Were you under the impression that you could never get a good photograph off a camera phone?
Think again, and look and see what I did with this image that I took with my iPhone.
I first copied the file from my iPhone onto a folder on my hard drive.
I then opened the file in Adobe Photoshop.
First things first, lens corrections.
It's easy enough, just open the lens correction filter, select the device, the model, and
the lens, in this case, just the phone, and hit OK.
The next operation was to resize the canvas, simple enough, using the canvas size tool.
I typically use my canvases based on the golden ratio, so essentially take a dimension and
factor it by 1.618, which is the golden ratio.
Now, because this image is somewhat off-centred, I've decided to align it to the left because
it is currently right-weighted.
Now I needed to balance this image out on both sides.
Now to do this, I took a selection of the void space on each side, applied a little bit
of feathering, and then applied the content-aware scale tool.
This essentially stretches the content, but it doesn't deform it noticeably and does it
very gracefully.
So it's just a matter of creating a couple of layers on either side and balancing the
image out.
Now that we've created our void space on either side and balanced the image out, the next
order of business was to go ahead and crop the image.
This fell easy using the crop tool, and you'll notice that because on the left-hand side,
we stretched the image beyond what we normally thought we were going to have, we had a little
bit more to play with.
So it's just a matter of using the crop select tool and centering the image around the axis
of the boat.
Once done, we'd go ahead and flatten the layers.
Now I wasn't completely satisfied with the image being completely aligned with the vertical
axis of the boat, so it was just a matter of doing a free transform by selecting the
entire layer and then doing a free rotation on a free transform mode, and then cropping
the image to get rid of any void space that's created on the layer underneath.
Now that we've got a generally acceptable composition, it was just a matter of doing
a black and white point adjustment, it was just a matter of doing image adjustments, levels,
and adjusting the levels to where our blacks and whites were properly adjusted for.
At this stage, I went ahead and applied Nick ColorFX Pro to this image, and my standard
set of filters, the first thing that I went for, was the Pro Contrast tool.
I also applied a bit of a graduated neutral density filter, and the Standard Contrast
tool, and going through a couple of different operations, I got to a point where the image
appeared aesthetically pleasing to me for colors and tones.
Now it's just a matter of cropping the image, and because of the nature of the composition,
I've decided that I'm going to go with a 2 is to 1 ratio.
Once again, using the canvas size tool, I just take a dimension and scale it on a 2
is to 1 ratio, and work with it from there.
At this stage, I'm on the home stretch of finishing the image.
I applied a bit of vignetting using Nick ColorFX Pro once again.
And at this stage, this image is more or less ready, so I'm going to go ahead and flatten
the image, and save it as a JPEG.
Now as good a job as the Apple iPhone 4S does, this isn't a great image in terms of color.
But sometimes very average color prints can look pretty good when they convert it to black
and white.
And I actually find one of the best ways of converting a color image to black and white
is using a plugin called Nick SilverFX, so you see over here, and you've got a range
of different settings to choose from.
So I've gone through a range of different available options, and I've chosen the one
that appeals best to me.
And at this stage, I was ready to save the image.
First order of business was to flatten it, and then save it as a full quality JPEG image.
Now at this stage, I've done everything that I want to do with this image in Photoshop,
so I've got a head closed out of it, but I still need to clean up any noise that these
images may have, either that might have been captured when I shot the image, or that I
might have inadvertently introduced while post-processing the image in Photoshop.
Now to do this, it's just a simple matter of loading each image into a program called
Image Enomics Noiseware, and running it through one of the standard filters that's most appropriate
for it, and hitting the go button.
Noiseware cleans up the noise without significantly affecting any clarity.
Once done, it's just a matter of saving the image as a JPEG, and generally what I do is
I just overwrite the original file.
Once done, these images are all ready to be printed and published.
