photo tip : before & after photoshop

I love Photoshop. It helps make my images POP and gives me control of the end result. For all my images, I run at least several Photoshop actions before posting it on the web, or giving it to my clients.

Here are some before/after images.

*SOCC = straight out of the camera*

Some are subtle, and some make a big difference. I have Photoshop CS 5, and these are some of the basic steps I use to edit my images. (I found that doing the steps in order gave the best result)

1. Level.                
All I do is slide the arrows on the histogram. This makes the blacks look black, and the whites look white.

2. saturate
I like my images saturated. I usually like increase the saturation by 10 points.

3. “lights on” by TRA (Totally Rad Actions)
I underexpose my images on purpose so I don’t lose any details. By “adding” the light in Photoshop, I can control the amount I want in my images.

...and that's it! These 3 are my basic steps. Super easy, takes no time, and it works on almost every image. After this, I tweek a little here and there until I get the image I'm looking for.

One more week of work!