The situation where a well-focused image as a whole turns out to be not sharp enough is quite common. Various tools and filters are used in image processing programs to improve the visual quality of an image, the essence of which is to increase the contrast between dark and light areas. However, the use of such tools often leads to an increase in the overall level of noise in the image, which can reduce (or even nullify)
all positive effect.
The filter in this regard stands out favorably against the background of others, since its capabilities allow you to clearly define the boundaries directly in the required areas, without affecting objects that are not subject to adjustment. Accordingly, the likelihood of occurrence of noise is significantly reduced.
So. In the window "Layers" by dragging the layer thumbnail onto the thumbnail, a duplicate of the layer is created. All subsequent work will be carried out with him.
Next step – bleaching. In principle, you can do without it. However, experience shows that after desaturation, the use of a filter can significantly increase the clarity of the image, and the likelihood of fringing along the color boundaries is an order of magnitude lower than in the case of using a filter without prior desaturation. It is clear that it is advisable to avoid the appearance of a border. Way to perform bleaching: "Image", farther "Correction", farther .
Applying a filter from a group "Other"... The radius value is either entered in numbers, or set using the slider (if the "View" checkbox is checked, the result can be seen before applying the filter) ... The radius should be set to a value that sharpens poorly defined areas without generating additional noise.
In this example, the radius value is 4.1 pixels ... It is clear that these indicators may differ significantly for different images, and yet they rarely exceed 6-8 pixels... You should focus on getting a natural, comfortable for perception of the sharpness of the image, avoiding the appearance of torn, overly contrasting borders.
After setting an acceptable value for the radius and applying the filter in the layer blending options, you need to select the mode.
You can compare the original image with the final one in the window "History" switching between events.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to quickly adjust Brightness and Contrast without making irreversible changes to the image. Leaving the possibility of further editing.
Unlike Auto Tone, Auto Contrast, and Auto Color, which do not provide any fine tuning options, Brightness / Contrast gives you manual control over the slider settings. You can adjust Brightness and Contrast separately, in two different ways: adjusting the original image and creating a separate layer.
The disadvantage of adjusting the original is that the changes become permanent, as they affect directly the pixels in the image. This can interfere with further editing and should be avoided. It is much more convenient to work with an adjustment layer.
I'm using Photoshop CC, but all of the commands used in this tutorial are available in Photoshop CS6 as well.
For the lesson, I took an image of a mailbox
Overall, it is not bad, but clearly needs to be adjusted for Brightness and Contrast. Let's see how an additional adjustment layer can help improve it.
Original image.
Step 1: add a Brightness / Contrast adjustment layer
The first thing we need to do is add a copy of the image to a new layer. This allows us to easily make changes without changing the original.
There are several ways to create a layer. First: Menu> Layer> New Adjustment Layer. Then select Brightness / Contrast:
You can also click on the Brightness / Contrast icon in the Adjustments panel in Photoshop. The icon is at the top left. The names of the icons will appear when you hover over them with the mouse cursor:
If you don't see the adjustment bar on the screen, look in the window menu. There you will find a list of all Photoshop panels. A check mark in front of the panel name means that the panel is already open, so you simply did not notice it (by default, it is located next to the styles panel; in CC 2014, next to the styles and libraries panels).
If you do not see a check mark in front of the panel, select it to make it appear:
There is also a third way to add an adjustment layer. Click on the New Fill Layer or Adjustment Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers panel:
Then select Brightness / Contrast:
Nothing will happen to the original. But above the image in the Layers panel, a new Brightness / Contrast Adjustment Layer will appear:
Step 2: Press the Auto button
Working on the Brightness and Contrast of the original image, a separate window opens in the program. In the case of corrective, the settings appear in the Settings Panel, which was added in Photoshop CS6. Here you can see the Brightness and Contrast sliders, the Auto Adjust button and the Use old button:
As always, the first thing you need is the Auto Settings button. In this case, Photoshop compares your image with the processed photos of professional photographers. And focusing on them, it sets the values of brightness and contrast:
In my case, the Brightness is set to 54, the Contrast to 66. Of course, each image is unique, so your settings will be different:
Here's my photo with Auto Adjust enabled:
Step 3: adjust the brightness and contrast controls
If, after auto-adjusting, you still think your image might look better, you can adjust it using the Brightness and Contrast sliders.
I love how Photoshop handles this, but I decided to slightly lower the Brightness level to 45 and increase the Contrast to 75. Again, this is my personal take on image settings. You can adjust both parameters as your own taste tells you:
Here is my photo after manual adjustment. For comparison, the original and the untouched image on the left. Processed - right:
We work with the function "Use old"
Just like the static version of the Brightness and Contrast settings, the adjustment layer includes the Use old option. It affects Brightness / Contrast settings in the same way as it did in Photoshop CS3. I won't spend a lot of time on this option, but as an example I will choose this function:
Reuse forces Photoshop to adjust images like they did in CS3, when Adobe made the most significant improvements. Before CS3, all the Brightness / Contrast adjustment did was ruin the image.
As a quick example, with Use Previous turned on, I'll drag the Brightness and Contrast sliders all the way to the right, increasing their values to their maximum. As a result, the image is completely blown out (and with very strange color artifacts). This is because Photoshop used to bring light pixels to pure white, dark ones to absolutely black:
For comparison, disabling the "Use old" option and turning the parameters to the maximum, we also get a blown out photo, but most of the details can still be seen:
By turning the sliders all the way to the left with the "Use old" option, we will get not just a dark photo - it will be completely black:
With the option disabled, the same settings will give a different result: most of the details will be distinguishable. Today it makes no sense to use this option (except for comparison). It is turned off by default, so it's best to just leave it alone:
Compare the Original Image with an Adjustment Layer
You may have noticed that the Settings Panel does not contain the Preview function in the same way as in the original version of Brightness / Contrast. The View option allows you to temporarily hide the changes in the picture, so that we can see the original image.
Does this mean that we cannot do the same on an adjustment layer? No! This only means that there is simply no corresponding View option, but there is an easy way to do it. Just click on the layer visibility icon at the bottom of the Property Bar to toggle the Brightness / Contrast adjustment layer on and off:
You will see your original image when you turn it off.
Click on the visibility icon again to re-enable the adjustment layer and show the edited image. This way, you can easily calculate whether you are editing a photo in the right direction by quickly comparing two images:
The small eye icon in the Property Bar looks familiar. This is because the same layer visibility icon is also on the Layer Panel. They both serve the same function. Clicking on them will hide the adjustment layer or make it visible:
If you've used Photoshop, you probably know that there are several ways to accomplish the same task. One of the most important, which applies to almost every digital image, is sharpening. This is necessary because most digital camera sensors use anti-aliasing filters that blur the image very weakly to reduce the likelihood of moiré appearing in the image. This slight blur is typically only one pixel, but causes a slight loss of detail. To fix a slight blur, use the Unsharp Mask tool.
This sunflower image has been enhanced with the Color Contrast filter by sharpening details in the center of the flower.
Another easy way to sharpen is a filter that you won't even find in the Sharpen menu in Photoshop's Filters. It is categorized as Other at the bottom of the Filters menu and is called Color Contrast. Using this filter is somewhat simpler than Unsharp Mask, as it only has one slider to worry about, and the technique of using it allows you to experiment even after applying it, so you can get the image you want.
Note: I am using the latest versionPhotoshop, version 2015.0.1 inCreative Cloud.
Step 1: editing and flattening layers
Before using the Color Contrast filter, you process the image as you see fit. Roughly speaking, sharpening should be your final step when editing an image, because it is directly related to the size of the image. You will be sharpening a 5 × 7 ″ image differently than a 13 × 19 ″ image. When you're done editing, flatten all the layers by going to the Layers menu and choosing Flatten. Then set the required file size based on what you will do with it - print or display online.
Step 2: duplicate the layer
Now that the image is flattened, duplicate the layer by pressing
Step 3: filter color contrast
From the Filter menu, select Other and then Color Contrast.
Go to the Filter menu and select Other and then Color Contrast. You will see that the entire image has turned to a solid gray color. Don't worry, this will allow you to see how the filter works.
Step 4: adjusting the sharpness
When the Color Contrast filter window appears, use the slider to set the radius.
When you run the filter, you will see a popup dialog showing a preview and a radius slider. In addition, the image behind the dialog box will turn gray, showing some edges. This allows you to see exactly where the sharpening will be. Color contrast only affects the edges, everything else remains gray. The degree of sharpness will depend to a large extent on the image and its size.
I printed this image of sunflowers in large format using full resolution. While doing this, I noticed that usually the radius is between 0.5 and 5 pixels. Be careful here, as excessive sharpness will lead to unwanted artifacts and noise. I am guided by preview. I move until I see thin black lines on top of the gray areas. As soon as you see white, it means that a halo will appear, which is very undesirable. The result is a subtle sharpening rather than a radical sharpening. For this image, I used a radius of 0.9. Above you can see that there are only a few black lines at the edges of the flower with a very faint halo. When ready, click OK.
Step 5: setting the blend mode
Once you've applied the Color Contrast filter, it's time to get rid of the gray and bring the image back to life. Go to the Layers palette and choose a Blending Mode from the Overlay dropdown menu. Your image will return to its color, and you can turn the layer off and on to see the changes.
You can also experiment with different blend modes, including Soft Light, Hard Light, High Light, Linear Light, and Spot Light. Alternatively, you can use the layer's opacity to slightly reduce the effect if you think it's too strong. The beauty of this technique is that it is fully adjustable (not destructive) even after applying the filter, and since you are working on a separate layer, you can easily undo the sharpening and start over if necessary. Also, again thanks to working on a separate layer, if you only want to apply the filter to specific areas, you can use a layer mask to hide or show the sharpening effect.
Final result
In this comparison image, the Color Contrast filter was applied on the top part, while the bottom part was left untouched.
The Color Contrast filter is easy and flexible to use. This is a great way to give your images a sharper, clearer look before printing or downloading. Try it!
This tutorial will demonstrate the implementation of the Gradated Neutral Density (ND) filter effect in Photoshop. For this, only one gradient layer will be used. This will add brightness and contrast to the image.
Step 1.
Open the image in Photoshop.
Step 2.
Add a new blank layer. This is done by clicking on the corresponding button, which is located at the bottom of the layers palette.
Step 3.
This lesson will demonstrate working with only two layers, but for convenience and order, let's give the top layer a name. To do this, double-click on the name of the layer and enter your own, for example, Graduated ND Filter.
Step 4.
Now reset the foreground and background colors to their default values. This is done by pressing the D key. On the toolbar, select the Gradient. You can also do this by pressing the G key. On the upper settings panel, a linear gradient should be selected, and the transition should be from black to transparent.
Step 5.
Now we need to draw a vertical linear gradient. To make it strictly vertical, the Shift key must be held down while drawing. Draw the gradient from the top of the image to the bottom.
Step 6
In the layers palette, change the blending mode of the Graduated ND Filter layer to Soft Light.
Step 7.
In some shots, this effect darkens or brightens areas of the photo too much. In this case, you need to change the opacity of the image to about 80%.
Step 8.
Now you can compare the result before and after processing. The colors in the picture are brighter and richer. The detail has increased.
Step 9.
The final result of the snapshot:
Based on materials from the site:
Photoshop automatically names new layers not informatively, such as "Layer 1", this name does not tell us anything about what the layer will be used for. Let's fix this and give it a meaningful name - double click directly on the name "Layer 1" (or "Layer 1"), it should be highlighted, and enter your own name, I will call it "BrightnessContrast".
As a result, the layers panel should look like this:
The top layer has been renamed to "Brightness / Contrast".
Step 3: selecting the Brightness / Contrast tool
At the moment, the "Brightness / Contrast" layer is active (it should be highlighted in blue), go to the "Image" menu tab at the top of the screen, select the "Adjustments" item, and then the topmost in the list item "Brightness / Contrast" (Brightness / Contrast):
Go to the Brightness / Contrast tool
Then Photoshop will instantly open the tool's dialog box:
Brightness / Contrast tool dialog box.
Step 4: Click the "Auto" button in the dialog box
Before starting to drag the brightness and contrast sliders, the first thing the user wants to do is click on the Auto button, which was added as a new option to the Brightness / Contrast command in Photoshop CS6.
Clicking this button tells Photoshop to set its own, supposedly better, settings for enhancing the image quality. This is a little more than a simple selection, Photoshop analyzes your image and compares it to similar images from many professional photographers, then tries to match its result with similar images:
Pressing the Auto button.
After pressing the Auto button, Photoshop will analyze your photo for a few seconds (the time depends on the size of the photo), after which it produces the result, which is almost always an improvement over the original. In my case, Photoshop decided to set the brightness to 43 and the contrast to 14. Compare the original and the enhanced photo by hovering / moving the mouse cursor over the image:
Automatic adjustments of Brightness and Contrast using Photoshop algorithms.
Step 5: adjust the Brightness and Contrast using the sliders
If you remember from the lesson "Auto Tone, Dynamic Contrast, Auto Color Correction" that after applying these commands, the image correction can no longer be changed, because Since they do not offer a way to change the results, this does not apply to Auto Brightness / Contrast. After you have already pressed the Auto button, you can make your own manual adjustments to further enhance the image using the corresponding sliders. Moving the sliders to the right will increase the brightness and contrast, moving the sliders to the left will decrease.
In my case, I want to make the photo a little artful, so I'll drag the Brightness slider slightly to the left to lower the brightness to 38. Then I'll increase the contrast a bit by moving the corresponding slider to the right to about 35.
Each image will be different, each has its own flavor, so there is no recipe here to remember. Just move the sliders, look at the image, commit the changes and leave what you like best:
Manual adjustment of brightness and contrast using sliders. To compare with the original, move / remove the mouse cursor over the image.
By default, we see an already edited image in the document. If you want to compare your results with how the image looked before adjusting, just uncheck the Preview option.
Tip: You can quickly enable / disable the preview option by pressing the P keyboard key.
Uncheck the box to view the original image.
Use old option
By default, this option is disabled, and for good reason. Now I will check the box to select this option:
Selecting the "Use old" option.
As you might have guessed from its name, the option enables the use of outdated Brightness / Contrast algorithms, the same algorithms that were used before the Photoshop CS3 updates. Then the Brightness / Contrast setting was, to put it mildly, not the best, and here's why. Let's drag the brightness slider all the way to the right and see what happens.
My image now looks light, all dark tones are knocked out. This happened because with the "Use old" enabled, Photoshop increased the brightness stupidly in linear mode. In other words, he just took all the tonal values of the image (highlights, shadows and midtones) and lightened them all by the same meaning. Areas that were light are pure white, dark areas are light.
Let's compare this with the modern algorithm, for which we simply uncheck the "Use old" checkbox, in other words, enable the algorithms introduced from Photoshop CS3, then drag the brightness slider all the way to the right. Result:
View with maximum brightness at disabled"Use old" options.
Now the image is also too bright (as a rule, in actual editing, the brightness value never rises to the maximum), but note that the dark areas are still dark and details in the bright areas are preserved.
The fact is that, unlike outdated versions, the new brightness control nonlinear... Photoshop first determines which tonal values need to be lightened and lightens them individually, depending on how much to lighten them. This avoids lightening dark, shaded details and also prevents highlights from lightening to pure white (all of which washed out to pure white using legacy algorithms):
This happens when the brightness value is lowered.
Contrast adjustment works in the same way, but with the maximum value and with the "Use old" option enabled, it gives an interesting effect:
Contrast is at maximum, "Use old" is on.
Resetting the Brightness / Contrast values to the original
If you clicked the "Auto" button and you didn't like the results, or you just want to remove all your settings and start editing again, hold down the Alt key and click the "Reset" button. Pressing Alt changes the value of the button from Cancel to Reset. Pressing Reset will reset the brightness and contrast values to zero.
Change the button from "Cancel" to "Reset".
Step 6: Click OK
When you are satisfied with the result, click OK to commit your changes and close the command dialog box.
Comparison of the original and the revised version
As we discussed earlier, when the tool window is open, you can compare the edited version with the original image by enabling / disabling the preview option. Now that we have closed the tool window and accepted the changes, we no longer have access to the preview option. But still there is a way to compare the original and the edited version, to do this, simply click on the visibility icon of the "BrightnessContrast" layer:
Turn off the visibility of a layer by clicking on the corresponding icon.
This will hide the top layer ("BrightnessContrast") in the document from view, revealing the original image located on the background layer below it.
Click again on the same visibility icon (empty square where the eye used to be) to turn the visibility of the "BrightnessContrast" layer back on.
Step 7: lowering the layer's opacity (optional)
If you decide that your new Brightness / Contrast settings are having too much impact on the photo, there is an easy way to reduce their impact. Make sure the "BrightnessContrast" layer is still selected, and then just lower the "Opacity" value in the upper right corner of the Layers panel. The default Opacity is 100%, which means that the BrightnessContrast layer completely blocks the visibility of the original image. Lowering the opacity allows you to partially show the original image on the background layer through the "BrightnessContrast" layer. The more you decrease the value, the less impact your adjusted version will have.
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