5 Photo Editing Essentials For Success
If you're new to photography and need to know how to edit photos, look no further. Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom are great places to start. Editing can seem challenging, but mastering these five editing essentials can help you succeed at any level.
1. Cropping
Finding a starting point for editing can be overwhelming, but the easiest way to start your editing process is by cropping your photos. You want to ensure that your eyes draw to the photo's main focus instead of distracting elements like a stranger in the background or branches sticking out of a tree's silhouette. Another reason for cropping can be to remove negative space surrounding your photo. By cropping your images initially, you can ensure that everything you edit is in the frame.
2. Color Correcting
Even if your lighting was perfect when you started the photo shoot, your photo may not look how you hoped. This is why color correcting is important—it helps to represent your photo’s colors accurately. You can bring the life, color, and visibility back to your photo that may have been lost for many reasons. The best way to color correct is on a platform like Photoshop or Lightroom. Concentrate on these features:
Exposure
Hues
Contrast
White balance
3. Masking
Precise editing can be a crucial part of the retouching process. Masking allows you to select exactly what you want to edit while leaving out other parts of the photo. You can do this by using layer masks or selective adjustments.
Layer masks allow you to place pictures on top of one another or remove the background. Editing in layer masks rather than directly on your original photo is beneficial. When you edit the original photo, there is a potential risk of damaging the photo file. There are five different kinds of masking in Photoshop:
Standard layer masking
Alpha masking
Vector masks
Gradient masks
Clipping masks
Selective adjustment does not involve layers; it is done directly to your original image. Once you select what you want to edit in your photo, you can change one of these three features:
Color adjustments
Contrast
Exposure
A potential downside to this feature is the damage that could be caused to your file, such as losing the original coloration. This is why opting for layer masks is sometimes the better option.
4. Healing
Sometimes there will be objects or flaws in your pictures that are distracting or reduce the quality of your image. Healing tools allow you to adjust elements of your photo, so the focus isn't pulled from the subject/scenery. The healing tool also allows you to edit out something as small as a bug on your face or as large as a building. There are three different kinds of healing tools you can use in Photoshop:
Healing brush tool
Spot healing brush tool
Patch tool
Each of these tools serves a slightly different purpose. The healing brush allows you to blend sampled pixels with the pixels in an area you’re trying to fix while maintaining texture, lighting, and shading. The patch tool allows you to remove larger, more detailed areas with a chosen source area. The spot healing brush tool uses other parts of the image to make quick fixes in small areas with more simple textures.
5. Sharpening
Some things will become blurry and pixelated when you take photos, especially when you zoom in. Sharpening the image will help correct this, making lines and edges crisp. Sharpening a photo allows you to see it better and control where your eyes are drawn to when viewing the photo. Sharpening should be the last step of your photo editing process because image resolution determines how much sharpening you should do. If you were to use the photo in a video thumbnail versus a printed canvas or photo, then they would require different amounts of sharpening.
I offer a variety of online courses where you can get additional tips and tricks for all your editing needs. I also offer packages of my favorite presets to help you find your editing style in Lightroom or Photoshop. If you’re just starting out or looking to further your skills, contact me about my editing mentorships!
