- 1). Adjust the contrast of your image. If lighting conditions were not ideal when shooting, such as a rainy day, your image may benefit from a slight contrast boost. Your software may have simple controls with an overall Brightness/Contrast scale, which may be enough to accomplish the task. Other programs may have more sophisticated controls that allow you to change highlights independently of shadows, or isolate and change just one value.
- 2). Consider the color cast that may be present in the image. This can take some practice for the untrained eye to detect. If the image was shot under fluorescent tube lighting, it is likely to have a green cast. Adding magenta into your image will give it a healthier look. An image shot on a cloudy day will have a blue or cyan cast, and can be perked up by adding yellow and red. Incandescent indoor lights will create a yellow cast, so adding blue will give the scene a more normal look. Play with the color-balance scales in your software so you can see what exaggerated color looks like, which will help you detect subtlety that can enhance your overall image.
- 3). Decide what the focal point of your image is, and consider cropping it. Not all photos have to stay in the standard rectangle format they were shot in. A landscape orientation could be cropped to a portrait if it benefits the composition. Are there elements in the photo that are distracting from the main attraction, such as a very bright object? Even a very slight cropping of a sky can direct the viewer to take notice of elements he may not have otherwise seen.
- 4). Make use of dodging and burning to direct the viewer's attention even more. Dodging an area means making it brighter, and burning an area darkens it. Our eyes tend to be attracted to the lightest areas of a photo, so dodge areas you want your viewer to notice. Slightly burning in areas of a photo that do not contain valuable information will subconsciously draw our eyes to other places. This does not have to be so exaggerated as a vignette, unless desired. Experiment with burning and dodging tools to find this level of subtle enhancement.
- 5). Consider whether there may be little notable color in your image, and whether it may make a better black-and-white photograph. Strong black-and-white images tend to have distinct compositional qualities such as bold shapes or striking lines. Use your software to desaturate your image to see whether it contains such strong compositional elements.
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