We know that the above image seems to be a bit confusing... We were just experimenting with Typography and came up with this crazy image. As the title says, here are a few extremely simple ways to enhance your photographs. Levels (3) and Curves(4) the most common tools in Photoshop to enhance images. Thats why we choose some uncommon yet effective tools which is the Overlay(1) and Gradient Map(2).

1. Overlay

The overlay is the simplest and the easiest way to enhance almost all kinds of photographs.

• Steps:
  • Duplicate the Layer
  • Gaussian Blur the duplicated layer (avg. range from 3 to 5)
  • Set the Layer Blending Mode to Overlay

  

  • Adjust Layer Opacity get cool results. (below images are set to 60%)

You can experiment with other Layer Blending Modes too.

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2. Gradient Map ( Black and White )

• Steps
  • Just one step ;) - Apply the Gradient Map by choosing Image > Adjustments > Gradient Map. In the samples below - Left is the actual B&W image and Right is the enhanced image

  

The gradient map doesn't restrict you only to Black & White. You could also experiment with various other sets of Gradients.

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3. Levels (Ctrl + L)

Levels are a usual tool but for those who are not aware... below are the results you can get trough Levels. ( Image(menu) > Adjustments > Levels)

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4. Curves (Ctrl + M)

Another simple tool to enhance...

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Photoshop Actions

There are lot of Photoshop actions you will find for free but we thought we could share our set too... While working on this article we were working on a few actions to enhance photography. They are not too advanced (just created them on trial basis) but we thought its worth sharing here. Below is the download: [download#17#image] And below is how you load the actions into Photoshop (sample in CS3). These were built on Photoshop CS3 and works perfect. Not sure if it works on the other versions.

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Picasa

For those who are not even aware of Photoshop, we would say Picasa is the best tool for you. Picasa (product of Google) is one of the simplest Photo Editing and Management desktop app. Below are few screen shots of Picasa: With these simple features any photographer will fall in love with Picasa

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Last but not the Least

We are Amateur Photographers (did you notice our Flickr Stream on our Footer) and this one of a reason we have put up this article... All these above tools and options are just to enhance photographs but we just want to end these last lines saying Photography is an Art and a True Photograph depends on the Camera and the Photographer... (Note: Some of the above images were randomly picked from Flickr, Thanks to the photographers.)