Photoshop Tutorial

I have had a few people ask me about photographing their craft items for sale and I have promised I would do a little tutorial to show how I adjust my photos.  it is by no means a definitive tutorial and how you like your photos is a lot down to taste, but I think this tutorial would give you a photo that is acceptable for showing off your work, it looks professional and might just give you that extra edge when selling your items.  To see the image larger just click on it.  Hopefully I have made it fairly simple, please do leave a comment and let me know what you think.  Useful?

Step 1:
Open your photo in Photoshop:

Step 2:

Next lighten your image by clicking on image - adjustments - curves,

Step 3:

A box will appear with a diagonal line across it, click and drag the line at the top and bottom to suit your taste for the photo, I like to create a smooth S shape with my curve.

Step 4:

Next I like to slightly adjust the colours, my camera tends to take the photos with a slightly blue tone even when adjusting the white balance so I click on image - adjustments - colour balance.

Step 5:

Adjust the colours to suit your taste by dragging the little scroll bars, I select +10 red, -10 magenta and -25 yellow.  This gives the image a nice warm glow. 

Step 6:

Crop the image by highlighting the area you want with the marquee tool. The choose image - crop.

Step 8:

Next I like to lighten specific areas of the photo.  To do this I choose the dodge tool from the menu on the left hand side, (it's the one that looks like a magnifying glass coloured in black).  I then choose the size I want to be able to lighten a fairly large area at one time.  I also select a soft edged brush.

Change the options for the dodge tool to "shadows" and an exposure of about 8%. This means it won't lighten too much at once, and gives you more control.

And here is your final image:

Check out before and after!

Hope everyone is having a great week, don't forget, I really love your comments!