This past St. Patrick’s Day I happened to witness a beautifully vibrant sunset in Langley, BC. What made it so great was the clarity of the sky and the contrasting blue and orange colors.
When I glanced outside while doing the dishes, my instincts kicked in and I grabbed my Canon Rebel T3 to try to capture what I saw. The original photographs were, to me, absolutely fine and didn’t need enhancement to begin with. But because I love to play around in Photoshop, I tried to best mother nature using Levels and Curves.
Enhancing the sunset photographs in Photoshop was pretty easy – recommended for beginners and anyone with an eye for color. It’s all about trial and error! Again, this is just from my experience as a Photoshop and photography amateur, so don’t blame me when it all goes south! Always keep a backup… I’ve learned the hard way.
- Open the landscape/sunset photograph in Photoshop
- Crop image if need be
- Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Curves
- Using trial and error, move the point on the histogram to brighten and enhance the photo’s colors
- Go to Image -> Adjustments -> Levels
- Move the black arrow to where most of the black starts on the left
- Move the white arrow to where most of the white part starts on the right
- Save!
