Creating a food photoset

[angelic_wounds]

Okay! So you want to make a food photoset? This is the tutorial to help you. Let's take a look, step by step, to how to create a colourful post!

• Open up your Photoshop.
• Before you do anything, go to Google images, type the dish, or drink, or dessert you want to make a photoset out of. Select preferably high quality images (over 250px), unless you use a template which enables even smaller sizes.
• Download them on a easily accessible folder.
• Now to our photoshop. First of all, you want to decide if you will use a template! Templates are wonderful, pre-made images which help you make photosets that Tumblr wouldn't allow you to. For example, this image was created with this template as a base, cutting the middle piece! This is totally optional. If you want to make one photo at a time, move to the next step!
• Open your photo in photoshop. If the image is too big, click on  Image > Image Size. There, make sure you have the Constrain Proportions option selected, otherwise your image will come out disproportioned. Type your selected size (in pixels) and click ok.
• Alternatively, if you want to crop your image, select the Crop Tool, and drag the corners from top left to bottom right. Like so:

OR

• Now to the editing. PSDs are perhaps your greatest friends, but food photosets do not usually need drastic enhancements. I will show you now different adjustments I make to my own photos. You can choose one or multiple together, according to your image! Experiment a bit, and see which fits your image best.
• DO NOT FORGET! BEFORE YOU PROCEED, MAKE SURE TO CREATE A "GROUP FOLDER" ABOVE YOUR IMAGE. Simply go to the bottom of your layers palette, and click on this image

​

Now all the adjustments will be inserted into the group folder. Trust me, this will help you later on.
Okay. now to the adjustments.

• ​Vibrance

​Vibrance is an awesome tool, that brings out the colours in every image. I usually select this as my first choice. To use this, go to


there, a window will appear. Raise the Vibrance and Saturation however much you want to! I suggest raising Vibrance to +22 with +28 and then tweaking with the Saturation. Your call!

(I know that Vibrance is a choice only appearing in Photoshop CS6, so if you have older versions, go again to the same path, but instead, choose Hue/Saturation as your choice, and tweak with the saturation there!)

• Colour Balance

Colour Balance, a great tool for bringing out individual colours. Found in the same path as Vibrance (you can see above it's two steps below), this choice is great if you want to bring out your reds, blues, greens etc. Select the choice, and tweak the bars on the appearing window towards the colour you want to enhance! Change to Highlights or Shadow to tweak with colours that are not as prominent! Experiment, experiment!

For example this what my image looks if I enhance the reds and yellows at midtones


---->  

and this is what it looks like when I tweak both yellows and reds at midtones, and on the highlights.



Brings out the colours, doesn't it? Just tweak whatever colour you want to! Green, magenta, blue, red, yellow, cyan! Your call!

• Curves

​Curves! Fuckins curves! Oh, this little tool can be a real helper, or a real bitch on bringing out colours. Works better on HQ images, in my experience. Again, found in Layer --> New Adjustment Layer --> Curves you can choose to tweak the colours of your choice. Some examples


(tweaked the red, the blue and the RGB) -->

(again you can tweak whatever you want, use multiple choices!)

• Brightness/Contrast

Pretty self explanatory, this useful tool can be used to brighten up dark images.

• Photo Filter

Okay, now this tool can be used when the colours on your image are rather too bright for your liking, after you have done some adjustments. Quite a handy little choice, it can be found on the layer window as well. Select it, and, preferably, click on colour and set in on blue. Tweak the luminosity to a volume of your choosing. This gives your image a light blue hue that covers the over contrast of your image. Example:


after photo filter, colour blue, volume 40%

• When you finish with the colour experimenting, remember to always sharpen your image. Go to Filter > Sharpen and sharpen as many times as you need to!
• Now, if you are using a template, simply resize the image and drag it to the saved template.
• Remember the group folder? Now, if you don't want an adjustment you used earlier, simply go to your layers palette, and click on the little eye icon on the left of each enhancement. Clicking on each one will show you how your image looks without said enhancement and with it. If you plan on using the same enhancements on other images, don't close your image! Simply open your other image, and drag your group folder on top of it! Therefore, you won't have to do each step again! Clicking twice on the adjustments on your palette will allow you to tweak them, according to your choice based on the image you are editing!
• Go to File > Save As and save as .png, cause they look better at Tumblr.

And that's it! Once you have done all your images, go to Tumblr, select Photo, and upload all you images. For better presentation, place 9 images into a stack of 3x3, 6 into a 2x3 and so on. Symmetry can get you a long way.

Go nuts!