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Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is an exciting but difficult computer graphics software program. Combined with a drum scanner and an Iris printer, you will enter a world that rivals any darkroom. Using Photoshop instead of an inexpensive editing program is like going from a $50 camera to a $400 camera. It's an expensive program, but well worth it. The list price is $900, the street price is $600 and the student/teacher price is $300.
Pretty good prints can now be made using a basic computer, Photoshop, an Epson color printer and Epson Photo Paper. Epson prints are of a high enough quality that this option should be carefully considered as a possible alternative to a darkroom.
These notes were composed using a Macintosh computer and Photoshop 6. If you are using a different version of Photoshop or Windows you will have to make some modifications.
Make a copy of the scan
To copy a scan, click on the image. The title should appear highlighted. Do not double-click. Double-clicking will open the file which is an unnecessary step. (If you do not see a little version [this is called an icon] of your photograph, go to the View menu and choose "By Icon." ) Go to the File Menu and choose "Duplicate." After doing this, a second image appears slightly overlapping the first one with the same name followed by the word copy. Put the copy image aside and in the event you accidentally ruin the original image in the editing you have an absolutely identical image to edit.
Rotate image
If your scan is turned on it's side or is upside down, it is simple to turn it right side up. Go to the Image menu and choose "Rotate Canvas". The submenu gives you a variety of options. The first option of 180° is for an upside down image. The second option of 90° CW stands for 90° clockwise and the option below it, 90° CCW stands for 90° counter clockwise. Both of these options are for images that appear on their side, a common problem with 35mm vertical images. As in a darkroom, most people can work with the image more easily if the orientation is the same as what it will be when completed.
Adjust tones and colors
To adjust the brightness and contrast of a black and white image, or to adjust the brightness and color balance of a color image, go to the Image menu and choose "Adjust." A submenu appears with 15 options.
The first option "Levels" opens a complex window with several buttons and a graph. The graph is called a histogram and is showing the tonal range of the image with the shadows on the left, the midtones in the middle and the highlights on the right. The 3 little triangles running along the line below the histogram are referred to as the input sliders. The color of each one (black, gray and white) shows what part of the tonal range that each one represents. There are 3 boxes above the histogram showing the numerical representations of every tone in the image. 0 is jet black and 255 is paper white.
To the right of the input slider bar appear 3 eyedroppers. Notice once again that they are colored black, gray and white. Click on the white one which is the one on the right. When you move the cursor into the image you will notice it has changed from an arrow (or whatever else was the previous cursor shape) to an eyedropper. Click on the lightest area of significance. In other words, don't choose something like a bright white reflection off of a mirror or something similar. The image should look somewhat different after doing this and the histogram should change. Do the same with the shadows using the eye dropper on the left. For the midtones move the midtone input slider to the left to lower the contrast and to the right to increase the contrast. Ignore the midtone eye dropper. Click on the OK button to complete the procedure and then save the image.
Crop
To crop the image, go to the vertical tool bar and click on the top left icon. A sub-icon menu of five icons appears. Choose the one on the right. Take the cursor and place it in the corner of the image. Click and slowly drag to the opposite corner eliminating areas on each side that you no longer want. Click on return to complete the operation.
Sharpen the image
If your image is somewhat soft, and this often happens during scanning, it can be made sharper with the unsharp mask. Sharpening can change colors, so when working with a color scan, do the following to minimize color shifts. Convert the color file to Lab by going to the Image menu, choose Mode, than Lab Color. Activate the Lightness channel by going to Window manual and choosing Show Channels. Click on the Lightness Channel. It will appear highlighted. The other channels will not appear highlighted.
Go the Filters, choose Sharpen, and choose Unsharp Mask. A dialog box appears. For Amount try 70, for Radius try 2.0 and for Threshold try 1. Switch the Mode back to RGB from Lab Color.
You can preview the sharpening effect. Be careful not to oversharpen. When you oversharpen you will often see a strange grainy dot pattern somewhere in the image. It is better to run the Unsharp Mask twice for half of the total amount of sharpening than just once. Running it twice results in a smoother sharpening. Sharpening should always be your very last step in the editing process because it magnifies any image editing that has been done.
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