22 Professional Photoshop Image Enhancing Tutorials
Adobe Photoshop is the premier tool for digital artists when it comes to professionally enhancing images. Whether you’re a beginner just learning the ropes or an advanced user looking for unique techniques to add to your Photoshop arsenal, you’ll find some tutorials here that you’ll surely want to bookmark.
In this article, you’ll discover plenty of tutorials that deal with enhancing images, adding unique and impressive effects, and recreating digital replications of popular traditional photography techniques.
1. Cross Processing
You can learn how to apply the Cross Processing film-developing technique digitally to your images by reading through this quick and educational tutorial that leverages the powers of the Curves tool in Photoshop.
2. Lomo Photography
Take your ordinary digital photos and simulate the Lomo Photography effect (also known as Lomography) that will apply a dreamy and surreal effect onto your images in this tutorial that uses a Levels Adjustment layer among other Photoshop techniques.
3. HDR Photo Effect
Create a pseudo-HDR image by reading through this popular Photoshop tutorial that uses basic Photoshop tools, options, and techniques such as adjusting Shadows/Highlight settings and changing layer Blending modes.
4. Gritty Effect
Improve your photos with a dramatic gritty bronze effect to make them truly pop though the techniques discussed in this Photoshop tutorial. The tutorial uses a combination of techniques including the utilization of a Curves Adjustment layer.
5. Dave Hill Look Photo Effect
This simple but impressive tutorial takes inspiration from Dave Hill’s unique photography work to create stunning HDR-like renditions of ordinary photographs using a combination of techniques that involves the Unsharp Mask in Photoshop.
6. Soft Focus Photography
Learn about an image-enhancing technique that you can easily apply onto your images by reading through this handy Photoshop tutorial from photoshoptalent.com that uses a Color Balance adjustment layer as well as other Photoshop options and techniques.
7. Movie Photo Effect
By following along this Photoshop tutorial, even the plainest photos can embody a stylish Hollywood film look-and-feel. The technique involves a few Image Adjustment (Image > Adjustment) options like tweaking Exposure and Hue/Saturation settings.
8. Extreme Contrast Photo Effect
In this Adobe Photoshop tutorial, you will learn how to add some noise, how to take advantage of Photoshop’s sharpening tools, and how to add a simple Adjustment layer to give a photo an "extreme contrast" effect.
9. Infrared Photo Effect
The infrared photo effect can be a unique and stunning way to create one-of-a-kind photos. Learn how to simulate this photography technique digitally through this helpful Photoshop tutorial that takes advantage of Photoshop’s Channel palette.
10. Soft Focus & Glow Effect
Do you want to change a plain and boring scene into a dreamy and surreal photo? If so – check out this wonderful tutorial on applying a soft focus and glow effect onto your photos using the Gaussian Blur filter and adjusting layer Blending modes.
11. High Pass Filter
In this straightforward image-editing tutorial, you will learn a quick technique for enhancing your images to give them a subtle HDR effect by using Photoshop’s handy High Pass filter and adjusting layer Blending modes.
12. Vintage Photo Effect
Renowned graphic/web designer Veerle Pieters discusses a method for putting on a vintage photography effect on images in this tutorial that uses a few techniques like adding a Brightness/Contrast Adjustment layer and utilization of Smart Filters.
13. Split Toning Black & White Effect
Learn to apply the split toning (a variance of sepia toning) photography effect which takes ordinary photos to produce a vintage-style photo effect. This tutorial uses several Photoshop options like adding a Color Balance Adjustment layer and the Channel Mixer.
14. Change Hair Color Tutorial
If you want to add a bit of spice in your photos – one way to do so would be to change the subject’s hair color. Learn about a method for coloring hair in this tutorial that shows where Photoshop’s notoriety for digital manipulation comes from.
15. Coloring Effect Tutorial
In this quick and simple Photoshop tutorial, you will get a chance to discover some methods for coloring your images using a few tools and options such Adjustment layers, modifying Blending modes, and the Blur filter.
16. Light Effects
Enhance your images by adding a few cool lighting effects; learn how in this Photoshop tutorial. The tutorial uses various Photoshop tools such as the Gradient tool and taking advantage of the Pattern Overlay layer style.
17. Snow Photo Effect
Add some weather into your photos by viewing this tutorial that teaches its readers how to add falling snow onto a photograph. The tutorial adds in the snow by using the Add Noise Photoshop filter, blurring it, and overlaying it onto the image’s layer.
18. Streams Of Dusty Light
This interesting Photoshop tutorial shows you how to add a surreal stream of light to make your photos truly unique and eye grabbing. The tutorial leans on the Radial Blur filter to create the streams of light.
19. Photo Color Correction
If you have an image that you would like to correct for color, Photoshop is here to help! Read this PSDTUTS tutorial in order to learn about one of Photoshop’s strongest tools: the Curves Adjustment tool.
20. Enhance Skin Tutorial
In this Photoshop photo-editing tutorial, you’ll come across a process for effectively improving your subject’s skin. One of the Photoshop tools you’ll be encountering in the tutorial is the Healing Brush tool.
21. Gaussian Blur
Using the Gaussian Blur filter on images can result in unique photo scenes. If you’d like to know how you could use this Photoshop filter in a manner that enhances your photos, you should read this excellent tutorial.
22. Tilt-Shift Miniature Fake Technique
If want to use the Tilt Shift photography technique without spending boatloads of cash in purchasing the equipment to do so, read through this helpful tutorial on how to fake the popular technique.
Have a good Photoshop tutorial to add to the mix?
The comment section is a great place to find other resources that didn’t make the cut. If you know of a good image-editing tutorial that we somehow missed – share it with all of us in the comments!
*Edited by: Jacob Gube
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66 Comments
Simon
May 1st, 2009
What a great selection of tuts.
Stumbled and will be linked on my blog, cheers.
JJ
May 1st, 2009
Very nice post. The tutorials listed are actually useful and good quality.
Tiffany
May 1st, 2009
Awesome collection, thanks!
woooow
May 1st, 2009
All of these tutorials are drawing on actual photographic practices and techniques, and every single one of them is simulating it horribly. Honestly, if you want effects like these, learn how to take pictures, and once you do that you will realize how idiotic and gimmicky they all are.
basibanget
May 1st, 2009
these are old stuffs
tyler
May 1st, 2009
These are some fresh new looks on photoshop. thanks for posting Tomas.
Mark Mitchell
May 2nd, 2009
Wow-What a great roundup of effects. Really great for designers who are not “photographers” using Photoshop in that corrective way. As a designer I have been looking for a good resource to up my image enhancing tool set. Thanks Great post.
John "Sam" Osborne
May 2nd, 2009
These are some very useful tutorials for those without the photographic equipment, knowledge, or expertise. Also, should you need images in a certain manner to be consistent with what you’re working on, this goes great strides.
Interestingly, “woooow,” if you look at the very top of this page, you’ll see this is a site subtitled: “Useful Information for Web Developers & Designers.” This is not a site for photography experts or specialists. The article serves its community and purpose.
Macs
May 2nd, 2009
These are great effects. i have two question if some one can answer. are there any plugins and can those plugin work with photoshop8
Thanks in advance
Michael Struwig
May 2nd, 2009
I’m extremely glad you posted this list, the information available on these tutorials are a serious boost in both skill and confidence for designer who are just starting out – or simply doing graphic design for a hobby.
Great selection.
-Michael.
Phil
May 2nd, 2009
Great advice! thanks!
Jim Gaudet
May 2nd, 2009
Wow, I need to create a section of bookmarks just for SR…
Masroor Gilani
May 2nd, 2009
Really impressive. I have not yet used shop but several of my colleagues use it daily for their news and professional fashion photography. I am going to post the URL to them and I know how excited they will be.
Brandon M. Sergent
May 2nd, 2009
@woooow
Not everyone can afford a 2000$ camera dick. Run along now.
BG
May 2nd, 2009
Most of these effects are much easier with Picnik, just press a button!
Jacob Gube
May 2nd, 2009
@John “Sam” Osborne: Being an amateur photographer myself, I can say you’re right on the money with that one. A lot of developers/designers like photography and arts but it’s just a hobby for us that compliments our true professions (see the Freebies section to see what I mean). I know Chris Coyier from CSS-tricks and Kawsar Ali from Desizn Tech, like me, take pictures – but it’s not our expertise. I thought this would be an interesting post to have because I’m almost positive a lot of you guys and gals like photography as well, or take inspiration from it, in your design work.
Sure it’s not the real thing as blowing a ton of cash on Tilt-Shift lenses that have a very narrow and specified use or investing in a wet room to achieve split toning, but at the same time, you can come up with decent effects using just Photoshop.
Franky
May 2nd, 2009
Absolutely Amazing. Thanks sooooo much. This is awesome!
Tukang Nggame
May 3rd, 2009
Nice post, i love Cross Processing tutorial
Raj
May 3rd, 2009
I like, thanks!
Arijit Mondal
May 3rd, 2009
Very helpful content for photographers.
Callum Chapman
May 3rd, 2009
Some lovely photo effects! It’s amazing how a simple photo (such as the photo used in the movie photo effect) can be transformed in to, well, a piece of art.
I agree it’s not the same as blowing (more than) a ton of cash on different lenses, but unless you have a few thousand quid laying around this is deffo the way forward!
Thanks for everything!
Stumbler
May 3rd, 2009
Those are so totally ’shopped. Seriously dude, check out the pixels.
Seth
May 4th, 2009
This could be summed as “22 examples of photoshop effects that can look great, but don’t in these samples.”
None of these are believable or done with enough finesse to impress. Sorry to be negative. I just get tired of everyone using the same handful of generic effects. This is why 99% of digital photography has no personality.
Jenny-Lynn
May 4th, 2009
I second the picnic comment.
They’re amazing at one click filters AND tie in to many social media sites.
http://www.picnik.com/
HotPress Web
May 4th, 2009
Great stuff here. Thanks for the well thought out post.
Claire Web
May 5th, 2009
I think one of the hardest things on photography is making a bad photo look good. It is easy to make an already amazing photo look so much better, but it is a challenge to create a great image out of a not so great image. The demonstrations above are some great examples of doing both. But actually adding old processing effects look cool as well. I am a web designer by day, and generally if i get the time i like my photography, especially the editing in photoshop :).
Jake
May 7th, 2009
Maybe if people learned to take decent images with their cameras they wouldn’t have to rely on lame Photoshop tutorials. The only decent one would be the tilt-shift effect, because spending $1500+ on a tilt-shift lens is a little silly for most people.
timekeeping software
May 14th, 2009
The soft focus effect makes me want to vomit.
arfan rashid
May 14th, 2009
great Job you done.
teuingsaha
May 15th, 2009
thanks 4 sharing
dinesh gour
May 15th, 2009
great work buddy!!!
Shubho
May 16th, 2009
Cross-processing & Tilt-shift rocks! Loved the rest of them as well. Very good collection of tutes! Thanks a bunch!
baloot
May 21st, 2009
hello, this is my first visit at ur blog. nice to noe u mate.
i would like to thanks to you for this helpful photoshop tutorial.
i will subscribe to ur blog rss feed. im newbie in photoshop.
cheers!
p/s: im from malaysia, did u noe where it is located? lol
e11world
May 21st, 2009
Nice list. I actually learned many tricks that will really help me in the project I’m working on currently (CD Album)
666
May 22nd, 2009
Meh. Some look better unaltered. Very amiture.
memoriesbygin
May 22nd, 2009
GREAT tips! I’ll be back to learn more!
Thanks
Ferhad
May 24th, 2009
Good tutorials. Thanks.
honour chick
May 28th, 2009
all excellent tutorials… very useful. thanks for posting another great blog entry ;)
t
May 30th, 2009
Really, really great tutorials. Thanks a lot!
frank irvine
June 5th, 2009
Gosh it’s amazing what can be achieved with the right knowledge&tools.
Nice reading!
Cheers.
Charles
June 8th, 2009
Cool tutorials! I have used many of these for a number of projects. Thanks! :P
riot
June 8th, 2009
just great! gets linked on my blog
jb
June 11th, 2009
Soft Focus Photography link no work :(
Pam
June 13th, 2009
Great collection – am excited to actually use some of these techniques!
Amanda
June 14th, 2009
Sometimes I am shocked by how snobby and rude photographers are. What is wrong with learning how to edit a picture to look the way we want?
I am in photography classes at the local college and have realized that even though I love to do it, I really have no talet for it, and need all the help I can get.
I for one thank you for these great techniques… although some are no longer available, you might want to update links… and would love to see more!
Thank you!
God bless-
Amanda
Melanie
June 15th, 2009
Awesome collection of tutorials. Definitely bookmarking this page!
Kalifbanane
June 16th, 2009
thanks for your effort to collect some tutorials.
but it really dont deserve the term “professional” at all. not a single one of the tutorials will be usefull in any professinal way. they are nice and entertaining tutorials to play around in photoshop and get warm with the program.
Tony Lee
June 17th, 2009
Awesome examples of using Photoshop features! As a guy with with limited imagination, this sparks some great ideas…
Thanks a bunch!
Fantasy Lover
June 25th, 2009
I like the Dusty Lights Stream Surreal kind of effect. :]
it is cool!
rian flynn
June 28th, 2009
Most of these look the same!
Bopfan
July 1st, 2009
reminds me of those cheesy screw-on filter attachments from back in the 70’s. There used to be an ad in the back of Modern Photography with numerous wacky ‘filters’ that would enhance your photograph. Prism effects, sepia, fog, cross stars etc. Gee now you can do it with Photoshop. The more things change the more they stay the same.
room8888
July 7th, 2009
Great & useful article. Thx.
Allen
August 5th, 2009
Great techniques. I am thinking of trying a few of these later.
TheJoe
August 8th, 2009
not all the tuturials work..
check em all!
M D
August 28th, 2009
I know a guy who adjusts his sliders a little here and there, and everyone thinks he’s an amazing photographer. Without Photoshop he’d be lost! Using lighting is a lost ‘technique’.
robb
September 5th, 2009
#2 lomo is the most posted tutorial i’ve ever seen.
fortunately, it’s a good one.
RaDe
September 11th, 2009
Really Cool selection )
Ashely Adams
September 17th, 2009
dusty light effect and vintage effect were real eye openers. had been doing these effects with much difficulty previously. your tutorial made it easy. Thanks!
Johnson Koh
September 21st, 2009
Pretty cool effects here. Love that hair color tutorial!
Fresh
October 11th, 2009
Amazing tutorials. Thanks so much! However, the Light Effects link doesn’t work :(
Anders
October 16th, 2009
Wow, great list of photography tutorials!
Frank
October 19th, 2009
Wow thanks – really amazing some of them. Bookmarked!
Vitero
October 25th, 2009
ye gods those are terrible! It’s like sending pictures through a sausage grinder
Chris Countey
November 5th, 2009
Getting some 404’s on some of the articles, but the ones that work are great! I’ve been using Photoshop for over 10 years, so it’s great to see new stuff still popping up. Great job.
Photoman
February 4th, 2010
Great links thanks, Just ignore those sour photographers. They are just mad that they spent so much money on equipment and you are being shown how to do it for free ;)
Genuine Youth
February 17th, 2010
Lots of opinionated and UNEDUCATED comments on this. I have used the “streams of dusty light” in many of the magazine ads I design for work. We get complements on them from our industry EVERY time. If used in the right context correctly, these effects can and will make a designed piece more interesting. It would be impossible to use a camera for what I need to create.
It’s not just about photography! I use some of these effects to create a background for a pre-made image we are required to use – not photographic enhancement. This completely illustrates how uncreative and ignorant people are. Think outside the box for once!!!
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