![](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photoshop\/tips\/1\/IMG_2301-final-900.jpg\")
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As much as I am a firm believer in getting it as close as possible in camera, by using proper exposure and proper camera settings, and good light ..\u00a0most often an image can be enhanced in\u00a0Photoshop with a few simple techniques.<\/p>\n
There is an entire industry built around software and plug-ins and add-ons and action sets for Photoshop to enhance and manipulate images in Photoshop.\u00a0 However, I’d first like to go over some of\u00a0the simpler ones that you can use in Photoshop without additional software.<\/p>\n
These Photoshop techniques are well-known to the more experienced digital photographer, but I thought this might make a great\u00a0on-going series on simple\u00a0Photoshop techniques.\u00a0 As always, I’d love to hear everyone’s input,\u00a0especially\u00a0since my own Photoshop skills\u00a0can’t quite be regarded as\u00a0skillz<\/em><\/strong> yet.\u00a0 ; )<\/p>\n The first technique that I’d like to cover, is quite simple: Here it is in a bit more detail.\u00a0 Starting with this image ..<\/p>\n <\/p>\n You add an adjustment layer.\u00a0 Levels is a good choice, although in this instance it doesn’t really matter.<\/p>\n (Of course \u00a0it does help if your original image is well-exposed and has good color balance.)<\/p>\n Now change the blending mode to Soft Light ..<\/p>\n At a 100% opacity, the Soft Light blending mode is likely to be too strong an effect.\u00a0 It will appear to over-accentuates the contrast and saturation.\u00a0\u00a0 Now simply adjust the opacity to taste.\u00a0 Usually somewhere around 20 – 40% is good.\u00a0 But it really depends on the image and individual taste.<\/p>\n Here I erased part of the layer mask to bring back some of the original image – specifically her eyes.\u00a0 This will make her eyes appear brighter again.<\/p>\n And that is it.\u00a0 A very simple technique to give your photos some pop to them.<\/p>\n Here’s the original again ..<\/p>\n .. and the final image, with the Soft Light layer set to 40% opacity.<\/p>\n Photoshop tips – making your images pop\u00a0– soft-light layer As much as I am a firm believer in getting it as close as possible in camera, by using proper exposure and proper camera settings, and good light ..\u00a0most often an image can be enhanced in\u00a0Photoshop with a few simple techniques. There is an entire industry Read more inside…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":48675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11,32],"tags":[867,72,73],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1830","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-digital-imaging","8":"category-photoshop","9":"tag-digital-imaging","10":"tag-photoshop-technique","11":"tag-photoshop-tips","12":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1830"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48676,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830\/revisions\/48676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=1830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– you add an adjustment layer (such as Levels)\u00a0to your image;
\n– change the blending mode to Soft Light<\/strong>, and then
\n– adjust the opacity to taste.
\n– erase the layer mask of any areas you want to bring back (or close) to the original.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photoshop\/tips\/1\/IMG_2301-orig.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/photoshop\/tips\/1\/IMG_2301-1-lrg.jpg\")
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