My first attempt at Photoshop

When photographers sell their photos they’re normally going to edit them before they do so. From the lighting to the tiniest detail, professionals find a way to make their photos amazing. So I wanted to try Photoshop for myself. In the following photos I have edited the colour levels – hue, saturation, brightness and contrast. I also used the spot healing tool and the crop tool. I tried what I could, this is my first attempt. The photos on the left are my originals, the photos on the right are my edits.

This was my first attempt, the background is slightly brighter and the bird is a bit redder, although it is hard to see here.

 

Changing the levels made the plants a richer colour and darkened the white of the lemur’s forehead where the sun was reflecting off. I’m not sure if the edit is better than the original.

 

Editing the levels made the plants greener and the lion’s colour a lot richer. It looked dull before, I like the new colour.

 

Changing the colour made the animal stand out more and added more detail to the fur and made the leaves greener.

 

I darkened this photo to make the petals stand out more and the flowers in background give off a nicer rich colour.

 

Adjusting the levels here made the plants greener and darkened the beak and neck, defining the feathers more. It also made the eye clearer but I couldn’t get rid of the light spot between the beak and head.

 

I brought out the colour of the ducking by lightening it and made the shadow clearer using the contrast. The stones are a nicer colour and I cropped the fur from the left side of the picture.

 

I used the crop tool here to remove the green fence and brightened the picture, causing the feathers to stand out more and the plants are greener.

 

The picture on the left is very light, there’s a big stone and a couple of small holes in the sand which I don’t like and the line of the heart is not very clear. I was able to define the different coloured specks of sand by darkening the light and used the spot healing tool to hid the stone and holes.

 

I brightened this photo to make the fur and claws stand out more, I also used the spot healing tool to remove a bit of bird poo on the rock to the right. In the second edit I wanted to remove the branch too but it made that part of the photo blurry. I will try again as I learn to use photoshop better.

 

I wanted to lighten this photo but in my first edit I lost the detail in the white feathers. I tried again without going so light which kept the detail of these feathers but I prefer the head in the first edit. I never got the beak to a colour I was happy with. I used the spot healing tool to get rid of the small spots in the water.

 

This is my favourite edit – adjusting the levels made the coloured lights spread out into the photo more. I used the spot healing tool to fix the missing tiles in the bottom right corner and removed the white mess on the nearest bin.

 

Using Photoshop was fun but it did take a lot of time, I’m looking forward to learning more and sharing it with you.