I’m going to show you how to play with the levels, color balance, and cropping tool.
So here’s a pic from my iPhone that’s basically garbage:
And we’ll turn it into something passable, that is cropped to make better use of the rule of thirds. This version is done using the levels and “auto color”:
This version is done using the levels and the color balance tool:
We’ll use a much larger version of this image, which you can get by clicking on either image above or here, and then saving image as, or you can just right-click on the link, and save link as.
Straightening, cropping, levels, color balance, dodge:
After we’ve tackled my horrible Stratford shot, let’s play with something a little nicer. Here’s a funky pic from Pink Sherbert Photography (via Flickr).
We’ll take this photo (click on it or right-click on it and save link as):
Into this:
If you want to revisit these tutorials, try some of the others I’ve listed under Photoshop Resources.