Photoshop Friday! Photo ShaZAM.

Man, has it ever been a long time since the last Photoshop Friday or what? Hopefully today’s issue will make up for it! :D It’s one you’ll be able to use on everything, because this is the way I process many of my photos, and it’s a nearly UNIVERSAL method for improving the brightness and contrast of your pics, and helping your colors simply POP right out.

Let’s just call it PHOTO ShaZAM. I’m feeling a little retro today. :) But seriously. I took this pic of Ellliott playing in their “Sharkey Pool” today, and made it kinda sing. Like so:

AND, just to up the deliciousness factor a bit, how about we have a little giveaway? My I’m-related-to-her-I-promise relative, Natalie Putnam, is generously giving away one of her sweet handmade Camera Straps to one lucky winner! Keep readin’!

First, though, the tutorial. Learning first. Free stuff later.

Photo ShaZAM. 

My pic looks like this sooc (straight out of camera):

 

It’s ok, right? He’s a sweet fella, and this pic pretty much puts my heart in my throat. But really DECENT pics are the perfect candidates for just a little extra somethin’ somethin’ - which is why this is the ShaZAM.

Ready to see some shaZAM on your own pics?

Photoshop Friday: Photo ShaZAM

1. Okay, the first step in the Shazam is to open that pic. If you’re shooting in RAW (like I do), go ahead and correct your white balance and make the changes you need to, and then bring it in to Photoshop. If you’re shooting in JPG, just open the file. :)

It should be your background layer. Thusly:

Click for Larger 

2. Now right-click on the photo (Background) layer in the Layers palette, and choose Duplicate Layer from the flyout menu. In the little box that comes up, go ahead and rename this layer to Overlay. Click OK.

 
Click for Larger

3. And now you’ll go ahead and right-click on the Overlay layer and choose Duplicate Layer again from the flyout menu. In THIS little naming box, go ahead and rename this layer to Screen. Click OK.

Now you have a stack of three perfectly ordinary layers. And here’s where the shaZAM happens. :)

4. Click on the Screen layer in the Layers palette. In the blending mode dropdown at the top of the Layers palette, set the blending mode of the Screen layer to Screen.

5. Click on the Overlay layer in the Layers palette. In the blending mode dropdown, set the blending mode for the Overlay layer to (wait for it..) Overlay.

Here’s what I get at full strength. Whoa. Talk about overblown.

Click for Larger 

But now! Now come the subtle machinations of a true Photoshop Wizard: playing with the opacity of crazy overblown layers.

6. Play with the opacity of both of these layers until you get a flavor you really like. The interaction between these two blending modes is where the shaZAM happens. The screen layer acts as a brightening agent, and the Overlay layer boosts contrast. Depending on your particular photo and how well it’s exposed, what colors are in it, tonal range, that kind of thing, you’ll need to increase or decrease the blends for both of these.

I ended up with Screen set to 44%, and Overlay set to 65%. And it looks awesome.

Now, one thing I noticed in my particular photo, and something that you might notice in yours as well, is that Overlay tends to boost redness in skintones. So suddenly Elliott looks a bit like he’s been diving in heavily chlorinated water.

A quick fix? Take a soft-edged Eraser tool to the Overlay layer on parts that turn out too red or too contrasty (or if you’re advanced, create a layer mask and mask out these parts). This will show the original photo through.

Click for Larger

After a quick touch on my background layer with the Burn tool to darken up the edges just a hair, and a little Smart Sharpen, I came out with this:

 

ShaZAM!

This technique will improve almost any photo you work it on, which is pretty amazing, considering the variety of photos it’s possible to take. :)  So the workflow here:

1. Open the photo.
   
2. Duplicate the layer twice.
3. Set the top layer to Screen, and the second layer to Overlay.
4. Adjust the opacity of this two-layer combination.
5. Erase out any too-dark or too-red parts of the Overlay layer.
6. Burn the edges of the background layer just a titch.
7. Resize as needed, and THEN run Smart Sharpen (sharpening should always be done last, and always on the photo when it’s at its final size). I recommend a strength of 85%, and then adjust the radius to taste.

Weekend Assignment: Show me YOUR Photo ShaZAM! :D

Okay, now for your assignment, are you ready?

1. Go take a picture. Or I GUESS you could use one you already have. GOSH. (But seriously. The sun is shining. Go take some pics!)

2. Work some SHAZAM on it, as explained above.

3. Post the shazam, or a layout made with the aforementioned shazam, somewhere online, such as a your favorite gallery, your blog, mayhaps the General gallery at JessicaSprague.com? You know, anywhere. Even Photobucket. Even Flickr. Go for it! :D And mentioning where you learned about the Shazam would be really cool as well, of course.

4. Come back over here, right here to this post, and leave a comment. Perhaps even paste in the link where you posted your shazam.

And the reward! Win a new camera strap!

I’ll draw a random name at 9:00 p.m. on Monday night, July 14, at 9:00 EDT, and the winner will receive a brand-new camera strap created with love by my I’m-related-to-her-somehow relative, Ms. Natalie Putnam! How cute is this?!

 

You can pick out any of the straps in her store for your very own, IF you practice the ShaZAM, post it, and then comment RIGHT HERE before Monday (oh, and if your post # is drawn, of course).  And the relative part? Okay, we worked this out at one point. Natalie is ny brother’s wife’s sister’s mother-in-law’s daughter. Or my brother’s wife’s sister’s sister-in-law. Right? Right. And get this other craz-i-ness. Natalie is ALSO my mom’s brother’s wife’s sister-in-law’s daughter.. okay, now I’m just making this up. But I’m SERIOUS about the first part.

Okay, friends! Let’s see some ShaZAM!

Can’t wait!

p.s. I’ll only count links in the randomness, so if you have other comments/questions feel free to post ‘em!

Update on Saturday, July 12, 2008 at 01:50PM by Jessica

To answer a couple of questions:

 1. This works in every version of Photoshop, and probably any other graphics program that has layers. No special version-specific stuff here. :)

2. Scrappydeena asked:

I do have a question Jessica….would it be correct to flatten the image before applying smart sharpen or should we do smart sharpen on the background layer and then flatten?

I flattened everything onto its own layer JUST before saving it out, and then ran the Smart Sharpen. Thank you for pointing this out - I didn’t mention the flattening.

4. Several people asked how to use the Burn tool.

It’s grouped with the Dodge tool, and makes your image darker in the areas you use it. Select it, and then make sure you have a large soft brush selected in the Options Bar. I would use Midtones and about 50% opacity to start out with, and then just click and drag the brush around the edges to darken. I focused in the corners of my image, and then lightly touched along each of the sides. Because this image is so bright, I didn’t want to overdo the darkened edges.

3. J asked:

I love it! Question - I am trying to replicate exactly what you did on your photo, step by step, but no matter what I do, it doesn’t come out identical. The overall glow effect and flawless skin tone seems impossible to achieve. Is there some of fine tuning that differs from program to program that would make the same picture come out different even though I follow the same steps to a T?

I was working with straight-out-of-the camera, full-resolution files when I did this, which would make a difference because there’s more data to play with. You’re also dealing with differences in monitors, as well as which color space you’re in. But the basics of the technique wouldn’t change between programs.

Comments

[Kristie]

Here is my try: http://scrapbook.com/galleries/103306/view/1578447/-1/0/1.html

Yours looks better! :o)

[Kirstin]

Love the ShaZAM! I learned so much with this technique. It was my first time using the burn tool as well. (I sort of overdid the burn, but I love the way it makes the boys pop out of the picture.) Thank you!!

Here's the before and after: http://twobrownboys.blogspot.com/

[Rebecca Marr]

Here's my shaZAM! http://marrfamily.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/shazam/

[Elaine]

Here's mine -- Thanks! :) Forgot to darken the edges as well, but it still looks way better than it did!


http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/albums/userpics/13265/normal_Shazam.jpg

[Andreamatrix]

That was fun.I usually do the same thing but with soft or hard light. Can't wait to take your next photography class.

http://reflections-andreamatrix.blogspot.com/

[Maria in Tulsa]

LOVED this Tut! My ShaZAMmed photo is in the general and NWR Galleries at jessicasprague.com

[Jami]

thanks so much! I LOVE this!!

[Jami]

oops, here's mine

http://footejams.blogspot.com/2008/07/shazam.html

[Kathi]

Wow! This was great. It made my already beautiful granddaughter's photo look even better. I understand about the "lump in the throat." My grandkids always do that to me. They are so precious! Here's my try. I'm still working on the "burn." I still get too much or too little.
http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-17762

[shanB]

Here is my DS on Canada Day after the Shanzam.

http://konfessionsofaklutz.blogspot.com/

[Mandy Watson]

Here is my beggining attempts at this great technique: http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-17764. Thanks Jessica for teaching us how to do this! I was so excited to see the Photoshop Friday back! Thanks again for taking the time to post it for us! Have a great weekend.

[Erica]

great tip. I once knew how to do this step by step but then recorded it as an action and sort of forgot a hit how to do it. This helped me remember...although some of my steps are a bit different. Love your blog..jsut found it!

[Mel]

Here's my Shazam photo...

http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/pg.asp?cmd=display&layout_id=1367872

This is such great tutorial-I can't wait to get my new Rebel XTi and start shooting with RAW format.

[Katherine B]

I am reposting. My previous post didn't contain my image. Sorry. ;D

Here it is . . . http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?album=167&pos=0

I absolutely LOVED this! It was soooo easy and I can really see this working for LOTS and LOTS of different photos. Off to take more shots and ShaZAM them! :D

[Kim]

Wow --that is amazing! Off to try it out!

[Jana D]

I LOVE it! Thanks for the tips! ...and the camera strap... I need. I need. :)

[Tresa]

Here is mine, I have only been using photoshop a couple of months now :) I am so excited that I found your site to make learning it easier!
http://mccormickmadness.blogspot.com/2008/07/photo-shazam.html

[Karen]

thanks so much!!

http://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f233/creativekp/shazam.jpg

[Trinka]

Love these and just found your site...love the tutorials~

[denise:) (the winner!)]

HI JESSICA! I am the winner of this contest, so let me first thank you sooo much for the gorgeous camera strap and the opportunity to try out your awesome challenge! At the risk of "sucking up", i must say Elliott is ADORABLE!!

You can view my much improved photos at this link here:

http://geekgirl415.com/2008/07/11/hi-jessica-sprague/

Thanks again and say Hi to your brother's wife's sister's mother-in-law's daughter, Natalie!

[Katherine]

I have never, ever played with layers and stuff, although I take 100's photos for scrapbooking. This was amazing, why have I never done this before!?! Thank you, you made it so simple! Here's my results:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28504009@N03/

Katherine x

[Janice in TN]

Thanks for these tips, they are awesome and worked in PSE 5 as well.
http://picasaweb.google.com/janiceguazzo/Jessicasprague

[danielle]

Oh my gosh I LOVE ShaZAM it is a wonderful new tool thank you thank you for sharing it

here is one of the MANY i have done today LOL
http://scrappingdani-danielle.blogspot.com/

[latz]

http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-17788

Here's mine--this is an awesome technique Jessica! Very cool and fairly easy--what's not to love! Thanks for sharing!

[Lauren]

This is exactly what I've been looking for! Now I can get that color pop that I love so much! This is so much easier than the way I was trying to make work! This was a dark picture so I had to add a second screen layer at about 25%. Thanks so much!

http://img384.imageshack.us/img384/978/shazamph1.jpg

[Allette]

Weird, mine didn't post, so I'm posting again--:)
Thank you so much for this awesome-as-usual tutorial! This is WAY simpler than what I've been tweaking with.
You can view mine here: http://allette.blogspot.com/


Have a fabulous weekend!

[Emily]

Here is mine:
http://cre8design.blogspot.com/2008/07/strawberry-boy.html
I learned how to play around with the settings on another blog as well but your way seemed to be fool proof and after playing around for a while I got what I was looking for. Thanks!

[Trina]

OMG Jessica I'm in total love with the ShaZAM tutorial that you gave on your blog. I just had to use it on one of my son Senior Pics that we took yesterday! Thank you very much. Here is my link to my post of my Pic. I'd love the chance at winning the camera strap. Yesterday the 9th was my B-day and hubby bought me a new camera. It's a Canon EOS 40D with a extra bonus lens EF 70-200mm (f/2.8L ) which I'm learning to use.
Here is my link:
http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=0

Thank you again. I luv it!!! ;)

[Britney Mellen]

You are a goddess, Jessica.

Now, I'm off to Jessica-ize some of my photos in hopes that the good carma from all this crazy shazaming will rub off on me and I will win a cute new camera strap!

[Erin Grotegut]

OH Jessica!! This was so much fun!

I shaZAM'd a pic of my sweet dog, Sadie and uploaded it to my blog:

www.inkysmiles.blogspot.com

and to the General Gallery here:
http://tinyurl.com/5tgn72

Inky Smiles!
Erin