Manipulating images to produce better quality in Photoshop

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 01:55 PM

For my particular file, it is now 364 x 600 pixels and 76.9 kb and is within the Forum guidelines (400 max width x 600 max height and max 100kb). Here's the overall image, but I have not yet done any adjustments on it. On my monitor, I see this as being a bit dark and too red.

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 01:57 PM

Here I tried Image | Adjustments | Autocolor. My take is the skin tones look better, but there's too much contrast. So, I'm going to Edit | Undo Autocolor.

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 01:58 PM

Since I wasn't satisfied with my results with Autocolor, I'll try a different approach: Image | Adjustments | Color Balance. With the slider bar, I take out some magenta (adding green) and take out some blue (adding yellow). Here is how my image looks now.

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 01:59 PM

Now I'm going to adjust the brightness contrast: Image | Adjustments | Brightness/Contrast

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 02:01 PM

Now I sharpen my image: Filter | Sharpen | Sharpen
Not bad, but perhaps a bit oversharpened.

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 02:02 PM

Now I click Edit | Undo Sharpen Edges because I want to try Filter | Sharpen | Sharpen Edges. I think this is better.

Cynthia Daniel · 02-10-2005, 02:04 PM

Next step is Edit | Undo Sharpen Edges because I want to try Filter | Sharpen | Unsharp Mask. After playing with it some, here is the result. I think the last one and this one are the best. The differences are very subtle and to see them, you might need to save these images and view them side by side.