Here are a couple of tips on using Photoshop to manipulate your sculpture photographs so you can have the best images for both online and offline use.

I’ve been a graphic designer, illustrator for over 40 years – I also design and create books and their covers for folks. Along the way doing all this, I’ve learned a little about using photoshop to manipulate images.

There are a few quick tweaks you can make that will vastly improve your image without degrading the file. The steps tp do that are important to take in correct sequence.

It’s important to work your photo in high resolution (at least 300 dpi [dots-per-inch], what most printers demand for good quality prints, whether flier, brochure or book) and save it as a tif file.

It’s not really necessary to go any higher resolution than that. (The file size, if larger, is so huge that it will take a century to do any adjusting, and your computer will get tired and hungry rapidly.) I have never known any commercial printer who wanted over 300 dpi for anything, even high-quality museum images.

It’s not true that a 72-dpi jpg degrades just by opening it – that’s the myth – but when you start to mess with it – that’s when it starts to degrade.

So I always take these steps whenever I adjust any image:
1. Save a copy of the original as a tif – like, bodysurf-original.tif
2. Make a copy that’s a 300-dpi tif file, like bodysurf-front.tif
3. I work on that until I get it where I want it
4. Then I save that, like bodysurf-front-final.tif
5. Then I make a 72-dpi copy and save it as a jpg for online use, like bodysurf-front-final.jpg

6. If I have to change that jpg, I go back to the tif and change that one and save it
7. Then I create a new jpg from that and resave over the one I wanted to change.

That way I completely avoid image degradation.

All that fancy stuff to adjust an image – levels, curves, unsharp mask, etc. – can be done really simply.

First I use the Hue function to slightly adjust the colors the way I want them – key word: slightly.

Remember that what you see on your computer is NOT always what others always see on theirs! Even different browsers will give you varying colors and fonts. I was appalled recently when a friend came by last week and I saw one of my sites on his screen – it looked like – well, I won’t say! I helped him adjust his calibration and it was worlds better, but still not as it looks on mine. That’s why you want to be really careful about color adjusting.

Next you go to Image > adjustments> brightness/contrast

1. Up the brightness 2 to 3 notches if it’s a cloudy or dull image (darken if necessary, but I rarely see this)
2. Slowly adjust the contrast no more than 13 (that’s a LOT)
3. If that’s too much, hit undo and start again, doing less

You’ll find that that will not only sharpen your image considerably but give it depth you didn’t have before. Be very, very sparing, because each time you up the contrast, the pixels get averaged out and you lose actual pixels. That’s why the jagged edge artefacting happens.

I never, ever ever do any image manipulation in the jpg form – especially sharpen! – because the image can go to hell so fast. It’s not obvious until you see it on someone else’s computer, either! Darn!

In the photos below, you can see how I changed one composite image into a final that looks good for online use. Obviously I did more than adjust the sharpness and color of the piece itself, but I hope it helps you see what can be done.

I hope this has helped you – comments are open.

Image: Happy to Be Me! NZ Oamaru Stone, 12″ x 24″ x 10″ © Angela Treat Lyon 2002