How Should You Edit Your Picture?

Editing cannot make a bad photo good. However, great photo editing is crucial – Because it can make a good photo great by accentuating its best points and bringing out its full potential. Most world class photographers are also expert photo editors. How do you edit your picture in a way that creates a great photo? Read on.

The Basics
When you’re editing any image, you should do the following basics:

• Adjust the contrast levels. Make sure you have enough contrast. Higher contrast often results in sharper images that really stand out – Although contrast that’s too high just looks tacky.
• Remove any color cast. If the whole image is “shaded red” for example, you’ll want to change that. White balance is often the easiest method, levels or curves if the image has complex colors schemes.
• Touch up any humans. Depending on what the image will be used for, you may want to remove any blemishes, pimples, discolorations, etc.
• After you’ve done the basics, then …

Try Different Crops
Try at least 2-5 different ways to crop any image you’re editing. Does the focus look better in the center? On the left? On the right?
 

In the past, you had to take the picture perfectly if you wanted to get the focal point right. Today, you can crop your image in different ways after the photo is taken, provided you have a high enough resolution image.

Manual Editing
Often times, you’ll have to do a bit of manual editing to get the picture perfect. It might be something like creating a levels layer just for one part of the image you want higher contrast, but nothing else. It might be cloning out things that somehow managed to get in the picture.
 

For example, you have a gorgeous picture of a park, but there’s a plastic garbage bag in the corner. In that case, you’ll have to do something like clone the grass over the area to get rid of it.

Or, you have a 4 person picture but one person is too dark, while the other 3 are perfect. In that case, create an adjustment layer and mask out everyone but that one person to get the levels perfect for that one person.
 

The list of manual editing can go on and on. Use your own artistic eye to see what needs to be done.

Subtle Effects
Often times the use of subtle effects can really help bring out the picture.
 

Blurring out the background is a common way to add focus to the picture. If one person is standing there with the rest of the background slightly blurred, it adds a very nice feel.
 

Grayscale or sepia toned images are a great way to add style, depending on the image.

You may one to go for a slightly dreamy tone with something like waterfall pictures. With pictures of animals in the wild, you might want to create an effect that goes with the feel of the image. For example, you might want to motion blur the background of a cheetah so it looks like it’s going extremely fast.

Or, you might want to add a slight red tone to the rest of an image if you’ve got a photograph of a bat. In the end, it really depends on your artistic style.
 

When you’re beginning to edit an image, first start by doing your basic photo adjustments. Then experiment with different crops and ways to frame and package your image. Then make any manual adjustments and edits you need. Finally, add any subtle effects you want in the image.

Posted in: Photography Techniques