Basic Photo Adjustments

[MUSIC] 0:00 For this stage, we're gonna do a bit of roleplay as we create some ads for 0:04 a client. 0:09 The client is Nature Light Studios, 0:10 a small photography team that specializes in photos for realtors. 0:12 They'll be providing us with the imagery, their logo, and even the copy, or 0:17 text, that we'll need to use for all three deliverables. 0:21 They're looking for a banner for a website, an ad for 0:26 a mobile device, an ad for a use in Twitter. 0:29 So we'll need to make sure their imagery looks good, 0:33 and all the content is formatted properly for each use case. 0:36 You can download all the assets we'll use in the teacher's notes. 0:40 Within the ZIP file, you'll find the image and 0:44 logo we'll be using, let's get started. 0:46 The first thing we'll want to do is have a look at the image they sent 0:49 of the property. 0:52 So, let's open the file, Naturelightimage-raw.jpg. 0:53 The first thing I notice is, 1:03 there's an unnecessary whitespace around the image itself. 1:04 Let's go ahead and use the Crop tool to isolate just the image content. 1:08 Once selected, the Crop tool gives us an overlay, 1:13 with handles on each side we can adjust. 1:16 In our top toolbar, we can take advantage of some popular preset aspect ratios, or 1:19 the relationship of the width to height, and the crop will constrain to that ratio. 1:24 For this image, let's go ahead and 1:29 manually crop the image by selecting width by height by resolution. 1:31 It's okay if we crop just a little bit of the edges of the image, 1:48 as it probably won't end up in our final product. 1:51 Press Enter to commit to your crop changes. 1:54 Next, let's have a look at the histogram for this image. 1:58 To bring up the histogram, if you're not seeing it, select it from the Window menu. 2:01 The histogram gives us the tonal range for all the colors within the photo, 2:08 giving us an overview of the exposure. 2:12 Along the horizontal axis, we'll see the distribution of tones and 2:15 colors lying within the range black to white, or shadows to captured light. 2:18 The vertical axis tells us how much we're seeing of a specific tone. 2:24 Generally, when looking at a histogram, we see all colors RGB-combined by default. 2:28 If an image is overexposed, it'll be quite a bit of white, and look blown-out. 2:35 The histogram would then appear heavier on the right-hand side of the graph. 2:40 If it's underexposed, the image will appear dark, and 2:44 have more peaks to the left end of the histogram. 2:47 Our image here appears to be quite overexposed, and 2:51 that's not always a bad thing. 2:54 This whitespace will actually come in handy for our end product. 2:55 We can make a few adjustments, 2:59 however, to bring out some of the natural colors of this image. 3:01 To do so, we're gonna use a few adjustment layers. 3:04 Adjustment layers allow us to modify an image in a non-destructive method. 3:07 Meaning we can delete the layer, if we don't like the adjustments we made. 3:12 If we were to use the Levels adjustment from within the Image Image menu, 3:16 That would be a destructive adjustment, that would immediately affect our image. 3:23 For the most part, 3:27 sticking to non-destructive techniques is best practice. 3:29 As it allows us to undo or modify any adjustments we make. 3:32 So let's add an adjustments layer, and see how those corrections work. 3:37 From the Layers panel, let's go ahead and 3:42 select Adjustments Layer, and select the Levels adjustment layer. 3:45 As you can see, the levels adjustment looks like our histogram, 3:51 providing us a tonal range of the image. 3:55 We're able to make adjustments to this range, 3:58 either in RGB together or individually. 4:01 I'll make some adjustments to help bring out the reds and blues in the image. 4:06 Slightly decrease the midpoint of the red. 4:13 The highlights as well, just a hair, and then now I'll select Green. 4:18 Gonna adjust the shadows of the greens, again just a hair. 4:25 And the highlights. 4:35 Finally we'll adjust the blue. 4:40 I'll choose to adjust the midpoint on this one as well, And the highlights. 4:45 The one thing to think about when making adjustments. 4:56 Is, the gradient below will give you a good idea of whether you're adjusting 4:59 the highlights or shadow areas of a specific channel. 5:03 If you'd like to read more about adjusting levels, 5:06 check out the links in the teacher's notes. 5:09 So this is looking pretty good. 5:12 We can preview our adjustments later by turning it on and 5:14 off within the Layers panel. 5:16 Let's add just one more adjustment layer, to bring up the contrast of our colors. 5:21 Again, selecting Adjustment Layer and choosing Brightness/Contrast this time. 5:26 This panel only has two adjustments, 5:33 similar to the one you may find on a TV, Brightness and Contrast. 5:36 By increasing the contrast, we'll see the difference between colors, and 5:41 bring about additional detail. 5:45 And we'll bring up the brightness just a hair as well. 5:53 Okay, that's looking pretty good as well. 5:59 We can also, again, turn on and 6:01 off our levels together, and see them combined, or one on top of each other. 6:04 Okay, this is looking pretty good, let's go ahead and save it, 6:09 click File, then Save. 6:13 Since we've added some layers, it'll default to saving in the PSD extension. 6:17 For now, I'll choose to save this on my desktop, 6:22 and I'll make sure that the layers are indeed preserved. 6:25