I love taking pictures with my iPhone. I don’t even need to buy a digital camera. But images straight off the camera can often be flat, either in terms of raw lighting (especially outside) or elements being too close together to draw enough attention to the foreground. Luckily, this is usually an easy fix. Most tools offer brushes that you can paint effects onto parts of the image with, using an app called snapseed is an easier method that’s so powerful, and its makers sell the same technology as a desktop Photoshop plugin (Viveza). For more power, you need to use Photoshop itself – at least, the iPad version of it. 1. The Snapseed tool you want to use is Selective Adjust, which also includes this handy image to play with. To use it, tap the Add button to place a point on the image, like the tree. Pinch in and out and you’ll see that a flood of red covers it (with a little bleed that helps more than it might look), selecting i t for edits
2. Each control point (each image can have eight) can simultaneously control Brightness, Contrast and Saturation for its selected area. Drag up and down to pick the tool, and left and right to apply it. You can move points once placed, with the selected area changing based on what’s underneath.
3. It’s simple to add depth. If the overall image is slightly dark, seta control point or two on the foreground (such as a person’s skin and clothes) and gently crank up the brightness. Not too much, mind, or the effect will start to look unreal. Conversely, if it’s a bright image, turn down the background a little.
4. There are other ways to accomplish this. Let’s start with iPhoto’s’ Soften brush – it’s intended for details, but it’s useful here. Select the brush, and in its options choose ‘Show Strokes’ and carefully paint over the background. Set Soften to Low or Medium. This draws the eye to the sharper-focused area.
5. Another good trick involves Photoshop Touch and its Layer support. Open your image and create an Empty Layer. From the menu, add a Gradient – black to white, top to bottom. Set the Blend Mode to Overlay or multiply, and fade out the opacity until the background looks right.
6. We don’t want everything affected, though, so now select the Eraser tool. Set the brush to very, very soft and carefully paint over the foreground. When done, the foreground will pop, while the background won’t look as flat. Paint on a little blur if necessary to complete the effect.
Happy picture taking!