Photoshop - Digital Darkroom

by Daniel Buck
www.danielbuck.net

I personal like my car photos a bit "edgy" and "contrasy" looking. For me it seems to bring out the attitude of the car.

So you have that dramatic angle that you were shooting for, and the picture came out great! But, some how it's not quite as dramatic as you wanted it to be.

Open the picture in PhotoShop, and change the mode to LAB Color.

Duplicate the image layer, and desaturate the bottom layer. (click on the layer once, and hit CTRL-SHIFT-U). Now change the top layer type to overlay. (Click on the top layer once, and click the drop box that says "Normal", and choose Overlay)

That should do it! You can always change the levels by hitting CTRL-L and moving the sliders, or do a number of things to enhance the image, as photoshop can act as a "digital darkroom" for you photos! However, don't go overboard on the effects, to much can ruin a good picture.

Before you save the image for print, or for the web, change the image mode back to RGB (or CMYK if you are printing), and when it asks you if you want to flatten the image, click flatten.

There are other methods of doing this, like playing with the curves, there are several ways that I enhance my images, this is just one of them that I though was a bit more unique than just modifying the curves.

Happy shooting!