Make Your Photo Impressive
Skill level:

Time Required:
0 hrs 15 mins
There are various basic techniques to make your photos look impressive. We're going to demonostrate two techniques today, one by using Color Balance to change a photo's mood and another by creating Gradient Map to create a nice colour contrast.
Open the photo you want to edit or choose this photo here:

Color Balance
With this Adjustment layer, you can change your photo's color variety. Go to menu Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Color Balance

Notice how this changes the mood of the photo and how they feel differently:
Using warm colors:

Result:
Using cool colors:



Result:

Using emerald colors:



Result:

Gradient Maps:
We can also use gradient maps to create a very nice colour contrast. To start, go to menu Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Gradient Map...

Choose any gradient. I'm using black and white to create a monotone effect:

Here's the photo with the monotone gradient map applied:
Now to create the contrast, zoom into the parts you want the contrast created:
Pick the Eraser Tool
, set the foreground color to #ffffff (white) and start erasing parts of the gradient map:
Note, setting foreground to #ffffff (white) will give you the color areas setting foreground to #000000 (black) will give black and white color
You can also press 'X' as a shortcut to switch between black and white brushes.
Keep brushing on your photo and you will have something like the following result.
Result:


I created and run psd.tu-torial.com. I'm currently working as a Interaction Designer for the University of British Columbia. Feel free to connect with me on Twitter.