Quickly Touch Up Photos with Photoshop

Make a Photo Better in 3 Steps!

Over the past couple years I have edited hundred’s of photos. Some photos require advanced editing but for the most part they just need a quick touch up. So I developed a little 3-step process to make any photo look better in a matter of seconds. This effect gives photo’s a warmer tone, sharper contrast, and a slight sepia feel. Take a look at the before and after photo demonstrating the effect.

Step 1

Open up your photo in Photoshop. Navigate to Imagine >> Adjustments >> Levels, or press Ctrl+L.
A screen like this will pop up.

You want to pull the black slider right so that it’s right before the black “moutains” start rising. Pull the white slider left until the mountains start sloping upwards again. Each photo is different so play around with the sliders until you get something that looks right. (Black slider inwards = Darker, more contrast, White slider inwards = More brightness and less contrast). See the below photo as a reference.

Step 2

Now your photo should be much better lighted and contrasted, with much of the grey tones removed.
Now Navigate to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Gradient Map. Click okay. Now in the layer panel set the blending mode on the adjustment layer you just created to “Soft Light” and change the opacity to 27%.
This should make your photo just a slight bit darker.

Step 3

Final step! Once again navigate to Layer >> New Adjustment Layer >> Gradient Map, click okay. Somewhere in your Photoshop workspace you should see this window:
If you don’t see it, click Window >> Adjustments and it should pop up. Click on the black to white gradient and a drop down box of different gradients should appear. Select the one that changes from purple to orange.
Set the blending mode to “Soft Light” and lower the opacity as desired. I usually keep the opacity for this gradient map at around 70%.

The Final Product

That’s it! It takes only 30 seconds and it can dramatically improve photos. Play around with opacity’s on the Gradient Map layers and trying different leveling slider positions to fine tune the effect. Enjoy, and always remember, you learnt it from Sean Pollock!

(Click the photo to download High Res Photo, You may use this as a wallpaper, do not remove my name.)