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Introduction To Image Enhancement

(This is my small way of giving back to the helpful people at news:comp.graphics.apps.paint-shop-pro)
somewhere in Okinowa    somewhere in Okinowa


If you're new to Paint Shop Pro 6.02 then you're in for a treat. There are hundreds if not thousands of tutorials on how to use this wonderful program. This one is bent towards introducing tools and techniques that can be useful in fixing up poorly taken photos. For us this means either the photo needs brightness adjusting, color correction, image sharpening or over saturation in a color channel (if you don't know what over saturation is in a channel don't worry, we'll take a peek at a photo with this problem). Most photo correction problems can be solved by following this basic template:
  1. Make a Duplicate!

  2. Take a good look at the photo to see what needs to be done. Follow the steps below where warranted, though most photographs can be improved to some extent using these steps.

  3. Adjust the overall brightness of the image using a Levels Adjustment Layer (Set the Highlight and Shadow)

  4. Adjust the overall gamma (Brightness and Contrast) while in the Levels Adjustment Layer

  5. If the image has a slight color cast, while still in the Levels Adjustment Layer go into the appropriate color channel and correct the color cast.

  6. Create a Hue Saturation Luminance Adjustment Layer and increase or decrease the overall color saturation of the image.

  7. Make a selection, create a Hue Saturation Adjustment Layer to color correct individual parts of the image.

  8. Perform Steps 1-3 again if necessary

  9. Use the Clone or Retouch Tool to patch up any imperfections.

  10. Use Unsharp Mask to sharpen your image. Always sharpen last.

  11. Record your corrections in Image Information.


Now let's look at a real world example. Click the next button below and you'll see how I went from the image on the left to the image on the right above.