Editing photos the right way can help you enhance the quality of the entire photo. However, most people believe that editing photos is extremely difficult. It is not. Using 7 essential steps for editing photos below, one can have professional results without spending much time or money.
1. Choose the right editing software:
Without the right editing software, you won’t be able to achieve much. Some noteworthy options include:
- Adobe Photoshop:
- All image professionals use industry-standard Adobe photoshop because of its numerous editing tools and effects.
- Affinity Photo:
- Affinity Photo is an excellent option for Mac, Windows, or iPad users. It offers impressive effects, but the limited number of tutorials available for the same means that the learning curve is steep. It is a worthy alternative to Adobe Photoshop.
- Luminar AI:
- Luminar AI has a set of effects you can execute with a single click. That is why, even if you do not know much about editing photos, this tool can help you.
Usually, one of these three tools will completely fulfill your photo editing requirements.
2. Crop and clean the image:
Clean the image with respect to the horizon. Goal is to ensure the horizon is straight.
Cut out the non-essential elements within the image using the editing feature. Thereafter, use the spot removal tool (available in all tools) to remove any discrepancies.
3. Improve white balance:
The light source (natural or artificial) can deteriorate the color depictions in the image resulting in a tint. Adjusting the white balance involves either removal of such tint or addition depending on the preferences. Depending on the adjustments one can either remove such tint or introduce them. There are even presets that can do so in a single click.
4. Work on contrast and exposure:
Adjusting exposure, helps one control the brightness of the photo. Consequently, noise in the photo is reduced.
When the contrast is high, all the shades in the image can be very dark or light. On the other hand, lower contrast means that the shades will have many more variations. Ideally, mid level contrast is the best option.
5. Correct vibrancy and saturation:
Vibrancy controls are used to make neutral colors intense. Vibrancy settings do not influence the bright colors in the image. Saturation, on the other hand, makes the entire frame more intense. Modify these settings to depict every color in the right way.
6. Sharpen the images:
Sharpness highlights the edges of the object to differentiate between different objects easily. Usually, the software offers multiple sharpening tools. They allow you to adjust the sharpness from 0 to 100. The default sharpness is 50. increasing the sharpness of any image can make the colors more distinct.
7. Use presets:
It is not necessary to always edit settings manually. Once you know the correct settings, you can create a preset. Next time, you activate the preset, and those settings will be applied to the image. If you do not want to create a preset yourself, pre-existing presets help you enhance the image while editing. This step saves a lot of time.
With these seven steps, your photos will certainly be better than 90% of the photos on social media. Also, once you get used to 7 steps, executing them will require a few minutes rather than hours. Therefore, editing photos in a short time is certainly possible.