Photo Enhancement and Correction in Adobe Photoshop

This tutorial will cover some basic techniques used enhance and correct your photographs using the healing brush and adjustment layers. Since this tutorial uses the healing brush, you will only be able to use Photoshop 7. However, if you do not yet have Photoshop 7, you can apply similar techniques using the rubber stamp tool. It will just take some experimentation on your part.

First, we have the photo we want to work with. This photo was taken by Picture taken by Freddy "VicenteFox" Rayos and is a panoramic photo when placed together. I have cropped it so we can focus on one area in particluar.

While this is not a bad picture, there are several areas we need to correct. The line in the center of the image is where 2 photos were spliced together, so we will need to remove that. Also, the color could stand some minor enhancements to bring out those beautiful blues in the water and the greens in the trees.

Select the healing brush tool (the one that looks like a bandaid). You can also press Shift + J to select this tool. Change the diameter to something easier to work with, such as 48. Now, to the left of the line in the center of the image, move the cursor over the sky. Hold down Alt to reveal the target cursor and click. This sets the "origin which the healing brush will use to duplicate to other portions of the image.

Use the healing brush to correct the line in the sky. Drag to the right, covering up the sky.

Notice how the healing brush does just what Adobe said it should do. It removes blemishes yet it preserves any shading, lighting, and texture that may be present. So what you should have, is a cleaned up sky, void of the line that we have previously seen. Repeat this step for the lake as well. Always zoom in to check your work, making sure you have removed any blemishes.

Now that we have taken care of that, it is time to bring out the colors. A very simple way to go about this, is to use an adjustment layer. From the menu, select Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/saturation. Simply select the defaults and click OK. Next you will see the hue/saturation adjustment menu. Experiment with the sliders, so that you can get a visual on what you are adjusting. Make sure the preview box is checked so that you can see the effect in your image.

Adjust the sliders to your liking, bringing out the colors a bit more. I used the following settings:

Next, select the photo layer, and adjust the brightness/contrast of the image (Image > Adjustments > Brightness/contrast). Again, it is good to experiment with the sliders with the preview box checked so that you can see what it is you are truly adjusting. Below are the settings that I used:

That is basically all there is to it. This is typically referred to as digital darkroom work, and Photoshop makes handling these types of tasks quite easily. Note that there are several other types of adjustments and settings that you can use to enhance your photo. I have only covered a few. The best way to learn is to find a photo to work with, and test these adjustments yourself.