- Joined
- Oct 1, 1999
- Messages
- 6,490
I hope you’ve read my short but sweet tutorial on “How I Photograph Knives”.
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452121
I think you can see how minor angle adjustments can make a big difference in the image. I try to make sure I have a photo where the subject knife is in focus, with no major hotspots or bad reflections. But, no matter how careful you are with your photography you’re still only half way there. All photos can be improved with a little Image Editing. Here’s how I do it.
I like to compare the photos side by side in Photoshop at a good size. Here is a screen shot of the four photos I took of this knife. The lower right I would say is the best, but it’s not something I would show to anyone. It still needs some work, most photos do.
These are the steps that I would go through to make this photo acceptable for sharing.
My Image editing program is Adobe Photoshop CS. The steps that I use here should be available in any image editing program. I won’t however be able to explain the exact placement or names of the tools or any other functions in any program besides Photoshop.
With the photo open in Photoshop the first thing I would do is to Duplicate the photo and put away (CLOSE) the Original untouched. From the Image menu click on Duplicate. When the Duplicate Image window opens give your photo a name, then click OK.
With the Duplicate open in Photoshop the next thing I want to do is Copy the Background layer. I do this by pressing Command + J (Windows users Control + J) on my keyboard. I want to make any corrections on the Copy layer, so that I can compare it later to the Original. Now would be a good time to Save this file. Command + S will allow you to save this file.
Save often.
Please note that my Layers pallet now has two layers, the original layer named Background and the new copy layer, the one we’ll be working on is highlighted and named Layer 1.
I hope you remembered to move that reflector out of the frame of your picture. I didn’t so now I’ve got to remove it. If it was smaller I might just paint over it, but in this case I took the Polygonal Lasso tool, selected the corner section of the photo.
I then took the Eyedropper tool and sampled a color close to where the correction will be added. Please note in the Toolbar I changed the Sample Size form Point Sample to 3 X 3 Average. The color you selected now becomes your Foreground Color. Once the color is selected I go up to the Edit menu and click on Fill. This will fill the area with the photo’s background color.
If you choose the color sample well then the correction should be nearly invisible. If it isn’t, undo it Command + Z, and try again. When you’ve got it right Command + S.
The contrast and color for this photo is not bad, but maybe some corrections could help. I’m all for keeping things as simple as possible. Photoshop has a couple of Auto fixes under the Image menu > Adjustments. I click on each one in turn and see if it’s better, click on Command + Z, to Undo if it’s not. In this case Auto Color gave me the best results, but it wasn’t good enough. I knew I could do better.
Sometimes the Auto fixes will help, sometimes they won’t. Your greatest contrast control tools are Levels and Curves, under Adjustments. The first one listed is Levels and this is a powerful tool. Under the Image menu > Adjustments > Levels, a new window will open. There are three sliders under the histogram, watch the image and see what they do, (make sure the Preview box is checked). The only thing that helped my photo was moving the middle slider to the left to brighten the photo, but I still wasn’t satisfied.
Continued in Part II
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452958
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452121
I think you can see how minor angle adjustments can make a big difference in the image. I try to make sure I have a photo where the subject knife is in focus, with no major hotspots or bad reflections. But, no matter how careful you are with your photography you’re still only half way there. All photos can be improved with a little Image Editing. Here’s how I do it.
I like to compare the photos side by side in Photoshop at a good size. Here is a screen shot of the four photos I took of this knife. The lower right I would say is the best, but it’s not something I would show to anyone. It still needs some work, most photos do.
These are the steps that I would go through to make this photo acceptable for sharing.
My Image editing program is Adobe Photoshop CS. The steps that I use here should be available in any image editing program. I won’t however be able to explain the exact placement or names of the tools or any other functions in any program besides Photoshop.
With the photo open in Photoshop the first thing I would do is to Duplicate the photo and put away (CLOSE) the Original untouched. From the Image menu click on Duplicate. When the Duplicate Image window opens give your photo a name, then click OK.
With the Duplicate open in Photoshop the next thing I want to do is Copy the Background layer. I do this by pressing Command + J (Windows users Control + J) on my keyboard. I want to make any corrections on the Copy layer, so that I can compare it later to the Original. Now would be a good time to Save this file. Command + S will allow you to save this file.
Save often.
Please note that my Layers pallet now has two layers, the original layer named Background and the new copy layer, the one we’ll be working on is highlighted and named Layer 1.
I hope you remembered to move that reflector out of the frame of your picture. I didn’t so now I’ve got to remove it. If it was smaller I might just paint over it, but in this case I took the Polygonal Lasso tool, selected the corner section of the photo.
I then took the Eyedropper tool and sampled a color close to where the correction will be added. Please note in the Toolbar I changed the Sample Size form Point Sample to 3 X 3 Average. The color you selected now becomes your Foreground Color. Once the color is selected I go up to the Edit menu and click on Fill. This will fill the area with the photo’s background color.
If you choose the color sample well then the correction should be nearly invisible. If it isn’t, undo it Command + Z, and try again. When you’ve got it right Command + S.
The contrast and color for this photo is not bad, but maybe some corrections could help. I’m all for keeping things as simple as possible. Photoshop has a couple of Auto fixes under the Image menu > Adjustments. I click on each one in turn and see if it’s better, click on Command + Z, to Undo if it’s not. In this case Auto Color gave me the best results, but it wasn’t good enough. I knew I could do better.
Sometimes the Auto fixes will help, sometimes they won’t. Your greatest contrast control tools are Levels and Curves, under Adjustments. The first one listed is Levels and this is a powerful tool. Under the Image menu > Adjustments > Levels, a new window will open. There are three sliders under the histogram, watch the image and see what they do, (make sure the Preview box is checked). The only thing that helped my photo was moving the middle slider to the left to brighten the photo, but I still wasn’t satisfied.
Continued in Part II
http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=452958
