For the past few weeks, I’ve been refreshing basic editing skills on photoshop mainly to do with adjusting the colour and overall look of a photograph.
Exposure: Although not much has changed, this image does look a lot less flat compared to the original. I did this by slightly increasing the exposure and turning up the contrast – a little goes a long way.
Colour Balance: By making the amount of blue in the image higher in this menu, it created a more creepy look, definitely making it a less welcoming hallway. This effect is used a lot in horror movies.
Hue & Saturation: Adjusting the hue slider of the ‘yellows’ to a more blue colour, all yellow tones in the photo have changed to the colour selected.
This is a great way to just change the lighting and if there is an aspect that has changed colour that you want to remain the same (like I had), colour select is a great way to achieve that. I put the original photo under the adjusted photo layer and used the eraser tool on the top layer to expose certain parts of the original (seen on the poster on the right wall).
Warm Filter: By selecting image > adjustments > photo filter there is a selection of colour grading filters. This warm one would be useful to quickly make an image more cosy or in this case apocalyptic without having to change a variety of colour settings your self.
Cool Filter: This is another option under the same menu adding blue tones. Colouring like this is good to make a scene appear dreary, seen in horrors and sometimes in dramas.
Filter Gallery: When going filter > filter gallery a screen appears with the current photo and lots of adjustment options including ones that create texture, colour or distortions.
Cool Select: This was done the same way as done with the inside photo. This technique would be useful to make a specific object stand out in something like a poster.
Blur: This effect is Tilt Shift found under filter > blur gallery. You can move the area of where the focus will be as well as how narrow this area is and the intensity of the blend between this and the blurred parts.
Blend Modes & Texture: I pasted an oil-spill looking image onto a layer above the photo. Next I changed the blend mode to darken colour after looking through the options, and the opacity to around 60%. To make it only affect the background I used the same colour select technique as before.