Steps for Photoshop Portraits

[tug2]

Hello all!

I recently bought a D60 and have taken a few outside portraits with it. I need to work on my 420 EX fill flash over exposing things but otherwise am happy probably because I don't know what I'm doing...

After I take the photos, what are the most common steps people take in photoshop 6 besides changing the contrast, cropping, and sharpening before printing at say...SAMS...Walmart...or a professional place??

I tried changing the "Curves" but that didn't work out so well???

Any advice is appreciated,

ES

[Roger_Cavanagh]

tug,

http://www.luminous-landscape.com/tutorials/workflow1.shtml is a detailed description of workflow in PS, which may be of interest.

http://photonotes.org/articles/eos-flash/ is everything you wanted to know about flash with Canon cameras.

http://www.gurusnetwork.com/tutorials/photoshop/curves1.html tells you how to use curves.

That should be enough reading to keep you occupied for a while. :)

Things that I do a lot, but certainly not all of them on every image:

- levels adjustment, but I have PS7 and use the auto color options. Very good new addition. Bruce Fraser explains it http://www.creativepro.com/story/feature/17164.html.

- contrast adjustment uses curves (never brightness and contrast). A slight S-curve can do wonders.

- brightness adjustment using curves (again never b&c)

- colour enhancement using Fred Miranda's Digital Velvia http://www.fredmiranda.com/DV/index.html

- I've just bought Photokit http://www.pixelgenius.com/photokit/index.html, which has a bunch of stuff, but it's made me think more about dodging and burning, so I think this may become a regular part of the toolkit.

Regards,

[tug2]

Wow! Thanks for the info. I'll have a bunch of homework this weekend and some practice to follow up! Thanks for your reply...
ES