How to Sharpen and Brighten Colors in Photoshop 7.0

I dare say not all pictures are perfect. There are times we see a photo and find something in it that we wish it can be fixed. The image I am using for this Photoshop 7.0 tutorial is one of those, and such a good example to use for this project. Granted with some elbow grease, time and patience, we begin our photoshop journey...

Step 1 Prepare the image you want to fix and open the file in your Photoshop. For this tutorial, I am using a superbike wallpaper I downloaded the other day from a free website. The image is fine for display on a computer screen, but not to the standards if it were to be used for a high-quality poster.

Step 2 Try to enlarge your image if it is too small, so you can see the details. To do this, go to the top menu bar and click Image > Image Size..., enter the values in all required fields then click OK.

The original size of the image here was 1,280 x 1,020 pixels. I scaled it down to 900 x 640 pixels which I think is about the right size for this project.

Step 3 For bright colors on the image, such as the neon green paint, metal and chrome parts, I use the Polygonal Lasso tool that you will find in the tool box to trace around them. This will take some time, and you can only edit one area at a time, so be patient.

Step 4 Once finish tracing a specific area (or object), go to Image on the top menu bar and select Brightness/Contrast..., the ratio I used are - -

(1)Brightness: +84 / Contrast: +21 for the green paint on the motorbike body.

(2)Brightness: +27 / Contrast: +6 for the chrome and metal parts of the bike.

Do not overdo contrast on the positive (+) numbers; the edited area will look harsh and unnatural.

Step 5 Now go to Image again and select Adjust > Color Balance. Adjust the sliders in the Color Balance selection area to adjust the editing object/area.

Below in the Color Balance pop-up window, under the Tone Balance section, there are 3 choices for tone adjustment settings. Try these out as well and see the overall affect on your image.

Click OK to finish process.

Step 6 Repeat Steps 3 to 5 until you get all the areas/objects of your choice done. These steps are the most time consuming parts for this project, once you pass these it's all easy.

Step 7 Go to Image > Adjust > Brightness/Contrast..., this time without selecting a specific area to edit, we will brighten and apply contrast to the whole image in order to make the colors unified. This includes for the colors you edited in the previous steps and the ones that were left untouched.

Click OK to complete step.

Step 8 Go to Filter on the top menu, select Sharpen > Sharpen Edges. Or Filter > Sharpen > Sharpen More.

Click Sharpen or Sharpen More repeatedly until you get the desired result for your image. For my image, I clicked twice the Sharpen, and once for the Sharpen More.

If you accidentally sharpen too much, go to Filter. The last action item will be listed on the very top in the Filter drop-down menu. Click on it and adjust to your desired percentage to fix, then click OK to complete.

You can also go to Edit, and click "Undo Sharpen", then start Step 8 again from the beginning.

Step 9 This is the final result for the fixed image. Click the image to see the difference between the left and right photo. We have now completed our Photoshop tutorial for brightening and sharpening an image.