Have you made up your mind to buy your first professional DSLR camera and have dreams to make a name for yourself as a leading photographer? Or maybe you just want to learn how to edit the photos you clicked for your albums? With these eight simple yet effective photo editing tips for your stunning photography, you can take your photo album to the next level.
When it comes to the steps like post-processing photographers often prefer applications like Lightroom, Adobe Camera Raw, and Photoshop. However, it is a difficult job for beginners to get used to editing in these apps. Hence, here are a few tips that might help you with your edits on these platforms. So, without procrastinating, let’s start our list of photo editing tips that will beautify your amazing shots.
1. SPEEDING SIMPLE PROCESSES
Without any shred of doubt, one of the primary issues regarding photo edits is the workflow. Sometimes editing just a couple of photos can turn into an hour-long process. In addition, the long process of opening, editing, and then saving can become a pain.
Apps like Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw have simplified this process by bringing in a series of shortcut keys. For example, by pressing the ‘Cmd+C’ or ‘Ctrl+Shift+C’ (for Copy options) and Ctrl+Shift+V’ (for Paste settings) commands, their software helps to save a lot of time for essential tasks.
2. RAW FILTER of CAMERA
Photoshop CC has the feature of enabling the Raw Camera interface. Hence fast layer editing can be done in Photoshop. You need to select the layer, then go for camera filters simply. In order to get back to the Camera Raw Filter at any moment of time to work-tune your photos, firstly convert the layer to Smart Object using filters. This prevents you from destructive edits.
3. WORK UPON CAMERA AND LENS ADJUSTMENTS
It would help if you learn about some of ACR and Lightroom’s software panels before engaging in Basic alterations. For example, before you make any significant adjustments in your color and contrast, check the Camera Calibration panel.
Also, there is the Lens Corrections tab and the Enable Lens Profile Corrections options that are worth checking out. Especially if you are practiced in using wide-angled lenses, the natural lens adjustments might push some essential areas of the picture out of the frame. So it’s a good option to check these before cropping the image.
4. USING OF VARIOUS SHORTCUTS
There are certain aspects to discuss here and we must some light on it. First, not only does it saves your time, but it also allows a better hand on the software.
One of the frequently used tools for editing, zooming can be made easy by pressing and holding H. In Photoshop apps this will bring an instant zoom. You can also keep pressing the space bar to temporarily flip to the Hand Tool, pulling the image around to verify details in other areas.
5. CREATE MORE DISTINCT SKIES
By putting the HSL option in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom apps you can give a fine boost in making a contrast between a natural sky and a cloudy one. Hence, to do so, select the Luminance option and then move the Blue slider to the left to darken or overcast the sky. We must not overuse it, or the edges of the clouds and other objects might infiltrate into the sky.
6. STYLIZING YOUR PHOTOS
If you wish to put on a more stylish look in your photographs, you must go through the following steps that might prove useful.
- Begin by uploading your picture in Photoshop and click on the Brightness or the contrast panel.
- Adjust Brightness around to +25 and Contrast to +35. Set Saturation to -25.
- Then work upon the Curves layer.
- You can first select on Red. Then, select and drag down a bit the center of the red line.
- Next, you move the Blue line upward.
- Lastly, select and move up the Green bar upwards a little.
- Finish the job by selecting the Soft Light blending mode.
To wrap up, we just need to add two Solid Color alteration layers. Firstly, select a pale yellow color and then tone its blending mode to Overlay. Set Opacity levels to 35%. For the second color layer, you can type the code ‘f000ff’. Select the Screen as its blending option and Opacity to 30%.
7. EXPERIMENTATION USING PRESET SETTINGS
The Presets Panel is situated on the left-hand side of the interface after you select the Develop Module. The color presets found here are excellent options for experimenting. If you find yourself in an error and need to redo an effect, just safely scroll down to the History palette. There you can search through all the history states. Make sure you go to Lightroom Effects Presets options and select Light Grain.
8. BE SELECTIVE WHEN USING APPLY LEVELS
Adjustment Layers have the feature of being followed by a Layer Mask. This might be helpful when masking parts of the tweak. You can proceed by simply selecting the Brush tool and continue your painting over tweaked parts with black shade. Also, use the command Cmd/Ctrl+I to make the Layer Mask black, next paint with white to reveal the tweak.
IN CONCLUSION
Here we finish the list of shortlisting of tips for photographers both beginners and pros, wishing to update their editing skills. For all the photography enthusiasts out there, editing is an integral skill, they ought to master. Editing and working upon their clicks, really increase their worth and value. They help you get your photo ready for presenting in photography competitions or putting it on your Instagram feed. Also, editing is crucial if you desire to open a photography blog for yourself. To get maximum website traffic on your page, you must be a master in editing your photos along with your content. All of the apps like Abode Lightroom or Photoshop have made editing quite an easy job to perform. You can use your phone for your edits and managing your photo albums.