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For our seventh installment of Recipe Mondays, instead of using Totally Rad Actions, I am going to show you a before & after of a photo using just Photoshop CS4. I personally use Rad actions for most of my images, since they are quick & easy as well as more effective for my own workflow, but I have received a few requests asking how I would edit an image using just Photoshop. So here we go!

Here is an image from my last session in 2009, which happens to be of my brother & his wife, and I will post more from this session in the next couple of days. This is the original SOOC (straight-out-of-camera).

Since this image is tilted, here’s how I straightened it. Select All (Ctrl + A), Free Transform (Ctrl + T), use your mouse to tilt the image straight then click on the check mark to complete. Then go to “Select” and click on Deselect (Ctrl + D).

Now to lighten up Francois’ face, select the the dodge tool on the left-hand menu bar (looks like a black lollipop), and brush over the face until you get the desired lightness.

I wanted the blue to pop out more, so I used the lasso tool and feathered it at 50 pixels. I then selected everything but the background (basically just the two of them). Hold teh mouse over them two, right click and click on “layer via copy”. You will notice a layer is created in the layers panel. Select the background, and then go to the menu bar at the top, select “image” >> “adjustments” >> “color balance”. Click on “shadows” and then the three numbers up top should be -25 , 0 , +25. Click on “midtones” and the numbers up top should be -25 , 0 , 25. Click on “highlights” and the numbers should be +10 , -10 , +25. Of course you’ll slide the bars according to your own images’ likeness.

Now let’s warm up the image overall since it’s a little cool. First Flatten the image, and then go to the menu bar at the top, select “image” >> “adjustments” >> “color balance”. Click on “shadows” and then the three numbers up top should be +5 , 0 , -6. Click on “midtones” and the numbers up top should be +30 , 0 , -30. Click on “highlights” and the numbers should be +20 , 0 , -5. And again, you’ll slide the bars according to your own images’ likeness.

To create dimension, I like to darken up my edges to bring the focus to the center of the image. To do this, use the lasso tool and feather it to 200-250 pixels, in this case I feathered it to 250. Now draw inside the edges to where you would like the vignette to end and make a complete circle around the image. Hover your mouse over the couple, right click and click on “layer via copy”. Now select the background in the layers panel. Go to the menu bar at the top, click on “image” >> “adjustments” >> “levels” or (Ctrl + ) and then slide the middle bar to the right to darken the edges. In this picture I went to .62 but again, you can slide it until it reaches your taste level.

And there you have it! Here’s the before & after!

I am nowhere near being a Photoshop genius, but before I had my Rad Actions, this is how I was kickin’ it. I’m also pretty sure there are many other ways to go about doing this in Photoshop other than what I showed here. But I hope this has helped some of you even if it helped ease your fears on using Photoshop Let me know what you thought about this week’s recipe! I would love to hear what you all have to say!