- What's up everybody?
00:00
Peter McKinnon here, and today,
00:01
we're talking about how to
make your photos look better.
00:03
Okay, so you know when you
get home from somewhere,
00:12
you've been taking photos,
maybe vacation, maybe trip,
00:13
hanging out with friends,
and you load that photo
00:15
onto your computer and you're like,
00:18
this looks so good!
00:20
Throw it up on the socials,
Facebook, Instagram,
00:22
people are double tapping
that IG, hearts are flowing,
00:25
and you're just feeling
good about yourself,
00:27
right as the sun sets and
it's just so beautiful.
00:29
And then there's sometimes you get home,
00:32
and you open that photo
up on your computer
00:34
and you're like,
(record skips)
00:35
I remember this being way better
when I was there, promise.
00:38
So these are some basic editing skills,
00:42
basic editing skills, that you can do
00:44
on your photographs at home
at any time using Photoshop.
00:47
I'm using Photoshop CC, so
go ahead, head over to Adobe
00:50
and download the trial of that,
00:54
or sign up for their
subscription based service
00:56
which is what I do, and
you pay a monthly fee
00:58
to basically own all of their apps,
01:00
that's what I recommend.
01:02
We can take a mundane
photo that looks like this,
01:03
and turn it into something
that looks like this,
01:07
in pretty much like 10 minutes maybe?
01:10
Even faster if you do this thing
on a daily basis like I do.
01:13
Okay, so we've dragged
our photo into Photoshop
01:16
and here we are, we are hit
with the Camera Raw plugin
01:18
that pops up and says,
hey this is a raw file,
01:21
what do you wanna do?
01:25
Do you wanna just open the image as is?
01:25
Do you wanna tweak it a little bit here
01:27
with Camera Raw and then open it?
01:28
And this is where you
might say to me, Pete,
01:31
well what's the difference between editing
01:32
and doing everything you're
about to show me in Lightroom
01:34
instead of using Lightroom and Photoshop,
01:36
or using Camera Raw and Photoshop?
01:39
Yeah, you can do everything in Lightroom.
01:41
You can do everything in Photoshop.
01:43
It's all about workflow, what
programs you like better,
01:44
I like using them both.
01:48
Photoshop's more of like
a photo manipulator,
01:49
where you can, I don't
like that guy's face!
01:51
I'm gonna put his face on his face.
01:54
Great for that kind of thing.
01:57
But I like using them both in
conjunction with one another,
01:59
and I'm gonna show you
how I do it right here.
02:02
Doesn't take long, so don't
be nervous or like, oh,
02:04
this is intense, it's intense
if you don't pay attention.
02:07
But no, we're gonna rip
through this, so Camera Raw,
02:11
I'm just gonna tweak the
exposure, bring up the contrast
02:14
a little bit, highlights,
you'll see in the mountain
02:17
there at the top if I drag
them all the way to the right,
02:20
they blow out, if I bring
them all the way down,
02:23
it's a little too dark, but
I'm happy kind of just, just,
02:25
just a little south of the center there.
02:29
Shadows, I'm fine with,
you can see it really only
02:32
affects that T-shirt if we
drag 'em all the way up,
02:34
but I don't want it to be this bright.
02:37
It's just a little bit weird,
02:39
little bit awkward if you will.
02:41
I'll drag 'em up to like 25,
we'll meet in the middle.
02:43
The whites, I'm happy with the whites,
02:48
the blacks, that's good, the
clarity I always like to tweak
02:50
a little bit because it
just defines all those edges
02:53
and really sharpens the image nicely
02:56
straight into Photoshop.
02:58
The vibrance we're gonna up a little bit,
03:00
little bit more saturation.
03:01
And then, because of those
clarity adjustments we just did,
03:03
that sometimes darkens the image,
03:06
so you might wanna go back
and just bring that exposure
03:07
up slightly, and then
we're gonna hit Open Image.
03:11
Okay, here we are, the first
thing I usually do with a photo
03:15
is clean up any dust on someone's shirt
03:19
or if they have bad skin I
usually go over their skin
03:22
with a brush tool like
this spot healing brush,
03:26
And if you watched my tutorial
on how to float things
03:30
in your photos, this is the
same brush that I'm using,
03:34
and I'm just clicking
to get rid of any dust
03:38
or specks, that's this brush
over here on the left side
03:41
right below the color picker.
03:43
And it just like, look,
you click, it's gone,
03:45
so you can kinda clean up any spots
03:49
that you want to smooth
over with this brush.
03:51
Now sometimes if you were
to click something too big,
03:54
like let's say I made this
brush size huge and clicked,
03:57
you can actually see the
outline of the circle.
03:59
So you don't wanna do that.
04:01
If you wanted to get rid of
this little red mark here,
04:03
you'd be better off hitting S,
04:05
which gives you the clone stamp,
04:07
you hold down Option, select
the area you wanna clone,
04:08
and then you click to
clone that area over.
04:12
And I'm happy with pretty
much just that right there.
04:15
He's got good skin as it
is, so, I am ready to go.
04:17
Now with Photoshop, you
never wanna just edit
04:23
the bottom layer and just
start caking on your layers
04:25
and layers, an hour goes by,
you crushed an entire pizza.
04:28
And then you realize to yourself, oh,
04:33
his eyes are a little bit too dark,
04:35
I'm gonna go back and change that.
04:36
And you're like, woops, sorry,
you flattened that image
04:38
and baked those edits into
that photo like 38 minutes ago.
04:40
There's no going back.
04:45
But if you do everything on layers,
04:47
you can always delete a layer,
go back, delete what you did,
04:49
tweak that layer's
adjustments, change the colors,
04:52
so you always wanna work in layers.
04:55
Now, I don't just
duplicate the background,
04:57
I Shift + Option + Command + N
05:00
is gonna give you a new layer.
05:02
And then what I do is stamp
visible layer on top of that.
05:03
This sounds crazy already, right?
05:07
But hang on, Shift + Option + Command + E
05:08
pastes that image into
the new layer we just made
05:12
instead of just duplicating a layer.
05:14
If I've made a bunch of edits to a layer
05:16
then I duplicate it, it's
gonna duplicate those edits
05:18
with it, I don't want that,
I just want a clean start
05:20
so I can manipulate that and
then blend everything together.
05:23
If that doesn't make
sense, rewind, watch it,
05:26
if you still rewound and watch
and it doesn't make sense,
05:28
do a shot, come back, it'll make sense.
05:30
Okay, I'm gonna start
by sharpening the image,
05:35
and by doing that, I start
by blurring the image first.
05:37
Sounds counterintuitive,
yes, but this is why.
05:40
You're gonna go over to
Filter, Blur, Gaussian Blur,
05:43
I have it preset to five,
so set your radius to five,
05:47
hit OK, change the blending mode down here
05:50
in your layers panel to Soft Light.
05:53
Look at that, it looks
warm, it looks more punchy,
05:57
it already looks cooler,
but, I know, it's blurry.
06:00
You're like, why would
I just wreck an image
06:04
to try and make it better?
06:07
Sometimes you gotta set something free to,
06:08
You gotta let it go to make it come back?
06:12
Or if you love it set it free?
06:15
You know what, doesn't matter,
06:17
change the opacity to
50%, hit Enter, okay?
06:19
Now, if we use that little eyeball there,
06:24
visible and invisible, you can see
06:26
how it's warmed his skin up,
it's kind of added this glow,
06:29
this nice, smooth aspect to it.
06:32
Soothing, comforting, if you will.
06:36
And we can see that by just
clicking the eyeball on and off.
06:39
Now is where we're going to sharpen it.
06:42
So again, I'm gonna Shift
+ Option + Command + N
06:44
for a new layer, Shift
+ Option + Command + E
06:46
to stamp that layer on top.
06:48
And I'm gonna desaturate this,
06:51
because I don't want to affect the colors
06:52
when I'm sharpening it,
I just want to affect
06:55
the lightness and the darkness
while I'm sharpening it.
06:56
So Shift + Command + U is
gonna take all that color away,
06:59
gone, change that
blending mode to Overlay,
07:04
you're gonna go, oh my
goodness, Pete, what?
07:07
This looks like a scene from The Crow.
07:09
What is this nonsense?
07:11
Hang on with me here,
go up to Filter, Other,
07:13
we're gonna run a High Pass
on it, what just happened?
07:16
I know, it's magic, you'll see
that weird crow-like filter
07:20
just vanished, and now we
have something that looks
07:23
a little sharper, you're gonna hit OK.
07:27
Now let's zoom in to his face here
07:29
and take a look at what's happened.
07:31
If we hide that, it's blurry,
we unhide it, it's sharp.
07:33
Now if we unhide that, and unhide this,
07:37
you'll see the colors have not only
07:40
been pumped up a little bit in saturation,
07:43
but that skin's nice and
smooth, and now it's sharp.
07:45
And we zoom out, and it's
looking pretty good gosh darn it.
07:49
If you want to double those effects,
07:53
if you want to say, you know what?
07:55
I could use a little bit more
of that sharpening, Pete.
07:57
Or, I'd like the skin to
look even more dreamy,
07:59
hold down Command,
select both those layers,
08:03
drag them down to this New Layers tab,
08:06
and that's gonna duplicate the layers
08:08
with all of the effects.
08:11
Now that's too strong for me,
08:12
so while those two layers are still,
08:13
while they're still selected,
08:16
I couldn't even think
of what to say there,
08:17
change your opacity to
whatever suits your fancy.
08:20
I'm gonna go down to like 20,
08:25
I don't want to really over exaggerate
08:26
duplicating those effects,
08:29
but just enough that it gives
me a little, little more.
08:30
Okay, what do we do now Pete?
08:35
Well, it could use some warmth,
08:37
it's not winter time
right now in this photo,
08:40
but it's looking a little too cold.
08:42
So we're gonna warm the photo up,
08:44
and we're gonna do that
by, you guessed it,
08:45
Shift + Option + Command + N, new layer,
08:48
and then we are going to Shift + Delete,
08:52
that's gonna bring up
the Content Aware box.
08:54
And you're gonna hit Color under Contents,
08:58
which then opens up the Color Picker.
09:01
I have orange selected,
there's the hexadecimal code
09:03
if you want to see that, F57900,
09:06
you can plug that into the same spot
09:09
and you'll end up with the same
color orange that I'm using.
09:11
But, it all depends on
the photo you're editing,
09:13
so kinda doesn't matter.
09:15
Hit OK, hit OK again, and now
you have it, looks beautiful.
09:18
A nice, solid, pumpkin looking
photo, completely orange.
09:24
Change that blending mode
down here to Soft Light.
09:29
And now it looks a little better,
09:34
it still looks like he has jaundice,
09:35
and things are going bad,
09:37
but we're gonna change that
opacity to like, I don't know,
09:39
maybe like 15, I'd say
15 is like a good spot.
09:42
Maybe 13, I wanted to go 10, but then 15,
09:46
so 13 in the middle sounds
like, I'm happy with that.
09:49
So now that looks warmer,
09:53
so let's hide all of these
and see what we've done,
09:54
see how it's looking better already?
09:56
Let's, boop, not bad.
09:58
Now, what if I wanted to
make his eyes brighter,
10:01
or make the mountains in
the background darker?
10:05
Because they're a little too washed out,
10:07
or his eyes now look a little too dark
10:08
because of all the
sharpening and the saturation
10:10
that we've added with the gaussian blur.
10:12
Well this is how you're gonna do that.
10:15
You're gonna make a new layer,
10:16
Shift + Option + Command + N,
10:17
you're gonna stamp that visible on there,
10:18
and you're gonna grab the
lasso tool, hold Command down,
10:21
hit plus on your keyboard,
that's gonna zoom in.
10:24
If you hold spacebar, you'll
see this little hand pop up,
10:27
and you can use that hand
to move the image around.
10:30
Command + Plus again to zoom in,
10:33
and we're just gonna select the iris,
10:35
I don't wanna make the
whites of his eyes too bright
10:38
because then he'll look like
someone from The Walking Dead.
10:40
So once we've selected that,
10:43
you'll see that little selection
10:45
of what's called marching ants,
10:46
that means this area is selected.
10:48
You hold Shift, you'll
see a little plus pop up
10:50
beside the lasso, lasso, lasso, lasso?
10:53
Select the other eye, be very
careful not to go too much
10:58
into the skin, but it's okay,
11:02
and now we've got both eyes selected.
11:05
Now you're gonna come down here
11:08
and make a new adjustment layer
11:09
with brightness and contrast.
11:12
Click on that, now if
we up that brightness
11:14
you'll see just the eyeballs
are getting brighter.
11:16
Now that's terrifying, that
straight up looks like a zombie,
11:19
if we zoom out there, unless,
11:23
if that's what you're
going for, you're done.
11:26
But not here, we're just gonna
up that just a little bit,
11:28
I don't want it to be too obvious.
11:33
If you brighten someone's
eyes up way too much,
11:34
people know and it
looks bad and it's like,
11:37
oh that guy had some fun in Photoshop.
11:39
We don't want that, we
want it to be subtle.
11:42
The more subtle edits
that we apply to this,
11:43
just the more pleasing it's
gonna end up in the end.
11:46
So I'm just bumping that a
little, right there is fine,
11:48
24 for me, I am good to go with that.
11:52
Now we're gonna make another layer again,
11:55
and what I'm gonna do with this layer
11:57
is darken those mounds in the background.
11:59
Same thing, Shift + Option + Command + N,
12:01
Shift + Option + Command + E,
12:03
I feel like I have to keep saying that
12:05
in case people are tuning
in or zoning in and out,
12:06
so I'm sorry, and I just apologized,
12:09
half because I'm Canadian,
and half because I am sorry.
12:12
But anyway, let's get back to this.
12:15
What you're gonna do, is
again, with that lasso tool,
12:18
you're just gonna draw a
line along the water line,
12:21
over his head, over the
trees, just like this,
12:24
up that border of the
photo, across the top,
12:29
and across the left side,
back down, right there.
12:33
Happy with that, now we've
got our selection here.
12:36
Same thing, adjustment
layer, Curves this time.
12:39
Now we're gonna use this curve,
12:42
and we're going to bring
down that brightness.
12:45
And we're gonna crush
it here even more too.
12:49
We've talked about making that
S curve when using curves,
12:51
but right now, I just
wanna make it darker.
12:54
But in doing so, it just
made it really blue.
12:56
And like I said, we're
trying to get rid of it
12:59
feeling like it's winter,
13:01
'cause it's the middle
of summer in this photo,
13:02
so we can change from RGB to red channel,
13:04
and then we can push more reds onto that.
13:07
Now we don't want it to look like Mars.
13:09
So we're just gonna tweak that
slightly, just a little bit.
13:12
I'm happy with that,
it's a little too purple,
13:16
it's good right about there.
13:19
Again, I'm trying to be subtle with this,
13:20
and then we're gonna close that.
13:21
Now because it's an adjustment layer,
13:23
we can hit B for our brush tool,
13:24
closed bracket to make
that a little bit smaller,
13:27
and then we can paint away
that harsh line right there.
13:30
So we're just gonna paint over that edge,
13:34
and get rid of that harsh line
13:36
because that does not look good.
13:38
And then I'm gonna drop the opacity
13:40
of this whole thing to like, 60.
13:42
Now if we hide that layer,
you'll see what's happened,
13:45
it just basically dropped the
brightness and the contrast
13:48
in the top of the mountains,
and just kind of defined them
13:51
a little more, they got lost,
13:54
and I wanted to bring
them back into focus,
13:57
and that's basically
accomplished by doing that.
13:59
Now the last thing you can do
14:03
is Shift + Option + Command + N,
14:05
Shift + Option + Command + E,
14:07
and then you can desaturate this again,
14:08
and this is just if you
want a little more contrast
14:11
and mood in this photo, which
I like to do in my shots.
14:13
But, we'll desaturate it
with Shift + Command + U,
14:16
and then I'm gonna change
that blending mode to Overlay,
14:20
like we did right before we
added the high pass filter,
14:22
but now I'm just gonna drop that opacity
14:25
to like, I don't know,
15, I'm gonna preview,
14:27
see what that does for me.
14:30
It just adds a little more
attitude, I'm happy with this.
14:32
It could just use a slight
overall bump in brightness.
14:35
So the last thing, this is the last layer
14:41
we're gonna add here, I'm
gonna add an adjustment layer
14:44
for Curves, and I'm just
gonna take the bottom here,
14:48
and bump those curves
up just a little bit.
14:52
Just ever so slightly,
14:55
not making a big deal of it, that's it.
14:58
I'm gonna select that top layer,
15:01
I'm gonna hold down Shift,
15:02
and I'm gonna click the bottom layer
15:04
right above the background,
15:05
and then I'm gonna hit Command + G,
15:07
that's gonna group all
of our edits together,
15:08
and we can double click
on that and name it edits.
15:10
And now when we look at this photo,
15:13
if we just hide this layer,
that's what we started with
15:15
after we adjusted it in
the Camera Raw plugin
15:18
now it looks like this.
15:23
So I'm gonna flatten this
image just for example's sake,
15:24
and then I'm gonna bring
in this camera edit again
15:28
so you can see it, but I'm gonna reset,
15:31
we're gonna go back to defaults,
15:33
to what it looked like, and
I'm gonna open that image.
15:34
I'm going to copy it, close that window,
15:38
and I'm gonna paste it onto this.
15:41
And that is a pretty
accurate representation
15:43
of what the photo looked like
coming out of the camera,
15:45
and what it looks like now
after we've applied our edits.
15:49
Again, this is all personal preference.
15:53
You might not like your
photos as contrasty
15:55
and as punchy, or to pop as much as this,
15:57
and that's the beauty
of being photographers
16:00
and artists and editing is
that you can make it look
16:03
however you want it to look.
16:05
And the more that you stay
consistent with that style,
16:07
the more it becomes your style,
16:10
and people start to pick
up on shots that you take
16:12
without even knowing you took them
16:15
because they say, hey, that looks a lot
16:16
like how Pete's photos look.
16:18
That's very Peter McKinnon.
16:20
And it's really cool to start
seeing your own style develop,
16:22
so, if this isn't your cup of tea,
16:24
there's no worries with that,
16:26
you can play around
with all those settings,
16:28
kind of follow the same basic steps,
16:30
and come up with something yourself
16:32
that looks pretty similar or
looks completely different.
16:33
But we went from this,
to this, and I'd say
16:37
that's a pretty nifty little
edit in not much time.
16:41
So that's it guys, thank
you so much for watching,
16:44
I really appreciate it.
16:46
If you like this video,
hit that like button,
16:47
drop me a comment below, let
me know what you thought.
16:50
I love hearing from you
guys and interacting.
16:51
And I'll see you in the next
tutorial, or the next vlog,
16:55
whichever comes first.
16:57