Snowdonia (tutorial)
 If you like this one I have written 3 other tutorials which you can find >> here <<
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This is an old photo (found here) that I have rejigged using a few of the techniques I have learnt recently. I also thought it was about time that I had a go at writing a tutorial, so please read on below if you want to find out how I treated the image. I am sure that a lot of you will know these techniques already, but if you have anything to add (or could suggest a better way of doing things) please chip in. Also if anyone wants me to elaborate on anything please say, as, like I said, it's my first attempt at writing a tutorial so it may go over some people's heads. If you like this one then I may have a go at writing some more later on and putting them in a set together. Comments
Enigma Photos says:Great tutorial Jon. I'll have to give it a
try and see how it compares to the other
techique I currently use. 
steve green
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Finding location...
Jon Block
says:
Before I start, here are the before and after images:
The first of the two stages is to boost the contrast in separate areas of the image. I did this using a combination of "Curves" adjustment layers and selective masks, one layer for each distinct area of the image: the lake, the land and the sky.
The image below shows the three sets of curves: the curve for the lake is on the left, in the middle is the curve for the land and on the right is the curve for the sky.
The exact curves that you want will always depend on the photo you are editing, but a good starting point is to click on the area of the image you are trying to enhance (whilst the curves window is up) and this will produce a small circle on the curve as a guideline to where it is (as demonstrated in the above screenshot). You should generally be aiming to make this bit of the curve steeper if you want to increase contrast in that area.
Remember that you can tinker with the effect after creating it by changing the opacity of the three adjustment layers you are making. For that reason it can be a good idea to make a stronger effect and then you can always make it more opaque later.
The image below shows what your layers should look like once you have created the adjustment layers and added the masks. The area to the right is the selective mask, and you can see that the black portions are the areas of the adjustment layer that are masked out.
It is really very quick making selective masks in landscape photos like this - remember it is easiest to invert the mask as soon as you have created the adjustment layer (ctrl + i) and then after that you'll just be painting white areas onto where you want the adjustment layer to take effect.
Always use a fairly soft brush (see the shortcuts below). If you want a more gentle transition from the adjusted area to the non-adjusted area, I would suggest using a 30-50% opacity brush and painting over the areas several times.
Most importantly though, it becomes even easier when you get the hang of using the keyboard shortcuts. The most important ones are:
Ctrl + i - inverts the mask (when you have the mask selected)
b - select paint brush
d - set your foreground and background colour to black and white
x - swap your foreground and background colour
] - increase brush size
[ - decrease brush size
shift + ] - increase brush hardness
shift + [ - decrease brush hardness
\ - switch to and from mask view
Here is the image before and after adding the curves.
The second of the two stages is to boost the colours. I think it is often worth trying this out even if you don't think the colours need boosting as it is only afterwards on comparison that you can see that the extra colour does a lot of good.
The method I use for boosting colours involves the usage of the "Lab Color" colourspace. I am not sure whether this option is available on earlier version of Photoshop than the one I am using.
The first step is to make a duplication of the image you are working on by going to Image --> Duplicate. Firstly you will need to flatten the duplicate image: Layer --> Flatten Image. Then change the colourspace by going to Image --> Mode --> Lab Color.
Now goto the Channels window. You will see that Lab Color has three channels, one for "Lightness" and two for colour: "a" represents the red/green colour axis and "b" represents the yellow/blue colour axis (Read about it here if you want to know more)
The image below shows what you will see when you select one of the colour channels:
Now in order to boost the channels select channel "a", and then go to Image --> Apply Image. Change the blending drop down to "Soft Light" (I think this looks more natural) and click Ok. Then select channel "b" and do exactly the same thing. Then finally click back on the "Lab" channel to see what effect this has had.
The next step is to change the image back to the RGB Color colourspace by going to Image --> Mode --> RGB Color. Select all (ctrl+ a), copy and then go to your original image and paste. You will then be able to change the opacity of this top "colour-boosted" layer. For this example I used an opacity of about 55%.
Here is the image before and after boosting the colour:
Posted 34 months ago. ( permalink )