Photoshop for Beginners - Tutorials for Enhancing Travel Photos

Pictures taken with digital cameras usually have either a blueish or a yellowish tint. To restore the vibrancy of the picture and obtain the correct colours, this needs to be removed.

This method is incredibly simple and quick to apply; you may be amazed how much better your photo looks.

Simply go to 'Image', then 'Adjustments' and then click on 'Auto Levels'.

And that is it!

Adjusting the brightness and contrast can help improve your picture further.

To access this tool got to 'Image', then 'Adjustments' and then click on 'Brightness and Constrast': this will open the box shown. Then simply move the sliders to the left or right to adjust the look of the picture.

The amount you move the slider is up to you. If you increase the contrast and the image improves then increase it a bit more. If the image starts to look worse then move it back a touch.

TIP: I have found that improvements are usually made by increasing the contrast and then reducing the brightness to stop the lighter areas of the picture getting too bright.

Vignetting is the term used for the unwanted dark border that sometimes appears on photos. However, if you want to draw attention to a particular part of the photo then intentional vignetting can help.

An additional layer is applied to the image to darken the edges of the picture thus removing any areas of brightness in addition to giving the photo a more dramatic look.

Method:
Step 1: Open the layers pallette and click on 'create new layer'.
Step 2: Fill the layer with black (Shortcut: Alt Gr+Delete)
Step 3: Use the select tool to select an area about an inch in from the edge.
Step 4: Go to 'Select', then 'Feather' and select a value of between 100 and 200 pixels.
Step 5: Delete the selected area

You will now be left with a dark border that fades into the picture.

Step 6: Finally, use the 'Opacity' slider on the Layers palette to reduce the intensity of the border to the desired level.

The quality of night shots can often be poor with simple point and shoot compact cameras. However, there are some easy to perform steps that can be used to significantly improve the quality of your photos.

Step 1: Apply colour correction.

Step 2: Use the 'Brightness and Contrast' adjustment to make the sky look blacker and the lights brighter (increase contrast and reduce brightness)

Step 3: Sharpen the image to bring out detail (go to 'Filter', then 'Sharpen' and click on 'Sharpen')

Step 4: Use the 'Despeckle' filter to reduce the graininess of the sky (go to 'Filter', then 'Noise' and then click on 'Despeckle')

Step 5: Reapply the 'Despeckle' filter but stop before the image becomes to blurry.

If your photo, or part of your photo, is underexposed and appears too dark then this technique can help.

Method:
Step 1: Duplicate the background layer (shortcut: Ctrl+J)
Step 2: Set the layer type to 'Screen'
Step 3: Adjust the opacity of this layer to obtain the correct level of exposure or brightness or add additional Screen layers if necessary.

If you only want to brighten certain areas of you photo then select these areas using the 'Marquee Tool', select the inverse (go to 'Select' then click on 'Inverse') and then delete.

The following photos have all been edited using Adobe Image Ready.

Dumpling Shop, Xi'an, China [CLICK HERE TO BUY THIS PHOTO]

After initial colour correction, the contrast of the photo was increased and the brightness reduced to give the desired range of shadows and highlights.

To draw attention to the centre of the photo i used the Intentional Vignetting method. Before this layer was applied, the brightness of the drinks dispenser on the left and the red lantern in the top right corner were too distracting.

To increase the brightness of the woman entering the shop and the sign above it, a screening layer was added to these areas and set to an opacity of around 60%.

TIP: When selecting an area to screen, 'Feather' the edge of the selected area by about 10 to 20 pixels. This helps blend the new layer into the layer below and makes the modifications look more natural.

Night view of Central, Hong Kong

With a photo such as this it is very easy to improve on the original. Because the lights higly contrast the darkness of the sky the contrast level can be increased significantly without making the photo look unatural. As long as the original is reasonably sharp and in focus, the graininess and lack of contrast can be easly adjusted.

To correct this photo I simply followed the guidlines outlined above for Improving Night Shots.

TIP: If you dont have a tripod when taking night shots, and this is something you are unlikely to have when travelling, then to try find a flat level surface where you can rest the camera to keep it steady. Pressing the shutter can also move the camera resulting in a blurry photo; using the timer set to 1 or 2 seconds will delay the capture of the image and eliminate any camera shake.

For more techniques on Improving Night Shots Click here: More Techniques for Improving Night Shots)

Cropping is an excellent way to give your photos a whole new perspective. Photos that did not initially look that great can look completely different when the proportions are changed. And it is very easy to do.

Cropping simply involves selecting the area of your photo that you want to keep using the 'Marquee Tool' and deleting the rest by selecting 'Crop' from the 'Image' menu. The hard part is deciding what to get rid of. This is best demonstrated with an example:

This is the original picture:

Street traffic, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

The purpose of this photo was to show how busy the street was with bicycles and motorbikes. However, this is not conveyed particulary well by this photo; this composition tends to make the viewer look over the traffic.

Cropping the photo has a dramatic effect:

The traffic now fills more of the picture making the viewer feel like they are in the middle of a busy street.