Several versions of Adobe's Photoshop software are available for purchase, with all packages offering basic tools for optimizing photos in a user's personal library. Depending on the customer's budget and needs, users can choose between the CS4, Lightroom 2, and Elements 7 families, with the Elements version being the cheapest and most basic tool recommended for optimizing photos.
Today, with increasing storage options no longer limiting the availability of space for high quality images, it is recommended that photographers take shots at the highest resolution available. An image's "resolution" simply refers to the number of pixels it contains, and corresponds to how many columns and rows of pixels that a camera will squeeze into the photo. The more pixels it contains, the higher quality image it produces.
Using Tools and Tool Options
The Photoshop Toolbar offers a seemingly bottomless pit of unique features necessary to edit and optimize images for presentation. While this tutorial specifically refers to the Zoom and Crop functions only, other tools allow users to paint, erase, make selections, add text, and blur images, among numerous other features.
To ensure that the Photoshop Tools and Tool Options are visible on the screen, click on the Window menu and confirm that they are both checked. Then, hover the mouse curser over each individual tool in the Photoshop Toolbar to learn its name or function.
Next, go to the Aspect Ratio setting in the Tool Options and set it to the size of the paper being used to print the photograph. This will bind the Crop tool to a specific aspect ratio and alter the image's print resolution accordingly once a crop has been applied.
Viewing and Cropping Images
When a digital photo is opened in Photoshop, its high resolution, or size, can make it difficult to edit if viewed at 100% magnification. The software normally opens images at a reduced magnification so the user can see the entire image, but the Zoom tool can also be used to increase or decrease an image's size on screen.
To incrementally zoom in on an image, simply select the Zoom tool and click on the photo, and to zoom back out, hold down the 'alt' or 'option' key and click the photo again. Another way to magnify an image is to click the bottom left corner of the image and enter a numerical value between 1 and 100.
Once the entire image is visible on screen, Photoshop's crop tool allows users to cut unwanted space from an image, and also helps to align subjects so they fit properly within the photo's frame or canvas. To use the tool, select it on the toolbar and click where the image should start, dragging a box over the area that should remain within the photo. If the selection is unsatisfactory, simply hit the 'esc' key and try again.
Editing and Enhancing Images
Under the Enhance menu, Photoshop offers useful tools to address problems with lighting, color balance, color saturation, and contrast. While it allows users to address each of these phenomena manually, it also offers a tool to analyze and correct them automatically, dubbed "Auto Smart Fix." Under normal circumstances, this tool should be sufficient to improve the overall quality of a photo, but Adobe offers useful tutorials on these and other features if further information is required.
Another useful tool is the Auto Red Eye Fix, which uses face recognition technology to pinpoint a person's eyes and correct the phenomenon of light from a flash reflecting off the retina and back at the camera when a photo is taken. Appropriately named, the enhancement tool works well, but sometimes depends on the red eye's severity. It can be an excellent alternative to magnifying a photo and manually painting over the imperfection with the brush tool.
Printing a High Quality Photo
Printing the highest quality photo possible depends on several factors including image size, print resolution, and paper size. Fortunately, Photoshop does the complicated math involved in determining the best outcome based on the the aspect ratio setting made earlier in the Tools Option menu.
While it should not be necessary to alter the image's print resolution further, increasing it might sometimes result in a higher quality photo. If necessary, select the Resize and Image Size options under the Image menu, and increase the Document Size Resolution based on basic print resolution standards, also ensuring the Resample Image box is selected.
Finally, with the printer connected and photo paper loaded properly, select Page Setup from the File menu, ensuring the printer format, paper size, orientation, and scale are set properly. Then, select Print from the file menu, choosing your printer and actual print size in the Photoshop print options, and hit the Print button once complete.
Photoshop users can address issues in their digital photos by utilzing the editing and enhancement tools available in the software. By taking advantage of tools that correct problems concerning light discrepancies, color imbalance, color saturation, bad contrast, poor positioning, and red-eye, they can easily print high quality photos using a desktop printer.
Benjamin Poyant - Ben has formal training in electronic news gathering, digital sound recording, computer-based music production, and audio post-production ...
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