Photographic

Photoshop's Dodge Tool is a variation of the paint brush and allows us to paint lightness into a region of the image and leave the unaffected areas untouched. That's great news if you have an artistic flare, or prefer to use the brush tools to modify the appearance of a photograph. Traditionally the Dodge Tool is used by many retouchers to lighten the skin tones in a portrait shot but there's many more reasons to use it. In this example, I'll take a poorly lit billboard and lighten the letters whilst leaving the rest of the image (and even parts of the sign) unmodified.

Photoshop's Burn Tool paints in areas of darkness to an image. It can be used to burn in shadows of a portrait, darken the skin tones of a model, or increase the intensity in a stormy sky. Taking the form of a paintbrush, the Burn Tool can strengthen the tones of an image in a more artistic way than other methods, making fine, precision guided adjustments that add contrast and tonality to an otherwise flat image.

At first glance, it may seem that we’re revisiting the same things we looked at way back when we explored the Quick Fix mode, but on second glance, we’re correcting the same problems only this time with way more accuracy, detail and control.

Having covered the theory of the Quick Fix mode in the previous video, it’s time to correct colour, brightness and focus of a real-world digital photograph. Almost all photographs taken on a digital camera require some degree of adjustment to make them look good, and quite simply put, the Quick Fix mode is going to be the fastest and easiest way to get the job done.

If you’re new to Photoshop Elements then the Quick Fix and Guided Modes are for you! Designed as a gentle introduction to image editing, these modes offer a workspace that walks you through the process of improving digital photos with no more than a few simple movements of the appropriate sliders. Whether you’re correcting for color, dark shadows, bright highlights or a soft focus, these modes are the fastest way to see better looking images.

Learn how to add a professional level contrast effect to a portrait shot to make it look more defined and sharper. For this amazing effect we'll using the Gaussian Blur filter, blending and Levels.