The winner of the Creating Keepsakes subscription giveaway is commenter #3, Debbie Joegenson who commented:

Great info. I’d love to win a subscription.

Congratulations Debbie!

Hey RP fans! Deena Boese from Creating Keepsakes magazine back at the table with another quick and easy Photoshop tutorial! This week we’ll focus on our photos and how much of an influence they make on the overall look of our scrapbook layouts.

There is a lot to be said for the casual images you snap yourself and the emotional ties we have to them. The problem? Sometimes the quality falls short of our expectations. Well, I have good news! You don’t have to be a professional photographer to enjoy the impact you get from professional shots. Even photos snapped on AUTO can rival those pro shots you love. The secret? The magic happens long after the shutter button is ever released.

The fact is nearly every photo can benefit from simply adjusting three aspects in Photoshop: Sharpness, Light, and Contrast. And it’s easier than you think! Now, there are literally hundreds of different and involved ways to edit photos in Photoshop, but after several years this easy technique still proves to be my favorite always producing dramatic results. With a few simple steps, you can take a standard photo from this:

to this:

Wanna learn how simple it is to edit photos like a Pro? Read on! 

1. Open photo in Photoshop and select FILTER > SHARPEN > UNSHARP MASK.

2. Adjust the sliders as follows: Amount: 20%, Radius: 60 pixels, Threshold: 1. Click OK.

3. Click on the NEW ADJUSTMENT LAYER icon and select LEVELS.

4. Drag the white slider towards the center to boost the brightness and the black slider towards the center to boost the contrast. Adjust the center slider to alter the midtones as desired.

5. Right click on the photo layer in the Layers Panel and select DUPLICATE LAYER.

6. Select the SOFT LIGHT blending mode and adjust the opacity as desired to add additional depth and contrast.

And now you know! I hope have fun experimenting with the joys of photo editing. It’s a quick and easy technique that can make a dramatic difference in your layouts and projects! For easy reference, I’ve included a PDF handout you can download and add to your “Wanna Learn How” library. And as a bonus gift, I’ve also included the word art I used in the above layout along with a set of 12 accents you can download for FREE!

As always, we want to hear from you! Have you seen a digital technique that made you say, “Oooh! I wanna learn how to do that?” Leave a comment to let us know what techniques you want to see here. I have a free one-year subscription to Creating Keepsakes magazine in my hands that will go to one random (and lucky) commenter. So be sure to drop us a line to be entered in the drawing! Good luck!

 DOWNLOADS

How To Edit Photos Like A Pro
Word Art Graphic
Accents

Deena Boese

Deena Boese is a Contributing Writer for Creating Keepsakes magazine and enjoys designing both digital and hybrid projects for each issue. She was first published with Creating Keepsakes in early 2007. Deena has a passion for story-telling and graphic design, and brings these elements into her digital and hybrid scrapbooking.

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