Today I am sharing one of the most useful tools of Photoshop - I haven’t done a lot of intense editing for a very very long time mainly because I am too lazy and couldn’t be bothered, but this tool is something I do all the time because its needed.
At the end of last year, a group of Reach Out Youth Ambassadors went on a road trip from Brisbane to Adelaide raising awareness of reachout.com.au in schools, towns, bush and holes along the way - all in about 2 weeks I think. And Sarah’s housemate, Dan, joined them as well and that is how I got to know Dan. However, we didn’t speak because I was a bit of a snob - its just a joke! They took some of the coolest pictures through their trip and this is Dan in action!
See!! Effing cool pics right?! Anyway..
And then he went over to South Africa for the Schools 4 Schools program, one of the most exciting projects of The Oaktree Foundation, an entirely youth run aid and development organisation (everyone is 25 or under!) with a focus on developing and improving education in developing countries around the world. The program partners schools in Australia with schools in South Africa, so schools in Australia fundraise with students running S4S events to fund the program in South African schools addressing issues compounding the HIV/AIDS pandamic such as drug/alcahol abuse, gender roles and family structures, transmission, teenage pregnance etc.
So, at the moment, he’s there feeding mosquitoes, sunbaking, managing quality control of the program, coordination with Australia, content creation (marketing material etc), website content, deliver sessions in schools to teach South African students issues affecting Australian and its students, run workshops on interview techniques, resume writting, public speaking, etc etc.
All the exciting and cool stuff - because I have a strong belief that education, knowledge and experiences cure all things. And he’s doing a very inspiring and selfless work/volunteering! :)
He picked up a camera and started shooting some awesome pictures and I absolutely loved these few photos!
This is the man who has (I assume) no prior knowledge of photography and photoshop! I was so totally inspired! Plus, he has some of the most creative angles, which I struggle with.
However, I realised one thing about some of his photos - the faces are too dark. Now, I am not sure if its the lighting angle, or just the camera’s aperture, but I thought I’d steal two photos and show some of you guys how to brighten the faces with Photoshop. :) I learned some of these during my training with Alvin Leong Photography, and the rest is just trial and error.
First Option: Using the Curves Tool
I’ll use this picture as an example:
1. Duplicated the layer, so in case you screw up (shit happens), you still have your original copy. The easiest way is to right click on the layer and select Duplicate Layer. Go to Marquee Elliptical Tool and change the feather to about 50 or 60 px - depending on the size of your photo.
2. Then, with the top layer selected, use the marquee tool and select the face area. The first time you do it, it might not cover the whole face, so press and hold Shift and select area that is not yet selected and it will be added to your selected area - if that makes sense. If a pop up comes out that says something like no pixel selected, decrease your feather by tenth so if it was 60, decrease to 50, still doesn’t work, 40 if at 0 it still doesn’t work, go die. No, something must be seriously wrong.
3. Once you’ve done that, open the Curve window, Image > Adjustment > Curves, or you can press Ctrl + M.
Moves the line up and you should see the difference - be careful not to over do it, or underdo it.
4. Press OK and go to Select > Deselect, or you can press Ctrl + D to deselect.
Once you’re happy with it, go to Layer > Flatten Image and you’re done!
So I edited it a bit more by burning the side a bit, put a bit vignetting in, etc.
Ta-da! It gives the subject a lot more focus and the smile is just.. GORGEOUS! :)
Second Option: Using Levels
I think this option might work better and probably easier for most. In this one, I used this picture:
1. Refer to number 1 and 2 above. Select the face.
2. Go to Levels by going Image > Adjustment > Levels, or press Ctrl + L.
3. The one circled in red (above) is the skin tone and green is light, and pushing it to the left will increase and right will decrease - you have to try it to understand it. I normally drag the middle bit first, and avoid the right one unless I have to because if you push the right one too much, your pictures become overexposed i.e. too bright.
Remember, don’t over do it - it shouldn’t be too bright to the point where it doesn’t compliment the lighting in the background. It will look fake.
4. Once you’re happy, flatten your image Layer > Flatten Image and you’re done!
I do realise the picture above is a bit weird, that’s because the girl’s face is coloured and background is black and white. And maybe its a tad too bright. But bah, its exams period and I couldn’t be bothered to fix them.
All pictures stolen from Dan’s blog and Facebook with (indirect) permission. :) Hop over to his blog and say hi and check out his work! They’re awesome, seriously!
And of course, send him some positive encouraging messages while you’re there - afterall, he’s there out in the hot desert providing these kids with a better, brighter future!
PS: If you think this tip is helpful, make sure you bookmark it so next time you run into these problems, you can easily fix them! :)
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