How to Tweak Photos

Intermediate digital darkroom techniques

Photography Fundamentals

• G.I.G.O
• Framing
• Focus
• F-stop
• Flash

Differences in Digital Photography

Disadvantages

• No undo (Shoot wide at Max resolution)
• Digital Zoom (turn it off)
• Small aperture (know yours)
• Slower shutter speeds (try a tripod)
• Built-in flash

Advantage

• Instant preview

Software

• Adobe Photoshop
• Paint Shop Pro
• Google Picasa^*
• Corel PHOTO-PAINT
• GNU Image Manipulator^*

Image Editing Basics

• Beginners should know how to:
• Crop, Rotate & Resize
• Adjust Brightness, Contrast
• Advanced Editors have:
• Artistic skill
• Excess spare time
• Patience
• Intermediate Editing encompasses all the rest.

Dynamic Range correction

Purpose

Tries to approximate what we see with our own eyes by averaging bright and dark areas.

Corrects subjects that are flash overexposed or daytime outdoor underexposed

Dynamic Range steps

1. Layer | Duplicate Layer
2. set Layers mode to Soft Light
3. Layer | Colors | Desaturate
4. Layer | Colors | Invert
5. Filters | Blur | Gaussian Blur | Radius 40 (up to 128 pixel)

Dark Stone- Dynamic Range or Dodge

before	after	after dodging

Gray Stone- Multiply

Light Stone- burn

Redeye Elimination

You can bend, but not break the laws of physics

1. circle-select pupils

Redeye, step 2

2. Layer | Colors | Desaturate

Redeye, final

3. Layer | Add Layer Mask | Selection
4. Layer | Duplicate Layer
5. Select | None
6. set Layers mode to Burn
7. adjust Layers Opacity for most natural look

Redeye, Eliminated!

Documents

before	Layer | Colors | Levels...	Gaussian Blur on halftoned photos

Selective Focus

Gaussian Blur on non-subject selection

Look at the earlier tombstone photos

Programs featured on OpenCD 07.02

Design

Blender, GNU Image Manipulation Program, Inkscape, NVU.

Internet

Azureus, FileZilla, Firefox, Gaim, HTTrack, RSSOwl, Thunderbird, TightVNC, WinSCP.

Multimedia

Audacity, Celestia, Really Slick Screensavers, Stellarium.

Productivity

MoinMoin, OpenOffice.org, PDFCreator, Notepad2.

References