Software Brightening up a photo

I'm building a website for a local school and after much coaxing finally managed to get out of them a CD containing various photos of the school grounds.

Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the photos were taken on a pretty dull (typical English) day and they're a bit gloomy and the colours are a bit... flat(?) - not sure if that's the best word to use but hopefully you get what I mean.

I've got Photoshop CS2 but I'm not familiar with its photo manipulation tools. What I want to do is put a bit of colour back into the photos, make them stand out a bit more. Is this possible?

If people would like to see the photos I'm talking about I could upload them and post them here.

Thanks in advance

Sam

 

The simplest way would be use Gooogle Picasa and just move the sliders. Cheap, quick and aceptable results. But you may be looking for something a bit more profesional.

 

If the budget for the project was high enough then I would consider something more professional! I'll give Picasa a go and let you know how I get on - thanks

Sam

 

I'm not at a computer with Photoshop installed so I can't give you perfect instructions, but what I'd do is duplicate the layer containing the photo (drag it to the little page icon in the layers toolbar) first. On the top layer, add a layer mask (layer > layer mask > reveal all) and select the mask. Then use the gradient tool and do a black-to-white gradient in the mask layer with white on the area you want lightened up. You won't see anything at first other than in the thumbnail - that's normal. Then select the actual photo in the layer with the mask and go to layer > adjust > brightness (or something like that) and play with the sliders. The brightness tweaks will only effect the area that's white on the mask.

But Picasa is certainly an easier approach, albeit with much less control. A quick auto colors and auto brightness, followed by a sharpen if necessary, will produce decent results with next to no effort.

 

Sam

Difficult to say what needs doing without actually seeing an example. From what you describe sounds like an increase in contrast and saturation would useful. If you have Photoshop CS2 then open the image and try the following:

Layer/new adjsutment layer/ levels click OK on the first box to open the levels adjustement.
Move the rightmost and leftmost sliders inwards so that they are just clipping the black histogram
click OK

and again for a second levels payer
Layer/new adjsutment layer/ levels - bottom box on that dialogue - select Mode "soft light" click OK
on the levels adjustment click OK without making an adjustment.

and again for a third levels payer
Layer/new adjsutment layer/ levels - click OK on the first box to open the levels adjustement.

This time move the middle slider left to increase the brightness of the mid tones

If any of that needs fine tuning, then adjust the opacity of the relevant layer


Last step flatten the image and run USM
Layer/ flatten image
Filter/Sharpen/Unsharp mask try settings

amount = 20, radius = 50, threshold = 2

(this is not to sharpen but to make a further increase in local contrast)