A Quick and Effective Way Add Snap And Contrast in Photoshop:

Here is one the most useful adjustments you’ll ever use to add a little snap and contrast to your images using Photoshop. It is very simple but gives nice results while still maintaining detail in both the highlights and shadows of your images.

1. First do a levels adjustment: Image>Adjustments>Auto Levels.
You can do the levels manually if you want to, but auto seems to do pretty much the same thing I would do manually.

2. Next make a duplicate layer.
The shortcut is Command+J (control on a PC)

3. Next Step: Image>Adjustments>Equalize.
This function remaps your pixels to incorporate every range of brightness. So your brightest pixels will go white, and you darkest will go black. After this command, if you look at your histogram, it will almost be level all the way across. Your image will probably look like a poorly done HDR image, this is to be expected without changing the layers blending mode.

4. Next: Set the equalized layer’s blending mode to Soft Light.
You will notice that your image looks less bizarre and much more contrasty.

5. Now lower the opacity of the Soft Light Layer.
I usually decrease the opacity of the duplicate layer to about 30-35%, or you can try different opacities to get different effects.

6. Then merge the 2 layers together, and you’re done!

Here’s an example of what it does:

 

Stay tuned for more tips in a few days, Terry