Creative Media: Quality Control and Adjustments on Photoshop

 Today we were looking at quality control on Photoshop and so I chose and image to practice with.  To begin I checked the actual pixels by zooming in and visually checking how sharp and clear my image was.  I went over the whole image to check for dust and spots and blemishes.  

I then opened the clone stamp tool by right clicking on the clone stam icon and  then 'clone stamp' tool.  My menu for this tool then appeared at the top my workspace 

I then chose a blemish I wanted to remove the models face, I then clicked on ALT - and clicked on my mouse in area very close to the blemish to get the tight skin colour to clone.  I then clicked gently over blemish in 'normal' blend mode.  If that had not worked or it was too light or too dark I would have changed the blend mode for this blemish.

I continued using the clone stamp tool and did this for other areas with spots and blemishes and changed the blend mode accordingly.  I can also changed the shape and size of the brush in the top menu depending on the area.  I will always use a soft brush on portrait images.  Opacity was 100% as we were removing errors in the image.

I then went on to look at the other adjustments so I went to 'image' in the top menu and then 'adjustments'.  I went to 'curves' and the dialog box popped up.

I then gently moved the line to make the image very slightly lighter so that it popped a little when I added the to my website.  I just clicked 'ok' when I was happy with the adjustment.

I also looked at sharpness so I went to 'Filter' in the top menu then I opened 'unsharp mask' in teh drop down box and the dialog box opened. 

My image was fairly sharp but had a little softness so I very gently moved the sharpness amount from 50% to 73%.  I then looked at the radius and this the radius of pixels to 3.0 pixels and then I changed the threshold to 8 levels.

Threshold means: 'Threshold in Photoshop is an essential feature that enables users to transform images into high-contrast, black-and-white versions. By selecting a specific level as a threshold, the tool converts pixels lighter than the threshold to white and those darker to black. This powerful image adjustment can be used to enhance artistic effects, improve image clarity, or determine the lightest and darkest areas of an image.' (Martin, 2023)

I then chose another image and completed the same visual checks and used the clone stamp tool again to remove spots and blemishes.  

I then went to 'image' in the top menu and then 'adjustments' I chose to adjust the vibrance of this image as I thought I could make this pop a little more.  Therefore I clicked on 'vibrance' and in the dialog box and moved the slider until I was happy with the vibrance level at +23. I thne clicked on 'OK'

I also looked at the image in black and white as often images may look better in black and white and sometimes it is nice to see the difference particularly when thinking about images for final project.

Therefore, I clicked on 'image' and then 'adjustments' and then 'black and white'.  A dialog box then opened with range of colours that make up the black and white. I slightly adjusted tried as this will make the image slightly warmer as a black and white image. Once I was happy with the image I clicked on 'OK' to apply the changes.  The results can be seen below. 

This was just a practice.  When I have completed my final shoot I will curate my images and then I will use these quality control techniques before I complete the presentation process ready for my website. 

References

Martin, G. (2023). What Is Threshold In Photoshop? [online] PRO EDU. Available at: https://proedu.com/blogs/photoshop-skills/what-is-threshold-in-photoshop? [Accessed 29 Jan. 2025].