Cleaning Up Your Digital Image in Photoshop

After you import your digital photo and load it into Photoshop, you’ll probably want to perform some simple clean-up tasks. Making even your initial changes on a copy of the original is always a good idea so that you can return to the original photo if you change your mind or decide to make some different changes. Digital-camera photos are subject to variations in lighting conditions, whereas scanners always use the same light source that changes only very slowly as the scanner ages. Digitalcamera pictures are sometimes high in contrast or lack sharpness, two defects attributable to their sensors. Scanners, on the other hand, are subject to the vagaries of your original (bad high-contrast, off-color originals produce bad scans) but are flexible in terms of how much contrast is applied or resolution brought to bear for a given scan. You can also soften grain and minimize dust and scratches with several of the Photoshop blurring effects, including the amazing Dust & Scratches filter that looks specifically for anomalous shapes that may be photo dust bunnies in disguise.