How to Enhance Images in Adobe Photoshop

If you take a lot of pictures with your digital camera, then you know the problem all too well – sometimes those photos just don’t have the richness and clarity they need to really stand out. In the old days, you would have to send them out to be processed by professionals, but Adobe Photoshop offers plenty of features that help enhance your pictures right on your own computer – without breaking the bank! This article will give you some great tips and tricks on how to enhance images in Adobe Photoshop, as well as show you what each tool does so that you can take advantage of its full potential!

Basic Editing

For basic editing, open up an image file with Photoshop. Once you’ve got it open, if you hover your cursor over one of your image’s colors, you’ll see an eyedropper pop up. If you click on that eyedropper and then hover over a part of your photo that should be similar in color (maybe something directly beside or behind it), you can use that eyedropper tool to pick out a color from nearby. The easy way to do it is just to tap Ctrl-A (hold down Ctrl while tapping A) and go to Edit → Paste Adjustment → Hue/Saturation.

Contrast and Brightness

You can quickly boost contrast and brighten a photo using two simple sliders. To do so, first duplicate your Background layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer). If you’re working with an image that contains more than one layer, select all layers below your Background copy by clicking on its visibility icon (the eyeball) or choosing Layer > Arrange > Send to Back. Next, click on your original Background layer to make it active and open Levels (Image > Adjustments > Levels or Command + L [Mac] / Control + L [Win]). In the resulting dialog box, drag both of your adjustment handles toward either end of their respective bars until you achieve desired results. Then, press OK. Finally, delete your duplicated Background layer (Layer > Delete Layer), leaving only your enhanced image behind.

Color Correction

In our modern world, more and more of us are taking photographs on digital cameras. The advantage of digital photography is that we can quickly remove blemishes or other undesirable elements in post-production, which means there’s no reason your photo should be anything less than perfect. It’s actually pretty easy to correct a poor photo using tools you already have on your computer—and it doesn’t cost a dime! Read on for tips and tricks that will help you make your photos look better. 

Before we begin working with color correction, you might want to take care of any dust spots or imperfections in your image by brushing them away with an eraser tool. You might also want to improve brightness and contrast by clicking Enhance > Adjust Lighting > Levels. After that, go ahead and click Enhance > Adjust Color > Adjust Hue/Saturation. This gives you access to some quick color enhancement tools that are included in all versions of Photoshop. These features let you improve colors directly without going into separate color correction features. To start off, try moving around sliders for Saturation, Brightness, and Lightness until you get a result you like. If you’re not happy with what these adjustments do to your photo, just press Ctrl+Z (or Command+Z on Mac) a few times until it looks right again.

Advanced Editing Techniques

In photo editing, there are many techniques that advanced users know that they can use to make their images look even better. In order to bring out your image’s true beauty, it is vital that you learn some of these techniques. The following list highlights a few things you can do right now with Adobe Photoshop. You will see an immediate improvement in your photos. If you don’t have access to Adobe Photoshop, then try GIMP or any other free alternative.