Too dark image.
This is a step by step explanation of the systematic approach to image editing. Depending on light conditions we can get a too dark image and the colors disappears in the black.
Here is the list we will follow:
- Edit Highlights using Curves and Selection
- Enter black / Enter white using Curves
- Tone using Curves
- Contrast using Curves
- Colorcast using Curves
- Color-correction using Hue/Saturation, Selective Color, Replace Color, Path, Layer Mask.
- Restoration using History brush.
- Sharpen using Unsharp Mask.
This is the order you should follow editing most images. All list items should be considered. Act on those that are appropriate and skip if there is no need to adjust.
And here is the image:
Step by step editing:
Start by opening the image. Choose the eyedropper tool an take a sample of the sky to your swatches palette. We will use this later to restore the sky.
Open the curves dialog box. Choose menu and submenus:
1. The Curve dialog box opens.
2. The first thing you have to consider is if there are highlights present.. In this case you do not need to change this at all. So you skip this and go right to selecting the black point. You are looking for a part of the image thats the darkest and at the same time most neutral ( closest to gray ). The Curves panel can help you with that. You adjust the curves start and end position like this.
Then you click on the eyedropper in the Curves panel and click in the darkest part of the image.
3. Now you have a image which contains neutral tones in the dark. Next you select the white point. In this image you select a non standard white point. The flowers are the most important part of the image. To get them lighter you select a spot thats a bit darker than the lightest point, in the left corner. You will restore the details in the light later with the history brush.
4. Next step is tone edits. Ask yourself this: is the image all over too dark or to light? In this case it is too dark in the middle and shadow. Lock the curve with a click at 25% and place the cursor on the middle of the tone curve and drag down and to the right to lighten the mid-tones. and dark mid-tones. Then click O.K.
5. This image is neutral so no cast edits.
6. Choose menu and submenus:
Select Magentas in the Edit drop down menu. Select the Eyedropper+ and click to select the middle-tone from the flower.
Adjust the saturation of magenta color in magenta.
7. To restore the sky we first make an new layer and use Fill
to paint it with the sky color we saved in the swatch.
Then you select darken in Layer palette.
Add noise to make it more real
.
Select History brush tool and paint back the finer details against the sky and the sky itself.
8. Using "Unsharp mask" is an optional step, I find that most images can benefit from getting sharper. If you do edits for printing press you should always sharpen, since the finished print will be less sharp. To evaluate your sharpening it is smart to view the image in 100%.
The final result compared to original.
