Are you ever disappointed when you first view your pictures on the computer? Do they seem to always look better on the camera LCD? If so, this tutorial is quick, easy, and just for you!
First off, a quick word about why this tutorial uses GIMP instead of Photoshop.
GIMP is essentially as good Photoshop, and it costs $0.
It's also powerful enough to process an image in anyway you can imagine.
You can download it now at www.gimp.org!
This really basic three-step process can really help to give your pictures that extra wow factor if they seem to come out of the camera lacking somehow. We will be subtlety sharpening the image and adding contrast. For some reason, your camera's LCD screen does this automatically when displaying an image, but when you take it out of the camera and display it on your computer monitor, it doesn't always look the same. We can easily fix this by bringing it into an image processing program like Photoshop or GIMP and going through a few easy steps.
We will be using GIMP for this tutorial.
1. Open GIMP. (It's normal for it to take a few minutes to open.)
2. (Optional) I prefer working in single window mode. It feels less cluttered than the default mode. Select Single-Window Mode by going to Windows >> Single-Window Mode.
3. Open the image. Go to File >> Open, then navigate to your image.
6. Note that your side panels may not look the same as mine. That's fine, we won't be using them anyway.
5. This image loaded sideways. Let's fix that. Go to Image >> Transform >> Rotate 90 (degrees) counter-clockwise.
6. Now let's zoom in to full size on the model's face. This will help us assess if we need to sharpen the image.
7. Looking for contrast helps us determine the sharpness. Let's use the contrast between the edge of his glasses and his skin. This image could definitely sharpening. Go to Filters >> Enhance >> Unsharp Mask
Adjust Radius to what looks good to you. Subtlety is very important when sharpening images. Personally, I would never adjust Radius to over 15. In this case I set it to 4.0. Click OK. Then press ctrl+shift+j to zoom out and fit the image to the screen. (Mac equivalent: control+shift+j)
8. Next we will adjust the Levels to add contrast. Find them at Colors >> Levels.
Definitely experiment with this one. Use it by dragging the arrows (circled in red) to the left and right. You'll quickly see what each one does.
Pictured above is what I set my Levels to. You should set it to what you think looks good. Once you're finished click OK.
9. And you're finished! Next comes saving the image, which is a different that what you might expect. Go to File >> Export As...
This step is very important- type what you want to name your image in the text field circled in red. Then add ".jpg" as pictured. If you forget to add .jpg, GIMP may save the image in the wrong format, and it will be useless.
Make sure Quality is set all the way to 100. Then click Export.
That's it! This process can make pretty much any image look better. You might even try it will cell phone photos before you upload them to Facebook. All you have to do is put them onto your computer first.
[Putting a camera in their hand] changes the way they look at things... That's a photographer... Whether you're doing it with a $3,000 camera or you're doing it with your phone, it changes the way you see things.
Andria Lindquist, Portrait - A Documentary on Instagram and Photography by Andy Newman
This video explains what depth of field is, how it works, and how to control it.
A follow-up to my post about F-Stops and Apertures, this video shows you what "depth of field" or "DOF" is, and how it can be controlled. It really helped me clear up some misconceptions I had.
Knowing this lets you control the camera's depth of field and create images with soft backgrounds, like this one.
(model: Josh. Thanks Josh.)
This makes your subject appear clear, and significantly strengthens your image.
This video explains the f-stop scale used in photography and video. It explains what f-stop actually is and why the f-stop numbers are what they are.
A very helpful video. It's a little complicated (like, high-school math complicated), but understanding F-Stops and Apertures well is reeaalllyy important when considering what lenses to purchase and how to set your camera and make it do what you want it to do.
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