How to edit photos professionally & quickly with Photoshop?

I am really new to photography. How do I do this? Steps and instructions would be nice :)





Much love and thanks!!How to edit photos professionally %26amp; quickly with Photoshop?
Hi there,





I did a series of basic Photoshop video tips for the company I work for. These are the same steps that we use in our fine art printmaking so hopefully they'll get you going in the right direction. The overall gist:





1. Use adjustment layers鈥nything else is hard to undo鈥ou'll be bummed when you have to redo everything because you don't like a change you made.





2. Make adjustments to lightness, darkness and contrast first. These elements effect color, so if you adjust color first you'll be running around in circles.





3. Work overall, then you can use tools like the lasso tool to make adjustments in specific areas (like the sky or just under the eyes of your subject).





4. Take it easy! The most common pitfall of for beginning printmakers is making too many changes and making those changes too dramatically. If you start to make a lot of drastic changes it's likely that your shot wasn't good enough to begin with and you're trying to rescue it. It's a good sign that you need to reshoot. (Note: it's also possible that you're looking to make a big departure from your original capture for expressive purposes鈥n which case this doesn't apply as much).





Hope this helps. Feel free to drop me a line if you need a little more info. Good luck!





Melanie Crutchfield





One more note鈥hotoace is right that you need to calibrate your monitor if you get serious. If you find that you're getting frustrated because your screen doesn't match your prints that's a very likely culprit.How to edit photos professionally %26amp; quickly with Photoshop?
The goal in photography is to produce perfect images in the camera using composition and the skills necessary to produce perfectly exposed images with out any ';editing'; necessary. Editing used to mean sorting ... picking the best of the images and placing them in a 20 image plastic sleeve or with digital images, placing them in a special ';edited'; file folder.





Now it seems that new users of digital cameras use editing to describe photo manipulation or ';fixing'; mistakes made in the camera. It is too bad the the definitions of traditional terms used in photography for over a century have become so misused.





So to your question.





After you have sorted your images, the best pictures might need a little tweaking. You can (only if your computers monitor is correctly calibrated):





* use the level tool to fine tune the black threshold, white threshold and mid-tones to your liking.


* process the corresponding RAW image files


* resize images for posting websites and attaching to email (remember to rename the new resized file so you do not overwrite your original)


* convert to a black and white image using the satruattion tool adjusted to -100 and the level tool to fine tune the image


* create an XMP file with your copyright notice, contact information, subject data and key words.


* batch append all your image files from individual shoots using Bridge and the corresponding XMP file





This all takes time to learn, actual image manipulation can take many years to learn. Usually taking a few class in Photoshop is a good idea if you are going to become a post production or pre-press wizard instead of or in addition to becoming a photographer.
open your photo in photoshop and do general run thrus on fixes till you can see what you like, then learn more about the tools you use in photoshop for fixes,,, generally with photo open, click IMAGE, ADJUST, then choose the AUTO commands, you then can see what they do to pics, also under adjust is where you find most useful tools for photos, then last go to FILTER, SHARPEN, and chosse AUTO, let the program do most of it as it will choose the best settings,,, after look for tutorials on fixing photos on the net to teach you this suff,,,,


photoshop is the best program but it is so big, it is hard to be general in discussing it, find tutorials is best
Define what you mean by ';edit';.


At it's most simple it could be a simple levels adjustment - taking about 20 seconds.


Or it could be a complicated manipulation which could take hours or even days.





There are hundreds of books on the subject and ';steps and instructions'; on here would be rather pointless if it was not you wanted to know.
Other than some VERY simple tweaks, professional work done on high end photographic images take time.





If it were an ';easy'; fix, the photographer would make the image ';right'; at the time the shot was taken. A few seconds preparation behind the lens saves a LOT of time working in Photoshop.
';Edit'; is a broad term.





Read the Photoshop tutorial. Experiment. Phototshop is a extensve program and you will not learn it quickly.
Its an impossible question to answer as the picture itself determines what I do with it in PS.





Are you talking colour or B%26amp;W? Portrait or landscape? Jpeg or Raw?





Chris