Original image

Many promising photos are let down by a poor or distracting background. Anything in the distance that competes for attention will naturally draw the eye away from the subject and the impact of the shot will instantly be lost.

A common problem is shooting with your subject too close to the background. This means that anything behind the subject appears in partial focus and the subject itself doesn’t stand out. Other potential hazards include photo background distractions such as burnt-out areas, out-of-focus ‘blobs’, competing colours and unwanted intrusions, such as foliage. The good news is that they are all easily avoided. Here’s how…

Step 1: Diffuse the background
Shoot against a background that is some distance behind the subject so it’s thrown out of focus. Use a mid to long telephoto lens and shoot at a wide aperture, like f/4, to reduce depth of field and produce a diffused background.

Step 2: Check the background
Shoot against a neutral coloured background that’s uniform in tone. It’s best to avoid high-contrast or very bright backgrounds. Check around the viewfinder for obvious distractions while composing the shot and move if necessary.

Step 3: Clone out distractions
In Photoshop, select an area of the background close to the area you want to clone out and use the Clone Stamp tool  to ‘cover over’ the distraction. Use a soft-edged brush, set Opacity to around 60-80%, then build up gradually.

Final version

Before image. Note the distortion in the walls.

Do you often find leaning buildings in your architectural photos? The most likely cause of this distortion is shooting a building from too close a distance. When shooting too close, you’ll need to zoom out to a wide-angle focal length, which can result in noticeable barrel distortion, making the top, bottom and sides of a building appear to bow outwards.

You’ll also need to point the camera upwards, which accentuates perspective and makes the sides appear to lean in towards each other towards the top. The solution is to keep your distance so you can use a moderate zoom setting of around 35mm (50mm on a full frame DSLR).

For photographing tall buildings, it’s ideal if you can find a vantage point that’s higher than ground level – another building, for example. You could apply perspective correction when editing – using Photoshop Elements, for example – but you’ll lose part of the frame, so leave plenty of space around the building when shooting.

But then, we all know this isn’t always possible. For those instances when you just can’t shoot it any other way, here is how you can correct distortion on the computer using Photoshop Elements.

How to correct barrel distortion in Photoshop Elements

Step 1: Run the filter
Open your image in Photoshop Elements and make any exposure, colour and sharpening corrections. Head to the Filter pull-down menu and select the Correct Camera Distortion option.

Step 2: Remove distortion
Tick the Show Grid checkbox to make it easier to line up horizontals and verticals, then adjust the Angle control to level the horizon. Use the Remove Distortion slider to cancel out any barrel distortion.

Step 3: Perspective control
Now correct perspective errors using the Vertical Perspective or Horizontal Perspective slider. Don’t use the Edge Extension option, but crop the image afterwards as necessary.

Final image.

Red eye has long been the bane of photographers. How many times have we photographed our friends and family in a variety of social scenarios, and the flash photography leaves our pictures of people looking like demons!

Red-eye occurs when your camera uses a burst of flash to capture a decent exposure. In low-light conditions our pupils open wide so that we can see more clearly. This means that a sudden influx of light from the camera will illuminate the eyes’ interior, bouncing off the blood vessels on our retinas – and adding a sinister red glow to our subject’s eyes.

In the days before digital cameras, red-eye related prints that were sent back from the printers were often covered in Quality Control stickers, absolving the film processors of any responsibility for our flash-induced failings. In these digital days, however, red eye doesn’t have to mean wasted pictures. Red eye removal techniques abound.

Of course, for those of you wondering how to remove red eye from pictures, the best way is to use your camera’s Red-eye On/Off command. This reduces the occurrence of red eye by zapping the subject with a pre-flash before the main flash fires to capture the shot. This pre-flash cause the subject’s pupils to shrink, minimising the amount of light that enters the eye when the main flash fires.

Be aware though that the subject may think that the first flash means your photo was taken, causing them to stop posing before being caught by the main burst of flash.

But being realistic, we don’t always remember to use our Red-eye command. In which case it’s best to turn to your computer and remove red eye in Photoshop. Below we’ve shown you how to remove red eye in Photoshop Elements in 4 easy steps.

Red eye removal in Photoshop Elements

Step 1: Auto red eye removal
In theory, the quickest way to remove red-eye is to let Elements do it for you automatically. Go to the Organizer. Choose File>GetPhotosAndVideos and pick From Files and Folders. Browse to redeye_start.jpg. Tick the Automatically Fix Red Eyes box and click Get Media. In theory, Elements should be able to analyse the shot and remove any red-eye while importing it.

Step 2: Try again!
In the case of our image, our subject’s pupils are too small for Elements to identify, so despite trying it fails to remove the red-eye while importing the shot. You can try to automatically fix red-eye from within the Organizer by choosing Edit>AutoRedEyeFix – but here you’ll get a message saying ‘No red eyes were found in the selected photo’. We’ll need to give Elements a hand!

Step 3: Quick fix
Click on the little fly out icon to the right of the Organizer’s Fix tab and choose Quick Photo Edit to go to the Quick Editor suite of common photo fixing tools, including a Red Eye Removal tool. Select this from the mini Tools palette on the left. As our subject’s pupils are small, head to the Options bar and set Pupil Size to 30%. Pop Darken Amount to 60% for solid black pupils.

Step 4: In a click
Move the cursor so the Red Eye Removal tool’s crosshair floats over the first red pupil. Click to sample the red colour and the tool will alter it to black. Do the same thing to the second pupil and you’ll have manually banished the red-eye (and succeeded where Elements’ Auto features have failed!). You’ll also find the Red Eye Removal tool in the full Photoshop Elements editor.

Dull grey skies as a backdrop to your landscape shots are pretty inevitable when winter rolls around, but there’s no need to leave otherwise interesting photographs lacking some colour. This easy tutorial by the Practical Photoshop magazine team will show you how the skies in your images can be adjusted to add punch and interest by using Photoshop’s Curves and adjustment layers.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom. In this video you’ll find out how to give your shots more impact by using Colour Curves to boost colours and tones. Click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom. In this tutorial, you’ll discover how to use the Levels command to boost shadows and highlights to create a wider contrast range and improve exposure. Click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom. In this video you’ll discover how to add a traditional border to your digital photographs by using Layers in Photoshop Elements. You’ll also learn how to fine-tune your shots using a Levels layer, along with adding a layer of text. Click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom. In this video you’ll find out how to use the Correct Camera Distortion interface to remove distortion in your photographs for more realistic perspectives and angles. Click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom.
In this video you’ll find an introduction to the different selection tools in Photoshop Elements, allowing you to remove backgrounds from your photos. Find out which tools are the most appropriate for your project, including the selection marquee tool, lasso tool, magic wand, quick selection tool. Click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.

Digital Camera’s 10-part series ‘Teach Yourself Photoshop’ builds into a complete video reference library. These easy-to-follow video guides will take you on a start-to-finish journey through perfecting your photos in the digital darkroom. In this video you’ll find out how to remove noise from your photographs using Photoshop Elements when shooting at high ISOs. Learn how to use the reduce noise command to reduce luminance noise and colour noise without worrying about losing finer details. To watch more videos from this series, click the links to the right and build up the complete collection with each new issue of Digital Camera.