There are plenty of plug-ins that can smooth skin tones and disguise blemishes, but Portrait Professional 11 goes a whole lot further.
In this Nikon ViewNX 2 tutorial we’ll show you how to use ViewNX 2 to non-destructively improve the colour, tone, and exposure of a raw file.
Nikon’s Capture NX2 photo editing software enables you to make and modify selections to tweak tones. In our Capture NX2 tutorial we’ll show you how to selectively target and adjust particular tones for greater strength and subtlety.
Each time they open a new image, the first question most people ask is ‘Can I do anything to improve the tones?’. Even if you have a perfect exposure, the answer is usually ‘Yes’. A few tonal tweaks will often lift an image, especially if you shoot in raw format, as raw files are naturally a little flat straight out of camera. One of the best tools for controlling and tweaking tones is the Photoshop Levels tool.
Learn how to transform your forest photography into a magical Tolkien world using creative symmetry and a split-tone Photoshop effect.
Photoshop effects are often used to correct problems, but in this tutorial we’ll show you how you can use it for more creative endeavours as we improve a macro shot’s content and composition. In the start image, we can see a hint of the petals’ reflection in a water droplet.
In theory, we could have positioned our camera to try to fill the droplet with background flowers, or even waited until the other droplets got larger to add more interest. In practice, we can take control over these elements more quickly and effectively using Photoshop to create reflections in pictures of water drops.
Sometimes, you may find your shot’s colours and tones don’t do the subject justice. Take our original image below – the contrast is flat, with little differentiation between shadows and highlights. This creates washed-out tones and drab colours. Shooting in raw gives you great control over tonal changes, especially if using the Photoshop CS Camera Raw editor’s Tone Curve tab.
Learning how to use Photoshop Actions might not be the most glamorous aspect of creative post-processing, but integrate them into your workflow and you’ll save bags of time by applying your favourite special effects in seconds.
An Action is essentially a recording of a Photoshop process (you can only record Actions in CS; newer versions of Elements enable you to play Actions, but the options are limited). In this Photoshop tutorial we’ll create a cool retro effect by editing the red, green and blue colour channels on a Curves adjustment layer.
If you’re an Elements user who wants to take your image editing skills to the next level without blowing your budget, you can shoot Raw files and edit them in Lightroom 4. Adobe Lightroom costs a lot less than Photoshop CS, but it boasts the same set of powerful Raw editing tools that you’ll find in the more expensive package. In this Adobe Lightroom tutorial we’ll show you how you can transform your pictures of people into classic Hollywood portraits in just 8 simple steps.
Learn how to use Adobe Camera Raw to sharpen photos for printing without exacerbating noise or creating halos in our latest Photoshop Elements tutorial.
