Playing with an old image
As an example of what one can do (when I started out post-processing), here is what I did with an old slide, which did not scan very well. As you can see by all the steps, I play things by eye, rather than have a lot of knowledge on exactly what adjustments to make.
A far amount of experimentation was required, but the point of me showing this is to emphasis that only by 'playing' can one begin to get an understanding of what is possible by using just a few of the Photoshop's features.
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applying Auto Color (Image>Adjustments> Auto Color) gives a bit of a washed out image, but was acceptable for a starting point. |
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adding an adjustment layer of Curves, and changing each colour for contrast and then the overall RGB curve helps a bit (I've added the other channels on to the main channel to show you) |  |
| I applied Saturation via Lab Color mode as follows: - duplicate the image: - Image>Duplicate... - covert to Lab Color :- Image>Mode>Lab Color - Add an adjustment layer: - Image>Adjustment>Levels - adjust the a and b channels low and high points to 55 and 200 - convert back to RGB :- Image>Mode>RGB Color - copy the image as a layer back to the original - finally delete the duplicated image. |
I generally tend to change the Opacity of the Saturated Layer to tone down the effect - but not in this case. But I did then apply NeatImage and FocusMagic to tidy up the detail into a new layer. |  |
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I added a Levels layer and adjusted the mid-point of RGB to 1.26 and the Green Channel to 0.82, the others stayed at 1.0 (I've added the other channels on to the main channel to show you) |  |
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I then added a Hue/Saturation layer and changed the
colours as follows:- Red -1,+38,-21 Yellow 0,+5,+40 Green+1,+24,-76 Cyan +1,0,+55 Blue 0,-1,-57 Magenta 0,0,0 to soften the colours. |
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Finally I played with the Brightness and Contrast. |  |
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These are all the Layers. The Level2 adjustment layer's Opacity is set at 71%; all the rest are at 100%. |
During the creation of this image, I constantly when
up and down the layers changing various effects to get what I wanted. One can only achieve this by using adjustment layers. |