Digital Prints

Step 3: Edit the Image
The first thing I usually do in Photoshop is check the squareness and the cropping of the
image. In this case, there’s nothing to square it against, so I won’t worry about that.
However, I do see a little too much emptiness on the right side, so I’ll want to do some
cropping. Because I know that I can’t go back once I’ve cropped, I play it safe and create
another Save As, this time adding the word “crop” to the title.
The image’s Histogram looks pretty good; nice and full, so I don’t really need to do any
Levels or Curves adjustments. However, I’m noticing an overall red cast that’s clearly visible
in both the sidewalk outside the window and in the highlight top of the metal cheese
cutter. This was obviously caused by the incandescent lights in the shop in combination
with the daylight slide film. I confirm this by running the cursor over those areas and
watching the Info palette numbers. Sure enough—too red.
One solution is to open an adjustment layer with Levels, and using the gray eyedropper,
click on the metal cutter to make it and the rest of the image more neutral. However, I
can’t find a good spot where the image doesn’t go too green and blue, so I try a different
approach. I create a Curves adjustment layer, and in the Red channel, I pull down the end
point until the red goes away. By doing it this way, the Red goes down, but the Green and
Blue stay where they are. Figure 8.8 shows the final edited image along with the Curves
menu. Sometimes, an image like this with different light sources (shop lighting, daylight)
requires selection masks to correct such lighting issues.
I finish the editing by going over the entire image at 200% view, removing dust spots and
repairing holes and defects.
Chapter 8 ■ Making a Great Inkjet Print 263
Figure 8.8 The cropped and edited
image showing the red-reduction
Curves adjustment.