I am shooting pretty much 100% digital now. And as a rule I find most images that come from digital cameras are a bit flat for my taste. I prefer an image with some “snap”. Most of the time I spend a fair amount of time “working” an image once I get it into Photoshop. But sometimes I just want to get a quick image out to someone and I want it to have that “snap”. But quite honestly, I use the following “action” on a lot of my images even if I am spending a lot of time on them…

Give your Image a Quick “Snap” (Increasing Contrast… in a snap)

1.) Have your image open in Photoshop (For this we are assuming it has only one layer)
2.) Duplicate the layer (Layer > Duplicate Layer – Click “OK”)
3.) With the new layer selected in the Layers Palette ( this happens by default) Click on the Blending Mode Menu (that little drop-down menu in the layers palette – below the word “Layers” – that by default says “Normal”) and select “Soft Light”
4.) Click on “Opacity” – just to the right of where it now says “Soft Light” – and either adjust the slider or type in a numeric value that will give you a pleasing effect. Most of the time I use 25% – 35% but on some images I have used 50% / 75% / and even in rare cases 100%! It’s whatever looks good to you!
5.) Flatten your image ( Layer > Flatten Image)
6.) Save your image

That’s it!

A quick little increase in contrast to give your image a little extra punch.