Photoshop: Make Everyday Photos Look More Professional

Just about every household has some sort of digital camera laying around. This makes it super simple to take snapshots of everyday events. Using this tutorial, you can make almost any photo look professional — or at least better than amateur. With this simple photo retouching process, you’ll be able  to put a professional polish on any photo you take.

We started with a regular point-and-shoot snapshot. This one was taken with a little higher-end camera. It’s a decent pic, but it could still use a lot of work.

First off, we’re going to sharpen our image just a bit using the Unsharp Mask [Filter > Sharpen > Unsharp Mask]. We’re not looking for anything too drastic, so I used some lower settings. Amount: 40%; Radius: 0.9 pixels; Threshold: 1 level. These settings will vary based on the pixel size of your image. You want enough to make a difference, but avoid any glowing or hard edges.

Now we’re going even out our colors and increase contrast by adding a Levels Adjustment layer [Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels]. When the Levels dialog opens, just click on Auto. Some people frown on the Auto Levels, but for beginners — and for the light task of sprucing up snapshots — auto levels are a time saver.

The next step involves adding a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer [Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness/Contrast]. Increase the Contrast a little bit, 10 is usually a good standard amount. If you increase it too much it will look fake.

If your photo is washed out, as ours was above, then you’ll want to add one more adjustment layer. The Hue/Saturation Adjustment layer [Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Hue/Saturation] will increase the Saturation very slightly. Usually positive 5-6 is enough.

Now you can probably already see how much of a difference these few steps have made. One of the many neat features of Photoshop CS is the Photo Filter Adjustment layer. I went ahead and added a Photo Filter Adjustment layer [Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Photo Filter], with the default Warming(85) setting. This will warm colors in the photo. It works especially well to create more natural-looking skin tones for photos taken under unnatural lights.

It’s a subtle change, but it usually makes the photo look nicer and cleaner.

You can stop now and still end up with a very nice and clean photo, or you can take it a step farther by creating Depth of Field using background blur. Professional photogs use depth of field to direct attention to the subject.

To create depth of field using Photoshop, I’m going to start by duplicating my Background Layer [Ctrl + J]. Then go to [Filter > Blur > Lens Blur]. I left the settings default, and just lowered the Radius down until I got a decent, but not too drastic blur.

Next add a Layer Mask to your blurred layer [Layer > Add Layer Mask > Reveal All] and paint the focal areas black to hide the blur. Once you’re done, you can even alter the opacity of the blurred layer to reduce the amount of the blur.

Here’s a side-by-side comparison to the original:

Just the Original:

Finished & Retouched: