The most important improvements you can make to images intended for photo products are color correction and cropping. The auto color correctors sometimes work great, but a basic understanding of manual color correcting is helpful. Crop the photo to the point of interest and leave out distracting backgrounds or blur them. Fix the first thing that bothers you in a photo. With portraits, for example, use the Clone and Patch tools to remove blemishes from the subject’s face; and if there’s a crooked collar, necklace, or distracting wisps of hair, fix them. Don’t forget to include your time into the bill.
-Brad Wass, Gyford StandOff Systems
