The popularity of Photoshop among professional designers easily makes it the digital imaging industry standard. The idea that it is, in essence, a brand name that has crossed grammatical barriers makes it a true cultural phenomenon. However, don’t let all this grandeur get in your way if you are an amateur photographers. Photoshop is a powerful tool for anyone who simply wants to make their personal photo collection look better.

Opening Photos with Photoshop I recommend opening Photoshop and becoming familiar with the desktop environment before trying to figure out how to get your photo in there. If your photos are already in a digital format (i.e. taken with a digital camera), you can transfer them to your computer using the USB lead that came with your camera. If your photos are actual prints you can still edit them with Photoshop! To get them into your computer you will need to use a scanner to scan the photos onto your desktop. When you finally have your photos in your computer, I recommend grouping them in a folder. To make it easy to find later call the folder something simple like “Original Photos” and place it on your desktop. If you click on the closed folder and press your CTRL button and drag you will make a copy of the folder; it is important to work with a copy of your pictures. You can right click on the new folder and rename it “Edited Photos.” Working with duplicate photos enables you to always have an original copy of your photo to go back to, just in case you make an editing mistake. To add your photo to Photoshop you will first need to open your Photoshop program by double-clicking on the icon. Next click on the File menu and select open. Navigate to your “Edited Photos” folder and double click on a photo. Now you’re ready to begin!

Adjust Levels in Your Photos I always recommend you check your photo’s color levels prior to editing. Colors tend to not look quite right when photos are backlit, lit poorly, or overexposed. Sometimes the problem is obvious, yet at other times it’s hard to tell, so I always recommend checking your photo’s levels. Adjusting the colors as your first step will help you make the colors in your photos look their best for later editing. To adjust the levels in your picture click on Edit in the menu bar. Move your mouse to Adjustments > in the drop-down menu and leave the cursor there for a second. In the sub-menu that pops up, choose Auto Levels.

Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. Alternatively, you can press Shift + Apple + L on a Mac or CTRL + L on a PC to use the Auto Levels function. You should notice a change in the appearance of your photo. If you don’t see a noticeable difference, it’s okay. It just means your photo looked good right from the start.

Reduce Red Eye in Your Photos Everyone has become a victim to the curse of red eyes in our photos. More photos have been ruined with red eye than silly expressions, closed eyes, and blurred photos combined. Thankfully getting rid of red eye is a snap with Photoshop. To fix red eye we will need to use the Layers Palette. You should be able to find the Layers Palette in the lower right hand corner of the window when you open Photoshop. If you do not see the Layers Palette you can find it by clicking on “Windows” in the menu bar, scroll to Layers, and double check that Layers has a check mark next to it. If it doesn’t, click it once and the Layers palette will appear. Once you have found the layers palette you need to find the adjustment layer button. This button can be found at the bottom of the window. It has a half-black, half-white circle and when you move your mouse over it should have a pop-up box that says “Create new fill or adjustment layer”. To activate it, click on the adjustment layer button. A sub-menu should come up and you will want to select Channel Mixer. Now, a window with the words Channel Mixer should open. To fix the red eye you will want to set the Red slider to 0%, and the Blue and Green sliders to 50%. Once you have done this click OK. You may wonder why the people in the photos look like bluish-gray-skinned phantoms, don’t be alarmed! You haven’t messed anything up, they’re supposed to! You will soon fix this so they look like their regular people again. Set the foreground color to black at the bottom of the toolbar. In the toolbar, select the brush tool. Now, depending on the size of the photos, the red eyes might be too difficult to see; return to the toolbar and select the zoom tool (magnifying glass with a +). Clicking on the eyes with your mouse will zoom in on them. Once you have zoomed in enough so you feel you can comfortably work on the eyes you will need to select the brush tool again. Once again return to the Layers palette. Now you should see a Background layer and a layer called Channel Mixer 1. Select the layer Channel Mixer 1 by clicking it once. Now you can use the brush tool again to paint the parts of the eyes that had appeared red. They should turn red again. Return to the top of your screen click on the Image menu. Just like we did earlier you will need to move your mouse over Adjustments in the drop down menu. Select Invert in the sub-menu that comes up on the right. Tada we fixed the red eye! After all that hard work you definitely want to save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows. You may still see a red ring around the newly-fixed eyes; don’t worry, we can fix that too. You first want to make sure the Channel Mixer 1 layer is selected (click it once). In the main toolbar, make sure the foreground color is set to white. Since it was set to black a second ago, you will have to change it. Again, using the the paintbrush tool from the toolbar, carefully paint the red ring. As you paint you should see the color change to the correct eye color. At the top of the screen, in the menu bar, click Layer. Click on Flatten Image at the bottom of the menu. Save your work by hitting Apple + S in Mac OS X or CTRL + S in Windows.