How to Get Started Today as a Newbie Photographer. Learn about the tools and techniques to take your images (and photography skills) to the next level.
Photography is an amazing art, use your camera lens, and capture the beauty of Word. Yet, even the best photographer cannot avoid enhancing their photos by using editing functions to make their shots stand out. When you are starting out with photography or image editing, knowing the fundamentals of photo editing basics will help elevate your work to a new level.
This basic Image Editing Guide will take you by the hand and walk through everything a new photographer needs to understand about how to edit an image including concepts and tools. At the end, you will feel ready to start their photo processing and make them look better.
Image Editing 101
Essentially the Basics of Photo Editing Before We Jump Into the How-to steps Image editing refers to both the process of modifying images, and the results of such modifications. This includes adjustments to color, brightness, contrast and sharpness; removing unwanted elements from a photo; cropping and combining photos; applying effects or replacing backgrounds.?
Basic Image Editing Guide for Raw Beginners in Photography.
Thrive for better: Bring out colors, Improve exposure and make the details pop
Correct all the common problems: Add some light for overexposure, or dark-cornered underexposure – and fix anything that crept into the frame.
Show off your creativity: Use filters, effects or creative elements to make your images unique.
What you choose to use is heavily influenced by your style and the story that you want to tell with your photos.
Required Items for Image Processing
There are heartbreaking tools you can use to help your photos get that perfect look when it comes to editing. Photoshop is still the go-to software in professional environments however there are some free or low-cost alternatives for beginners also available: lightroom, GIMP or online editors like canva.
Below are some of the key tools that you will be using frequently during photo editing:
Crop Tool
Crop A simple yet essential tool for any photographer. This is for trimming those unnecessary parts of the photo and working on the main subject. It also helps us in setting the framing, rule of thirds or making a more lively image composition.
Controls for Exposure and Brightness
Exposure is how much light there is in a photo. To balance light in case your image is too dark (underexposure) or brightly colored (overexposed) you will adjust the exposure also as brightness settings. These tweaks will ensure that your images are not too dark or overly washed out.
Contrast
Contrast is the difference between lights and darks in an image. Adjusting contrast can either give vibrancy to your image if increased, or have a soft and muted look if reduced. Use contrast to make your subject and background pop.
Saturation and Vibrancy
Saturation affects all the colors in your image, while vibrancy only affects less-saturated colors and does not touch skin tones. Enhancing saturation or vibrancy a little will make your photos come to life but too much of it can result in unrealistic looking tones.
Sharpness
Sharpness gives your image more crispness and extends the finer details of your picture. This tool is similar to sharpening in that over-applying it can introduce noise or grain into the image but as such should be used sparingly to maintain a natural appearance.
Fixing Flaws: Retouch Your Images
With that in mind, the most important reason photographers work on images is to fix flaws. From skin imperfections to dust and small elements in the background that distract, photo retouching is essential to clean your photos and make them look perfect.
Healing Brush and Clone Stamp
Removing imperfections with the Healing Brush Tool and Clone Stamp Tool
The Healing Brush uses the surrounding pixels to heal where you apply it, and is great for little blemishes or imperfections.
If there are more significant distractions like wires or people in the background that need to be removed, you will want to use The Clone Stamp — a tool for copying pixels from one part of your image and spreading it over another.
These tools become invaluable when you are shooting a portrait or product shoot where even the slightest of flaws can destroy the image.
Color Correction: White Balance & Tone Control
When it comes to photography and different types of lighting the colors can sometimes be difficult to get accurate. The good news is, you can actually change the white balance and tonal settings in programs like Photoshop and other image editors to correct any color imbalance adjustment made through your digital camera.
White Balance
White balance helps to make your colors look as close to nature as possible, clearing away color casts you get from different types of light. You can change the temperature (warmth) and tint of your photo to fix these problems. Photos may appear yellowish under tungsten lights, or too green in photos made with fluorescent lighting.
Tone Curve
The tone curve is a mighty adjuster of highlights, midtones and shadows. You can adjust this curve to make precise tonal changes that will rapidly alter the feel of your photo. For instance, deepening the shadows can make it more moody looking, and raising the highlights can lighten and breathe air into any photograph.
Crops and Straightness Adjustments
Simple cropping and straightening can make a big difference in the composition of your images!
Straighten Your Photos
Even a small tilt or cock of the photo throws off the picture. Depending on the photo, straighten the horizon line or main subject using the straightening tool You may be used to a tool like this in many photo editing programs (Lightroom and Photoshop, etc) that can automatically straighten by finding the horizon.
Timely Erasure: When to Crop a Photograph for Better Composition
A tool for cropping your photo Obj. More often than not, when cropping, the rule of thirds comes into effect. Try placing your subject off-center; you’ll get a much better composition! By removing those edge distractions, you can crop as well.
Advanced Editing Techniques: Filters and Effects, as well as Layering
When you feel at home with the fundamentals, you can explore progressively complex picture altering strategies, for example, applying channels and impacts and working with layers.
Using Filters
Filters have an instant effect on your photos and photography. For instance, using a black-and-white filter will make your image look timeless and classic; if you want to give it a vintage feel, a vintage filter is the way to go! Robust typecasts are highly sought after for social media, among other things, to achieve a certain theme.
Working with Layers
If you are using a more advanced image editing program such as Photoshop, try working with layers for maximum flexibility. The tool of layers will let you compose various adjustments, effects and elements one over another while causing no permanent changes to the underlying photo. It is an approach based on non-destructive editing, which means that you can play around with various edits before settling on a single image.
How to Save Images and Export
After making edits to your liking, the next step is saving and exporting the image. For example, depending on where you are going to use that image (website, print media, social media etc.) you’ll want it to be saved as a certain format and at a particular resolution.
If you are using your image on the web, you would want to save it as a JPEG or PNG format with proper quality and file size. Your image for quick loading must be Ready unless you have used Save for Web.
Save for print: Ensure that you export your photo high resolution too (300 DPI) and in TIFF or PNG format to preserve the quality of the image.
The Bottom Line: You Can’t Get Better Without Practice
The basic image editing guide step towards improving your photography skills is learning how to edit an image – as a newbie photographer, this is the most basic skill you should master. With this understanding of the key tools and techniques, you will be able to enhance your photos, remove any imperfections and allow for further outlets in creativity.
Keep in mind that image editing is an art and it takes time to find your style. You’ll only get better at editing your images to perfection the more you play with editing tools.
If you want professional photo editing services, UK Clipping Path is providing high-standard image editing services like background removal, eCommerce photo editing services, and photo enhancement service. No matter the level of expertise you have as a photographer, our team will take your photos to the next stage.
