editing photos.....

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I've mentioned this before, but it makes such a difference when it works......

I first read about this on The Pioneer Woman's blog.

If you have a hazy pic (from shooting through less-than-pristine windows, say), sometimes you can sharpen it right up by making a copy of the layer (in photoshop elements), by grabbing the background (which is probably the only layer you have), and dragging it over the leetle square icon in the "layers" menu (over on the right, just under the menu that has "normal" as the default value).

Then you click on that "normal" menu, find "hard light," and select it.

Here's my original.



See what a difference it makes? The one below has been cropped, too, of course, but you could figure that out without me mentioning it....



I believe what's going on is this -- when you make a new layer, generally speaking it is the only layer you can see.

The top one.

But if you mess with that menu whose default is "normal," then the layers interact instead of the top one obscuring what ever is underneath.

I don't know how these (I *think* they are "blending modes," but wouldn't swear to it!) work, but I know that the darks and lights (and probably the colors) in one layer interact with those in whatever is visible below the layer you are messing with.

Duplicating the layer and then using "hard light" doesn't always crisp up a hazy pic, but it's so easy to do that I usually remember to give it a shot when I wish my pic weren't so hazy.

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