Photographs of fireworks usually look fantastic without any retouching. In this tutorial, you will learn how to increase the contrast and saturation of the fireworks without losing detail to create a better photograph.
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1. Open the image for editing. For this tutorial select a photograph with fireworks. |
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2. Duplicate the "Background" layer (Ctrl+J) two times so that there are three layers. |
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3. For the top layer, apply a "Gaussian Blur" (Filter> Blur> Gaussian Blur). Select a radius that will slightly blur the image without losing the lines of the fireworks. The property for the radius will differ depending on the thickness of the fireworks and the image size. Click Ok. |
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4. For the middle layer, use the Hue/Saturation tool (Ctrl+U) to set the "Saturation" to "-100". Click OK. |
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5. Invert the middle layer (Ctrl+I) and set the top two layers' blending mode to "Overlay". |
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6. For the "Background" layer, use the Unsharp Mask tool (Filters> Sharpen> Unsharp Mask) to sharpen the image. Depending on the image size, you may want to increase or decrease the amount. |
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7. The colours of the fireworks are now much more richer. Rollover the image on the left of this step to see the original image before this technique was applied. |
With this technique applied to photographs of fireworks, there is more contrast and more saturation in the colours yet the details are still present. The top layer with the gaussian blur created a glow around the fireworks and hte middle layer darkens overexposed ares and lightens underexposed areas.
