Enhancing an Environmental Portrait with Photoshop

Photographer, author, and teacher Chris Orwig details a variety of Photoshop postprocessing techniques that enhance the authenticity and mood of an environmental portrait.

An environmental portrait—one photographed in a setting that tells a story about the subject—has the potential to reveal something unique and interesting about the person in focus.

In this course, photographer, teacher, and author Chris Orwig explores a variety of Adobe Photoshop postproduction techniques that enhance the authenticity and mood of an environmental portrait. Working with a photograph of world-champion surfer Kelly Slater, Chris steps through each technique, from black-and-white conversion and toning to retouching and more, explaining his creative process along the way.

Introduction

• Welcome
• Using the exercise files

1. Getting Started with the Project

• Using Liquify to make minor adjustments
• Cleaning up small details with the Spot Healing Brush
• Removing the logo from the shirt
• Working on the details of the shirt
• Merging layers and double-checking your progress
• Burning and dodging to add emphasis

2. Crafting the Color and Tone

• Experimenting with color
• Creating a sepia-toned black-and-white effect
• Darkening the background
• Adding film grain
• Blending in a wood texture

3. Making the Final Adjustments

• Retouching the background
• Improving the details
• Darkening the background with color
• Making final tonal adjustments
• Reviewing the final project

Conclusion

• Artistic reflections and goodbye