Our image was taken with the Coolpix 990 and like most digital images straight from the camera they require some kind of tweaking to bring the best out of them. Using just some of Photoshop's tools we can add far more impact to our images.
Before making any necessary corrections it's always a good idea to duplicate the background layer. Then if we are not happy with the results we will not have damaged the original image. Working in our Layer palette click onto the thumbnail and drag it over the Create a New Layer icon to duplicate our original background (see above). You can rename the new layer by right clicking and selecting Layer Properties (below). We can then type in the name of our new layer, in this case 'Layer1'
Tip: …Holding down the Alt key whilst clicking the icon will enable us to rename our layer as it is being added.
A good starting point with any image is to call up the Levels palette Image>Adjust >Levels or shortcut Ctrl L on our keyboards. In this case the Auto command is found to be sufficient so we apply it to our image, but if this doesn't work don't worry, by just pressing the Alt key the Cancel button becomes Reset and allows us to return to our original settings.
Even with the levels applied the sky was still looking a little light and with such dramatic clouds we need to give it some more punch. Using Quick Mask we can select the area of the sky we need to darken. Click on the Quick Mask icon to the right of the two shown above and select your Gradient tool. Drag the gradient tool half way over your image and when you release the cursor a colour mask overlay will show you the area you are covering.
If this is the first time you have used this tool take a few minutes to play with it. Try dragging the gradient tool to different lengths before releasing it, this will select larger or smaller amounts of the Quick Mask.
Once you have applied the quick mask, click the icon to the left and your mask will be changed to a selection as shown above. This now becomes the live area of the image.
Calling up your levels palette as before we can see from the above that some of our darker pixels are missing. By moving the slider to the right we can fill in this gap giving us the full range of tones. Any further adjustments can be made using the center slider. Moving the center slider to the right will further lighten the image while moving the slider to the left will darken the image. Click OK once we are happy with our adjustment.
To deal with the green netting around the bails select the Sponge tool from the tool box (Shortcut O) and adjust the brush size to suit. The sponge tool will desaturate the netting making it less distracting.
To lighten or darken areas of your image
The Dodge and Burn Tools (shortcut O) perform a similar function to their darkroom namesake and are ideal for localized tonal control. You can use these tools to lighten (Dodge) shown above or darken (Burn) shown below. Select an area of your image, in this case the hay bales, and start with the Exposure set at around 10% in the Options Palette and slowly build up the effect.
Using the Hue/Saturation palette found under the Image>Adjust menu you can boost the colours further by moving the Saturation slider to around + 10/12, but as with all Photoshop tools be careful not to overdo the effect.
When you are finally happy with your image you can sharpen the image using the Unsharp Mask but to get the best results you will need to open your Channels palette as we will sharpen the Red and Green channels individually.
Click on the red channel in the Channels palette which will turn your image black and white. Now call up your Unsharp Mask found under the Filter >Sharpen>Menu and set the Threshold to 0 and the Radius to1.0 you can now adjust the sharpening using the slider on the Amount range. The values of the Amount will vary depending on your image so it's worth experimenting and getting to know this tool.
Tip: …Clicking inside the window will show you the amount of sharpening effect being applied. See below.
Repeat this process to the Green Channel but do not sharpen the Blue Channel as this is where all the noise is and sharpening will increase this affecting the quality of the image.
The finished image.
Roll your cursor over the image to see the transformation.
It is worth experimenting with this procedure since it can transform your original image.
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