, so I'm hoping this unit will fill in some of those "self-taught Photoshopper" knowledge gaps and help me make a couple of my photos really pop.

First off the block was the "Curves" adjustment. I'll be honest, I never had a clue what this did so I never used it (and now I'm wondering why not) but apparently the "Auto" option will fix up 9/10 digital photos on the spot. Awesome!

(As an aside, I'm already starting to identify a problem with this unit - right now, I'm ready to abandon the 4 tutorials I need to get through this week, and dive straight into editing my own shots.. but anyway)

For the other 1/10 shots, you can do stuff like changing the Blending mode on the Curves layer. For instance, sometimes the Auto setting will change the colours slightly - to avoid this, set the Blending mode to "Luminosity" to only alter the brightness/darkness values. If the colour is better but it's too contrast-y, set the Blending mode to "Color" and it ignores the contrast. Handy to remember!

Some of the other things we looked at this week included:

• Hue/Saturation
• Photo Filter
• Black & White filter

And here is one of my efforts for this week. I took this photo earlier this year in Queenstown, NZ on a hazy day and I've been wanting to fix it up so I can put it on a canvas, so here's my first attempt.

This is the "Before" pic:

I then applied the Auto curve setting:

Finally, I added a Cyan Photo Filter because I wanted it to have a bluer, calmer tone, and the room it's going in has those colours.

 

What do you think? Ready for canvas?