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The final print, be it hanging in a prestigious gallery or on your wall at home, is a product of two distinct processes.

The first we have already explored, that is the film or digital exposed to light. The other process happens once we remove the film or memory card from our cameras.

If you are using a digital, then it's a matter of inserting the memory card into a card holder and downloading your images onto your computer hard drive. You will then need an image editor (electronic darkroom) Adobe Photoshop is an industry leader and the software that I have been using for the last 15 years. Once the images have been edited, you can burn them onto a CD  or memory stick and have a lab print the images for you. Please note that only basic  Photoshop is  discussed in this lesson.

HTML clipboard Once you have downloaded our images from the memory card to a folder on your computer, activate your Photoshop software. Then go to FILE and drag down to OPEN.

 

 

 

HTML clipboard Step 1: Open Levels. 

 

HTML clipboard Step 2:  The graph shows us the amount of information contained in the image.

 

HTML clipboard Step 3: In most cases it is enough to click the AUTO button. This will give us an average spread of tones. Digital images however can react badly to the AUTO button, by giving us some peculiar colors. In these cases we can use the tone arrows to adjust manually. The arrow on the right is for shadow areas. The middle arrow for midtones, and the right hand arrow adjusts the highlights. Once you are happy with the overall tone of the image click OK.

 

HTML clipboard Step 5: Using the CROPPING tool, we decide not only on the size but shape of our image. In this case we discard some of it and improve the overall composition. We now double click on the highlighted area to crop.

 

HTML clipboardStep 6: We now sharpen our image. If your sharpen mode is activated on your digital camera you might need to skip this step.

 

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Step 7: The larger the image the more AMOUNT % will be necessary. Don't over sharpen!

 

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Step 8: We now adjust brightness and contrast.

 

HTML clipboard Step 9: When adjusting brightness and contrast make sure your highlights don't lose detail.
 
HTML clipboard Step 10: Adjusting color balance is not always necessary. The art of seeing color and adjusting correctly will take you some time and practice.
 
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Step 11: In this particular case we removed some red from the overall image.

 

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Step 12: Time to darken the background.

 

HTML clipboard Step 13: Pick a brush and darken the background. This will help  the foreground subject stand out.
 
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Step 14: Notice the white patch of light to the right of the child. This spot will draw the attention away from the main subject, in this case the boy. We will clone (copy) a section of the background and place it over the white patch. Click on the cloning tool and while holding down the ALT key click with your mouse on a spot in the background. Now go over the white spot with your mouse.
 
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The final print:  You can now download to a CD and send off to be printed.

 

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Compare the final print to the one that came out of the camera.