enhancing photo effect 2.

I noticed that a lot of people like to change the brightness and the contrast with every single photo they have, and most of the time, as much as they can, until every single detail is lost on their faces. There are, in fact, other ways of modifying your photos, and they are not difficult - not at all. It takes less than 5 minutes when you become familiar with these steps. On this page I will teach you how to let yourself stand out in a photo, and how to bring up the brightness and contrast without losing the colors and other elements you might want to keep on a picture. Below is an example of a photo I chose at random to modify. The one on the left is the original, the middle being an example of a normal "increased brightness/contrast" photo, and the right-most one illustrates a photo modified using this tutorial. Please click to enlarge.

1) Choose a photo you want to modify. If your picture appears to be very dim, you can turn the contrast or the brightness up a little bit, until the brightness equals to a photo took under good lighting conditions, but this step can be omitted if you wish. Then right click on your first layer and select "Duplicate layer". You should now make modifications on your duplicated layer.

2) To make a photo look good, it is very important to ensure that the object of the photo is perfectly focused, and the colors being kept or even enhanced. In order to achieve a perfect focus on the object (in this case, a person), you can make the background less focused. On your photo, select the Polygonal Lasso Tool.

3) Use the tool to outline your background, like the following example shows. Try to be as precise as possible. When you touch the start of the line, it will join together to form a dotted and sparkling line.

4) When that happens, go to Filter > Blur > Motion Blur. You can choose Gaussian Blur if you want...but personally, I think that motion blur at this point will look better.

5) Then, choose any angle you might want it to look, but it doesn't really make a big difference, because we are going to blur it again many times later.

6) Click OK after you have chosen how you want it to be blurred. Your dotted lines will still be there. Do not let them disappear by clicking at some other places. Drag it down by a very small proportion. But before you drag it down, create a New layer in your layer box.

7) This step is to slowly draw the focus onto the object. When you have dragged it down a little bit, blur it again. Before you blur it, select the first layer. Then go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur. Blur it by about 3.5 to 4.5 pixels.

8) When you have blurred it, select the empty Layer, drag the dotted thing down by a little bit and then Gaussian Blur it again. Repeat it about two or three times. When you're done, right click the empty layer and delete it.

9) Now duplicate the existing (and only) layer with your modified photo. On this duplicated layer, go to Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur again. Select a value of about 4-5 pixels. When you have done that, select the Layer options - choose overlay.

10) If there is any particular thing that you think has lost its original appearance due to the Gaussian Blur on Step 9, then you can follow the next step to change that. Otherwise, you're done! So, if you want to retrieve a certain thing, such as the fluffy cushion on my photo, then on this duplicated layer, use the eraser tool to erase that bit.

Then you're done!