Flosse’s IT corner

A lot of times you take a picture that just has that little kick or tint missing and you cant quite put your finger on it as to how to obtain it.

Usually this means that the edges aren’t quite as defined in objects or the colors are blown out or overexposed. You can play with the contrast for hours and still not quite get it. I like to apply a standard soft-light layer to almost all of my pictures with different opacity and here I will show you how to do this very simply. As a matter of fact I even created a Photoshop Action that you can download.

Step 1: Open Photoshop.

Step 2: Open your image,the test image we will be using is this pictures of a church entrance in Bari, Italy (click to download the JPG of this in large format)

Step 3 Add a layer and fill it with black, or dark grey as you can see in this screenshot:

Step 4: Select the black layer and then the blending menu (in the above screenshot, the drop down that says “Normal”). and select SoftLight.

Step 5: Adjust the Opacity of that blending layer to 20% or to your liking ( I have it usually between 20 and 30%. The result is a subtle and almost not noticeable difference and while this Picture might not have been the best to play with it does show some of the detail in the wall now and it feels more alive then the original.

RESULT: