Photo Editing Tips for Shutterbugs to Make their Photographs Stunning
Feeling sad, why your captured photographs don’t look professional? Use these simple Photo Editing Tips & make your drafts look stunning instantly!
Many people believe that buying a lavish, expensive camera is all for capturing a great picture. Or some people even think that taking a shot at an exotic location is the key. But in reality, this is just starting.
Capturing a shot (where and how) is not photography, but using various editing techniques to revise an image and make it look professional is a complete process.
Want such magical tips?
I am here bringing those for you!
Being a seasoned photographer, today, I am sharing some advanced photo editing tips that can quickly boost your photos’ quality. (even a beginner can follow)
These are the tips I gathered with my own experience while working for years on several projects like the Orange County Family Photography sessions, childrenโs photography shoots, etc.
Let’s walk through them, one by one.
Table of Contents
8 Tips For Stunning Photographs
#Tip 1 Give Manual Focus a Chance
Are you afraid to turn off autofocus? Don’t be anymore. Give manual focus a try.
I agree this sounds scary to you, but first, hear me out.
No wonder your Modern camera has incredibly advanced autofocus, but sometimes, you’ll find the camera “hunting” for the subject you want to focus on. To compose the shot you wish to, using manual focus can give you much more freedom.
Most importantly, try using single autofocus. It will help you make that one object super crisp ( by focusing on a single subject) in your picture, among other things.
However, capturing an active target is an exception. For that, you can use burst mode paired with continuous autofocus. This way, you may find many photography residues to filter, but a high chance that one or two images will be just the thing to add life to your photo book.
And, most importantly, popular editing software can help you. To help make your desired subject stand out, Photoshop has a Focus Area option, and to defocus the background, even more, a Lens Blur option can work.
#Tip 2 Put Thought Into Your Composition
You need to be engaged with what you’re doing to take appealing photos. Please don’t rush by on autopilot. Instead, you can work on your composition. Your effort will try to make your photos as great as possible.
But, for this, you might need to know the basics of how to compose excellent photos.
- Make sure not to cut off crucial elements of your subject with the edge of your frame.
- Adjust your composition to keep your horizons level, and try to eliminate any distractions in your photo.
- Ensure the picture has a sense of simplicity.
Most importantly, until you get it right to keep experimenting because there is a high chance that the photo doesn’t look that good only on your first try.
#Tip 3 Don’t Forget to Straighten the Photographs
Have you ever straightened your images?
If not, maybe you’ve never seen that they are uneven.
You know what, once you start noticing it, it will quickly become an obsession. I must say, you can protect your sanity by correcting your images in post-production before you share them with your clients.
Now let’s come back to the tip. When you straighten an image, the easiest thing you can do is look for the horizon. Yes, adhere to the horizon whenever possible if your photo is of a landscape or features the horizon in any prominent way.
Although wait, merely matching the horizon is not all. There’s much more to straightening images.
Some images do not feature the horizon. For such photos, it’s crucial to look for other straight lines you can use. For instance,ย if you are taking an indoor shot, look for beams or pillars.
However, again, there are times when you might not find an image with lines that weren’t accurate, to begin with, like beams, etc. In such cases, pick a main straight line by using your best judgment and stick to it.
In all, pick your lines wisely, run with them, and make sure your images are even, align, and best!
#Tip 4 Set the Mood
Setting the mood is a crucial element but also an oft-overlooked aspect of photography. Personally, I believe that setting the mood is an excellent way to make a photo more impactful.ย So, while taking pictures, ask yourself, โIs the photo conveying the right mood?โ
By keeping such an essential question in mind, you will not take the photo with a blank expression. And, you’ll recognize that the person’s expression isn’t conveying a mood, and you’ll change it instantly.ย It is also possible with a landscape.
#Tip 5 Balance the Light’s Intensity
Light is probably the most critical part of picture-taking. It is a belief that you’ve already taken a massive step toward getting a good picture if taken with good light.
Though there is no single definition of good light?
So, what you can do is, try balancing the light’s intensity amid your background and subject. For instance, you are capturing an astonishing sunset, but the foreground is entirely dark and silhouetted, then the photo could be ruined.
Now the best thing to do is keep an eye on the light’s direction and softness.
Like:
- If the light is too loud, get some shadows going across your focused-subject.
- If the light is unflattering, move the subject (outdoors) or move the light source (in a studio). You can also till light gets better.
- If there is no light and you’re taking handheld pictures, use flash or move where it’s brighter.
#Tip 6 Desaturate Colors Where it Makes Sense
If you are just learning how to edit one of the best photos, you will hear not over-saturate colors.
Itโs a mistake we all make at some point in our careers. Of course, saturating colors make a really notable impact on the appearance of an image.
My tip is a little different here. I want you to take your natural instinct and move in the opposite direction. That means, rather than saturating them more to ramp up colors, desaturate them where it makes sense.
When shooting in outdoor locations, I often, in my photography, desaturate the greens with a lot of greenery comprising the scene as will be found with many blades of grass,ย shrubs, trees, etc.
As a result, The greenery detracts from the subject and allows us to mute this color a little more and pop our image’s focus more on the scene.
#Tip 7 Try Not to Overexpose Highlights
It is critical to avoid overexposing highlights in a photo when you are picking your camera settings.
Thinking why? Because it is next to impossible to recover any detail from the white areas of a photo.
Like if we talk about me, I like covering the sky in my photos to have excellent color and texture.
If there is any overexposure while youโre taking photos, watch the camera screen to see. The one thing you can do, if there is, lowers your ISO to its base value (usually ISO 100). Or if, by any chance, itโs already there, you can use quicker shutter speed. That will take care of the issue. And, make sure the aperture is not set to an absurd value (f/32, f/45, etc.), and youโll be okay.
I must say, it is simple to keep your highlights intact. But now, at this point, aperture, shutter speed, and ISO are so critical. These camera settings directly affect the brightness of the photos. Even, a vital setting,ย exposure compensation tells your camera to change these three variables(one or more).
#Tip 8 (Pro Tip) Experiment & Enjoy
Last but one of the best photo editing tips I want to share is, experiment and enjoy.
Donโt just try to create professional-grade images. Explore your career, learn by your practices too.
After all, practice makes all of us perfect in our work.
So, for now, work to get your hand comfortable on your equipment, try new things on your photo-editing software, feel free to make mistakes, and enjoy editing. Some failures will happen, but if you love the process itself, great photos will come. Eventually, and youโll never see your efforts as time wasted.
Another thing,ย have one favorite photographer (your role model) and consider emulating the style of him/her to get your experiments started. Recreating someoneโs style will help you get handy with the equipment and generate some of your best outcomes.
Take Away Thoughts
I hope these photo editing tips are enjoyable and useful and help you create some more professional-looking photographs, just like youโve always wanted to.
As I earlier mentioned, you need to practice these edits to get the best out of you. Of course, when I started my career as a photographer, I used every project as an opportunity to learn more. I still do. Every time I choose to start working on a project, be it the family Photography session, maternity photoshoot, shoot with kids, or any other, I work hard to improve and beat my own previous achievements.
This attitude helps me to grow more.
So, keep trying, keep learning and keep experimenting!
Letโs Awake your Inner-Artist!
