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:

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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.

 
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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

[ShellyJ]

Thanks for the info! I am on it today :) ... and what a cool strap!

[Alexa]

I'm new to photoshop and love this look! thanks!

[Alexa]

oops! here is where you can see my ShaZAM!

http://appelligartafamily.blogspot.com/

[Julie]

This is fun, although I think it will take a bit more tinkering to perfect. Thanks!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheplers/2668407586/

[Cindy Lee]

Hi Jessica - Great tutorial - I'm going to go try this when I get home. Just thought I would mention though in case you didn't know, that the latest version of Camera RAW for Photoshop (version 4) which comes with CS3, and PSE 4 and 5 I think has the vibrance and luminosity sliders and also works with jpg files now so you can achieve much the same looks without having to fiddle with layers. It might not give you quite as much control over specific areas like burning the edges or removing the overlay around the face - but the tutorial that I read about this feature in the Photography magazine that I got had really nice vibrant photos as well. If you have the options, you might try playing around with it.

[Jen Beggs]

I'm so glad you posted a Friday workshop! the last one you had was posted the day i found your site, and I've tried a lot of the ones you have here. I posted my shaZAM on my blog: http://whimsicalblessings.blogspot.com/

[Laurie]

I love that!! I love the vibrancy of the colors. Mine is up on my blog: http://lauriepecotte.blogspot.com

[courtenia2]

My 1st shaZAM try. Fun and easy!

http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?album=194&pos=0

[Tamara]

Love your Photoshop Fridays. Thanks for sharing. Here's my link http://tamarabaird.blogspot.com/

[Becky P.]

ShaZAM! That's just fun to type. :) Thank you so much for the tutorial! Here's mine:

http://www.creatingkeepsakes.com/gallery/details.ihtml?idx=116451

I learned a few new things - yay hooray! -thank you!!

[Linds]

Hope I'm not too late!!!!

Here's my link...I LOVE shaZAM-ing my pics!!
http://stevenssquad.blogspot.com/

[Pam in Missouri]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/qcaller/2663231242/
Here's my attempt. I tried a few other tricks as well which didn't turn out as great as the ShaZAM part.

Thanks for the fabulous tutorials, Jessica.

[rebecca.k]

Here is my before & after:
http://67.228.211.226/cpg/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=0

Love the camera strap! I just got a D60, so this would be perfect!! :)

[Irene Gonzalez]

Gracias Guapa!!!!
This is great... love it. My Shazan is here

http://67.228.211.226/cpg/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=0

Let see if I get lucky...

[Irene Gonzalez]

Hola!
I got mix up with somebody else posted link, sooo sorry.
I hope I got it right this time...
http://67.228.211.226/cpg/displayimage.php?album=2&pos=2

Irene Gonzalez

[ScrappyGuy]

GAH, talk about under the wire! I had to get this done:
http://www.jessicasprague.com/cpg/displayimage.php?pos=-18108

[Amanda]

i LOVE this tip and i extra LOVE those straps! oh my heck they are so cute. here's my link..
http://amandascreativeattempts.blogspot.com/2008/07/photoshop-friday-entry.html
Thanks!

[Bombchell]

I know a lot ofpeople have told you how great this is & how they loved it. But it needs repitition.

I thought it would be so hard, but it was so easy, I can't belief it, I did this to one of my pictures, and now its absolutely beautiful,I can't stop thinking of all the dark pictures I have to edit. Thanks a lot!!!!

Bombchell

[Michelle]

This was my first time really using photoshop. Thanks for the tutorial and inspiration.

http://sparkledesigns.typepad.com/sparkle_designs_/2008/07/photo-shazam.html

[Heather S.]

This is so awesome Jessica! Thank you for the tutorial! I really love your photoshop Fridays! Thank you for sharing your knowledge with us. Not in time for the giveaway but here is my link to my photos using your technique.

http://seeleyhappenings.blogspot.com/2008/07/not-getting-much-work-done-and-cruisin.html

Thanks again Jessica! You rock!

[Susanna]

Contest is over and I had so much fun with this that I shared your tip again for Tutorial Tuesday at Card of the Week.com (You can see the original post here: http://www.cardoftheweek.com/2008/07/tutorial-tues-2.html)

I did include a picture of your work and links to your blog and the tutorial. Please let me know if that's OK -- barefootstamper@gmail.com

Thanks for sharing your great work!

[Canay]

Thanks for the wonderful instructions. I just have a question on what you mean by using the burn tool to darken up the edges. Do you mean the edges of the little boy or the edges of the photograph.

[Tonya]

You rock! Thanks so much for breaking this down for me. My pictures finally have that sparkle!

[brandie]

thank you so much for this! i feel as if a whole new world has been opened...i have been shazaming away all morning!

[Linn]

Okay, I'm several weekends late, what can I say. But I have used this technique so many times since reading it here! Thank you Jessica! My favorites on the week you posted were of other people's kids (I was shooting at our church's VBS) so I couldn't share them. Finally I have a great one to link up to. Here's my blog post about it: http://cozyliving.typepad.com/cozyliving/2008/07/photo-shazam-ma.html

I'll have to be on the lookout for a great new camera strap to treat myself to on my own. But thanks as always for the great tutorials. This one has become a favorite technique that I'd never known before!

[Amy]

Oh, I so needed that tutorial! Thank you very much.

[Lena]

Thanks for the tutorial It really makes photos better. But i have one question: how to do Smart Sharpen? I use PS6 Thanks again

[Lacey]

Jessica,
Can you tell me where I can purchase one of Natalie's camera straps. I am in dire need of a more comfortable strap and that one looks heavenly.
Thank you, Lacey