Professional photographers don’t merely snap a shot and move on. They modify an image using a range of editing techniques to make it appear the way they want it to, not the way it is. Some of these methods need on-the-spot equipment modifications, while others require post-processing editing.
We’ve collected eight photo editing techniques to get you started for your Instagram pics, whether you’re a shutterbug hoping to create more professional shots or a photo book fan searching for more creative tools.
1. Begin with a high-quality shot.
Before you begin editing your Instagram images, you must first ensure that you have a good shot. And that’s because no amount of colour correction or exposure tweaks can fix a blurry, grainy, or badly framed photograph.
Here are some photography pointers to help you take better photos:
- Use natural light when shooting.
- To line up the photo, use the gridlines on your phone or camera.
- If your camera doesn’t have a built-in stabiliser, invest in a ring light with stand to photograph in low-light circumstances and minimize camera movement.
- Take more detailed photos with your smartphone’s HDR setting to avoid losing detail in bright or dark regions.
2. Enhance Your Composition with Crop & Straighten
Cropping your images is the simplest method to improve them.
It enables you to swiftly remove distracting objects (goodbye, pesky photobombers), increase attention on your topic, and add drama to your arrangement.
Finally, make sure your photo’s horizon is perfectly straight! It’s a simple technique that will transform your photographs from novice to professional. Usually, that’s the case when you are looking to take long-lasting corporate headshots for your main photo, for your Instagram account or for any other specific reason.
3. Clean up any blemishes on your images
Are your images strewn with obnoxious dust particles? Remove any undesired imperfections with the spot-removing tool in your editing program.
Remove stains from your clothes, a pimple on your forehead, or any other distracting factor with the same tool.
If you wish to remove larger things, such as people, you’ll need to use a more complex program, such as Photoshop. It contains a number of tools that can do the task without leaving any traces.
4. Make White Balance Adjustments
The worst type of illumination is fluorescent lighting. It gives photographs a horrible yellow tinge and drains vivid colours.
Use the white balance tool if you took a photo indoors and want to tone down the yellow. It will assist you in colour-correcting your image’s overall tone.
Alter the tint sliders to add additional green or purple colours to your image, or adjust the temperature sliders to raise or reduce the temperature of an image (think cool and warm tones).
Don’t have time to fiddle with the white balance? Preset settings such as “daylight” and “cloudy” are available in editing tools like Lightroom and Photoshop.
5. Adjust Exposure and Contrast
Don’t worry if you accidentally took a shot that is under or overexposed. To correct an image’s overall darkness or brightness, utilize the exposure slider in your photo editing tool. Be careful not to blow out your photograph while changing the exposure. You want to stay away from the large white blotches.
The next thing you’ll want to tweak is the contrast. Contrast allows you to experiment with the variety of dark and bright tones available. You may use the contrast slider to make dark colours darker and bright colours lighter or to flatten photos so that no components sticking out.
There are many free editor apps for your Instagram photos that you can try out that already have these options to implement on editing your photos.
6. Change the vibrancy and saturation of the colours.
Want to make a grid with softer pastel hues or a feed with bright splashes of colour? Increase or reduce the strength of colours in your images with the saturation and vibrancy features.
You don’t want to go overboard, though. Your images may appear strange if you use too much colour and brightness. You want to make little adjustments to each slider such that it improves the original image.
7. Make sure your photos are colour-corrected
Colour-correct your photographs to keep the tones in your grid consistent.
You can alter the hue, brightness, and saturation of each colour in Lightroom Mobile and the desktop version, giving you more control over your modifications.
It’s the simplest approach to ensure that all of your photos have the same tones.
8. Fine-tune the sharpness
Increase the sharpness of your photo for a sharper, cleaner look. Reduce the harshness for a softer, more dreamlike edit. The tool, however, cannot be used to correct an out-of-focus item. If your image has a blur, it will remain there indefinitely – no editing tool will be able to save it.
These picture editing pointers can get you started on the road to more professional-looking photos. With these suggestions, you can make your Instagram images more professional, attracting more likes and allowing more people to appreciate your photos.
Article by Mark Bingham
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