Photoshop Tip

I’m in the midst of work on a memoir. In addition to the writing, the job involves both layout (for a printed hardback version) and retouching/enhancing some old photographs.

Anyway, thought I would pause to share a Photoshop trick that has proven handy on assignments such as these.

If you are at all interested in straying from the long “identifiers” in photo captions, listen up. These few simple steps (using CS3) will teach you how to highlight a single face in a group photograph.

1. With your photograph imported and open in Photoshop, find the elliptical marquee tool (left hand toolbar, second from the top). You might need to right click to find it. The default setting typically shows the rectangular marquee tool.
2. Click on the tool. Find the face in the photograph you want to highlight. Left click as you draw an oval over the face. Use your arrow keys to center appropriately.
3. Click “select” on the drop down menu at the top of the screen. Scroll down and click on “inverse.”
4. Go back to the drop down menu, click on “image,” scroll down to “adjustments” and click on “curves.”
5. Use your curser to pull down the line in the middle of the graph (as you view the photo). We you start to see the face popping (IE: the head will stay light and everything around it will get darker) stop and hit “ok.”
6. Go to the drop down menu again, click on “select,” scroll down and click on “deselect.”
7. Save and you are finished! Here is an example of how it might look. Enjoy the new trick!