tutorial 1
photos: color correction
I have some good photos on my computer that were taken by a not-so-professional camera. It's a pity, because the color doesn't look so good. So, I checked out a few tutorials and combined the techniques and got this:
What did I do in this photo?
1) First of all, I cropped the image by choosing the Rectangular Marquee Tool in the Tools Menu and then selected the area I wanted to use.
2) Next, I adjusted the curves to make the photo little bit more dramatic. Go to: Image > Adjustments > Curves. My settings are: 27; 1,11; 205
3) Then, I swithched from the RGB color mode to the Lab Color. To do so, go to Image > Mode > Lab Color (note: if you had more than one layers, this step will merge all of them).
4) After that, I needed to change something to add more contrast, so, I went to Image > Adjustments > Curves and put settings as follows: Lightness, Input - 95; Output - 100 ( you can start moving the line from the right upper corner and you will be able to change the settings right after that).
5) Switch back to the RGB Mode.
6) Now we need to add some life into faces. I will use the Color Balance, go to Image > Adjustments > Color Balance. Now move Yellow to the point of -19.
7) The image seems to be a little blurry, so lets use the Unsharp Mask to fix this problem. You will find this useful tool by going to Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask. The settings I used for this photo: amount - 34, radius - 0.5, threshold - 7
The end
It's fun to play around when modifing a photo. You can learn a lot experimenting yourself. You should though never forget about the tutorials from the great sites like Good-Tutorials.com. They will teach you where the little things like unsharp mask tool like to hide in Photoshop and much more..