1} White Balance your image:
Open up your image in Photoshop and unlock your layer, by clicking on the lock in the layers panel. Click on the adjustment layers – Levels.
1. Choose the middle eye-dropper in the levels panel and 2. click in the image on a white spot. You might have to click on different spots until you find the best “neutral” color. This removed the color cast which is especially useful if you have a yellow color cast in a photo with yellow gold jewelry
2} Adjust Brightness:
Use the Brightness and Contrast Adjustment Layer to adjust brightness.
3} Get a crisper image with filters:
1. Duplicate your layer – layer- duplicate layer and choose the top layer of the two. Go to filter- other- High Pass and choose a setting between 10 and 50. It will most likely look funny. Don’t worry, the magic comes now. 3. Go to your layer blending mode and change it to overlay. This will create a crisper look. You might have to adjust the opacity on that layer especially, if you chose a higher number on the filter
3} Select the image with the pen tool:
This is where the real tedious work happens. Some people just use the magic wand tool or the lasso tool to select the image but it usually does bot do a very good job and it never is clear enough for print or putting the image on a dark background. You will have to use the pen tool to select the outlines of the piece and all the cut-outs. The pen tool takes practice but if you don’t get a curve right, you can always use the white arrow tool below the T tool to adjust the curve handles or the corners.
Once selected, click on paths- and control click the path later. This will turn the path into a selection. Go back to your layers panel. Invert the selection and delete the background. You will have to do it on both layers, the original and the overlay layer.
You can now save it as a png to preserve the transparent background. Duplicate and make reflection.
