Use These Tips to Edit Your Photos as a Professional
Editing photos has a long history — the first manipulation was made in the 1800s and required a lot of effort and special equipment. Today editing and stylizing photographs have never been easier than now. Even if you are not a professional photographer, you can still create pro-looking images. And here we are with our tips and tricks on how to edit photos like a professional.
8 Photo Editing Tips For More Professional Photos
It does not matter if you are a fresh photographer or want to improve your social media account. The following 8 photo editing tips will be helpful and useful. So, let’s check the tricks professional photographers use to create eye-catching images.
Choose a photo editing program
Having made a series of photos is crucial to choose the right editing tool to change it. Today you’re free to choose out of the dozens of free and paid editing programs and apps. Some programs are simple with basic tweaks allowed, when the others are more advanced, letting you change everything about a picture.
For instance, there is such a platform as Crello with a wide range of tools on offer. Yes, you can use the software to change photos for any purpose. Thus, using Crello, you can not only edit images for social media, blogs, and so on but use royalty free stock photos. Crello offers tons of options along with guidelines to ease the process of creating stunning visuals online.
Besides the third-party editing apps like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom, Capture One Pro, and others, don’t forget about the possibilities of in-built programs in your smartphone and computer that include most of the standard photo editing tools. What’s more, social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat also provide photo editing tools that allow you to tweak the images before posting.
Experiment with filters and presets
Photo editing programs, social media, and even cameras have a range of built-in filters or presets. That’s the easiest and fastest way to give your images/photos a definite look and make them look more professional without too much technical knowledge required. Filters/presets are like photo editing recipes that mix up a combination of settings that are applied automatically. Just pick filters one by one watching how photos change to choose the filter you like most of all.
Take advantage of automatic modes
Some time ago, professional photographers hated the automatic modes of editing programs. Yet, nothing is set in stone. The programs evolve and their algorithms for automatically post-processing images become more efficient and advanced. So that, today such programs can better analyze an image and make worthy suggested changes. It’s a way to do the heavy lifting. However, this technique suits beginners because most professional photographers skip the auto tool.
Crop the scene
This practice is common for professionals and one of the most valued photography tips for beginners. Usually, amateurs leave too much space around the main object that affects the proportions and some photography rules. It’s where cropping is the best way to choose.
Cropping is removing the unwanted edges of a photo/image. Thus, you can make the image smaller, allowing the main subject to take a larger portion of the frame. It’s easy to do using a photo editing program (all of them have such a tool). Digital images can be any size you wish or need, however, remember that standardizing the photo size/shape can help you to achieve a cohesive look on the blog/social media account/website.
Straighten lines
It’s a pity, but straightening lines in post-processing is often overlooked though it is incredibly simple. Using the technique, you can improve the photography balance. Having many lines in a photo, you need to pick one as the primary and make it straight. Commonly, it’s the horizon line that needs to be straightened. There are several ways to do that:
- Use an auto option is provided by most editing programs.
- Try a crop tool for this purpose as well. Just launch it, grab a corner and drag the image clockwise/counterclockwise to straighten the horizon.
- Advanced programs offer tools to adjust distortion and/or straighten lines like in architecture photography, for example.
Bring colors to life
Adjusting colors is another way to make your photos look more professional. Depending on your style you can make your image burst with colors or choose a more muted color scheme. Just adjust the saturation, contrast, vibrance in the photo editing app/software. But again, be careful to avoid over-editing the images. Thus, using saturation, the results can be artificial, and faces start to look unnatural. So, use any feature in the limit so that the photos look natural and professional.
Adjust the white balance
The white balance is another crucial aspect to keep in mind. Professional photographers often pay attention to the aspect. In most editing applications, you can adjust white balance with a tool called temperature. Move the slider to change the white balance from warmer light (yellow and sunny look) to cooler light with blue tones. Some photo editing programs also provide an auto white balance button.
Clean image: remove spots and clutter
It’s a challenge to create ideal conditions to capture a perfect photo. There always are certain imperfections like spots, background clutters, and many more. For instance, you can remove people from a crowded square, alter entire buildings, clean the background, and so on. You can easily fix it using photo editing programs. Use the removal tool to clean the image and make it perfect.
Conclusion
In the technological and digital era we live in, editing photos is not a very difficult thing to do. Thanks to the robust and advanced editing programs, even a beginner can create pro-looking photos and images. Following the tips mentioned in the article, you can not only make your photos look more professional but give them a unique style so that your blog/website/social media is visually cohesive.
