Phil,
Photoshop isn´t that mystical, magical or difficult, really - it´s just an image tool. I don´t claim to be an expert - I just use a few of the very effective adjustments, on both photos and card models. I perhaps use 10% of all the various adjustments in Photoshop but that will go a long way.
Try these:
Under Image/ Adjustments/ -try your hand at ONLY these three, to begin with:
• Color Balance
• Brightness / Contrast
• Saturation (do NOT use 'Hue'!)
Choose an image and pull the 'handles' to the left and right, very slowly and carefully, looking at the photo in front of you while you do it. You will see the photo gradually change.
You´ll very soon see how the complementary colors affect one another; magenta vs. green, red vs. cyan, blue vs. yellow, etc.
You can also try 'Auto Color' or 'Auto Contrast', under Image/ Adjustments - that will give you a good starting point, or reference, to work with.
Brightness also affects the contrast, and contrast affects the saturation, so you can balance all these against one another until you are perfectly happy with your photo (or model).
If you want to add some sharpness to a blurry picture (or model), try this:
Under Filters/ Sharpness/ -try the filter 'Unsharp Mask':
• Set it to ONLY 20 or 40, and apply once, looking at the photo - if you want more sharpness, apply again, and again. You can always take away what you did, under Edit/ 'Undo' or 'Step Backward', as many times as you like.
Simple as that.
Bengt :thumb:
PS. Phil!
Have a look at what I just did with a photo over here:
http://www.zealot.com/forum/showthread.php?p=886678#post886678
using ONLY the four adjustments described above - they are very powerful!
Good luck with your Photoshopping! /Bengt