Step-By-Step Guide to Photo Editing Tips and Tricks for Social Media

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December 7, 2024

Elevate your social media game with our Photo Editing Tips and Tricks for Social Media. In our digital world, content goes visual. Be it an aspiring influencer, a business owner, or a photogenic social media user, having unique professional photos can give you an edge. But how do you take your raw images and turn them into gorgeous visuals that will stand out and drive engagement? The key is learning how to edit effectively.

This ultimate guide walks you through the best photo editing tips and tricks to make your social media posts pop! The tips will range from beginner-friendly techniques to more advanced editing tools and everything in between that you need to know in order to spruce up your photos and make them social media ready.

Photo Editing Tips and Tricks for Social Media

Step 1. Understanding photo editing basics

Before we get into the specifics, you should know the basics of photo editing. These are the fundamentals that can make or break your picture:

Exposure: Controls the lightness or darkness of your photo. Too much will overexpose your photo, while too little will darken it.
Contrast: makes the light and dark areas of the photo difference sharper. Increasing contrast will give your image more of a ‘punchy’ look, reducing contrast will give it more of a soft feel.
Saturation: The intensity of colors. Increasing vibrance makes colors pop, and decreasing it renders your image with a more muted, vintage quality.
Clarity: It enhances more details and textures. Excessive sharpening makes the picture appear grainy.
White Balance: Adjusts the color tone of your image (more warm or cooler). It can eliminate any color casts, such as a yellow or blue tint.
Cropping and Straightening: Crop the image or Straighten to frame at the right edge.

Once you get the hang of these techniques, you will be set up for success with photo editing!

Step 2. How to Choose the Right Photo Editing App or Software

There are many photo editing apps and software available, from simple tools for basic photo editing to professional software for advanced editing such as Adobe Photoshop. A few options to consider:

Beginner:

Snapseed (iOS, Android): Includes dozens of filters and editing tools for quick touch-ups.
VSCO (iOS, Android): With popular filters and a clean interface, VSCO is great for quick edits.
Instagram (iOS, Android): Instagram includes basic editing capabilities, so it’s a good option for quick edits on the go.

Intermediate:

Lightroom Mobile (iOS, Android): Focused editing with maximum precision over exposure, contrast, saturation, and many other aspects.
Canva (Web, iOS, Android): A multi-purpose graphic design tool that lets you edit photos with filters, text and other elements.

Advanced:

Adobe Photoshop (Windows, Mac): The gold standard for photo editing, with limitless professional-grade editing tools.
Affinity Photo (Windows, Mac): A budget-friendly Photoshop alternative that offers many of the same advanced tools.

Pick a tool exotic as your comfort and editing needs are.

Step-by-Step Editing Process

Now that you understand the basics and have selected your tool, let’s walk through the steps to edit the photos for social media.

Step3: Crop and Line Up Your Photo

Why it matters: Cropping and straightening mean that your photo is correctly framed and aligned. A nicely cropped image draws attention to the primary subject and can improve composition.

How to do it:

Edit your image in your app of choice.
Find the crop tool (often shown as a square or rectangle).
Open the photo in your editing software, and throw a cropping box over the whole thing, adjusting to the subject.
The rotate/straighten tool will ensure that the horizon or other lines are straight.

Follow the rule of thirds for better composition. Think of dividing your photo into nine equal sections by making three horizontal and three vertical lines, and place the most critical parts of your image along these lines or at their intersections.

Step4 : Tweak Exposure, Contrast, and Brightness

Why it matters: Getting the exposure right means your photo is neither too dark nor too bright. Adjustment of contrast and brightness deviate and make your image visually appealing.

How to do it:

Find the exposure slider in your app. Adjust up or down until your photo has even lighting.
Then find the contrast controls and darken the dark bits and lighten the light bits that’ll give the photo some dimension.
Adjust the brightness slider to lighten or darken the overall image.

Note: Don’t overdo the editing this is a pro tip! Very high contrast or exposure can give an unnatural feel to the image. Aim for a balanced look.

Step5: Boost the Colors (Saturation and Vibrance)

Why it matters: Saturation increases or decreases the strength of the colors in your image. Vivid colors do capture the eye, but too much saturation can make your photo appear photoshopped.

How to do it:

Add more saturation to pop the colors out, but don’t go crazy.
If your image appears too intense, try manipulating the vibrance (which boosts muted colors without impacting colors that are already vibrant).
You can also adjust the temperature (warmth/coolness) of the photo to set a certain mood to give your image a warm, sunset-like glow or a cool, calming tone.

Pro tip: Try selectively adjusting the color correction to certain areas using a selective color adjustment tool (for example, just the greens or blues in a landscape photo).

Step 6: Fix White Balance

Why it’s important: White balance helps make sure that the colors in your photo look natural, which is especially important when shooting in different light conditions (say, the indoor yellow light or outdoor blue light).

How to do it:

Locate the white balance tool in your app.
Move the temperature slider to cool off or heat up the image.
Adjust the tint slider to fix green or purple tint in the photo.

Tip: If the photo looks too yellow or blue, adjust the white balance to make it more balanced.

Step 7: Sharpen the Image

Why it’s useful: Sharpening increases the clarity of the details in your image, making it look crisper. This is particularly important for images that will be analyzed on small mobile displays.

How to do it:

It means you leverage the sharpness or structure tool to boil up the details.
Avoid going overboard, since too much sharpening can give an image a grainy or synthetic appearance.

Pro tip: Sharpen only the areas of the image that matter, as in the subject’s eyes or other areas of interest.

Step 8. Retouch Imperfections If Needed

Why this matters: Retouching helps eliminate unwanted distractions such as blemishes, dust or wayward objects. This is particularly handy for portraits and close-ups.

How to do it:

Find the healing or clone stamp tool in your app.
Zoom in on the bits that need fixing (ie, spots, stray hair, distracting backgrounds).
Brush over the imperfections lightly to either remove or blur them.

Pro tip: Photo retouching is important. But, don’t over-retouch. The aim is to improve the photo but without making it too perfect or unrealistic.

Step 9: Apply Filters and Presets (If Desired)

Why it matters: Filters enrich your photo with a mood or style. Whether you are looking for a vintage style or a vibrant, modern vibe, filters are a simple way to elevate the feel of your image.

How to do it:

Look for the available filters or presets in your app.
Select one that fits your photo and evens out its atmosphere.
More intensity of the filter can be changed if required.

Pro tip: To ensure a cohesive look across your posts, make your own custom presets in apps such as Lightroom or VSCO.

Step 10. The Advanced and Definitive Guide to Social Media

Once you become proficient in the basics of editing, you can start messing around with more advanced techniques to create unique, polished images for social media that will catch people’s attention.

Layer Up for Advanced Edits (Photoshop, Affinity Photo)

To get finer control over your edits, keep working with layers. Using layers, you can change different parts of the image independently, which is super useful for more complicated edits.

You can, for instance, add a filter to just the background of a photograph and leave the subject completely untouched. Or create a layer mask and blend two different photographs together.

Add Text Overlays and Graphics (Canva, Photoshop)

Text And Graphics As Required In Your Photos For Your Message Or Promotion Platforms such as Canva and Photoshop permit you to insert personalised fonts, logs and graphics.

Make the text readable: use the right size, color, contrast, etc.

Step 11: Blurring for Focus (Selective Focus)

One common technique used in photography is to add a degree of blur into the element that is not the center of the image – this helps to highlight the main focus of the picture. It is a technique used in portrait photography to achieve a bokeh effect.

Or use the blur or lens blur tool and soften the background but keep the main subject sharp.
Here is an advanced guide that will guide you step by step through photo editing tips and tricks to help you step up your social media game.

More Engagement: Polished images catch the eye, leading to increased engagement in the form of likes, comments, and shares.

Improved Narration: Editing provides you with the means to place emotions, key visuals, and hook the audience into a story.

Step 12: Essential Photo Editing Tools

The right tools to edit letters: I dive into letters without knowing what the letters are for, whether they matter, and whether they are real. We have listed some of the best photo editing tools for social media.

Adobe Lightroom: Professional-quality editing software, popular amongst photographers and influencers Provides advanced options for color grading, correcting exposure, and fine detailing images.
Adobe Photoshop: Best for advanced photo manipulation and retouching . Photoshop gives you the ability to eradicate blemishes, add layers and create complicated compositions.
Snapseed: A free mobile app by Google, suitable for fast edits on the move. It is fairly easy to use and provides several tools, such as brushes, filters and healing options.
VSCO: Popular with influencers, VSCO features plenty of presets and editing tools. It’s very simple to work with, and they have a community aspect to share your work.
Canva: Canva is ideal for anyone who needs basic design tools; you can create and edit social media graphics, add text and create templates.
PicsArt (Mobile): An app with fun filters and creative effects, collage makers, stickers, and other editing tools.

Step 13: Work with a Quality Image

It’s probably safe to say that superior editing begins with a superior picture. And no amount of post-production can make a blurry, dark image look good. Here’s how to make sure you’re starting with the best possible image:

Camera Ready: Smartphones are generally sophisticated cameras nowadays, but if the best quality is your target, reach for a pro camera.
Lighting: This is a situation where natural light is your bestie. Soft, diffused light will minimize harsh shadows and make your subject pop.
Composition: Remember the rule of thirds when composing your shots. Align important elements to one side to create a more dynamic composition.

Step 14: Image cropping and straightening

After you’ve chosen your photo, it’s time to frame it properly.

Cropping: Must be done to focus more on the subject and minus the distractions. A crop tool can be found in any photo editing app and can be used to trim unused background space or adjust the alignment of your subject.
Straightening: If your photo seems a little off kilter, use the straighten tool to correct it. Align properly and your photo will look more professional and nicer overall.

Step 15: Tweak Exposure and Brightness

Exposure and brightness are key to setting the mood and ensuring your image isn’t underexposed or overexposed.

Exposure: This determines how light or dark your photo is overall. Use exposure to lighten or darken your image if your photo is either too bright or too dark.
Brightness: The brightness tool allows you to make slight adjustments to brighten or darken your image.
Shadows and Highlights: These sliders help you recover details in overly dark (shadow) or overly bright (highlight) areas.

Pro Tip: Maintain a good exposure ratio. Both overexposure and underexposure can cause detail loss.

Step 16: Adjusting Color and Contrast

Colors are among the most crucial elements of a photo. Modification of color balance can help you make your images eye-catching and grab attention.

Contrast: Increasing contrast makes the subject of your image pop more and adds depth. It increases contrast between the light and dark areas.
Saturation: By adjusting this adjustment, you can either increase or decrease the intensity of the colors in your image. Overwetting it, though, will make the image seem abnormal, so take extreme caution as well. A subtle boost can really pop colors.
Vibrance: This one behaves like saturation, but it affects less-saturated colors only, which is why it is a more subtle way to enhance the colors.

Step 17: Fine-tuning Sharpness and Detail

Sharpening is important for creating a crisp and clear image, particularly if you are shooting portraits or product shots.

Sharpening: Use the sharpening tool to enhance the definition of details in your photo. This will give your photo a clearer, more professional look.
Clarity: This tool increases midtone contrast. Textures pop. It’s particularly handy for landscape photography, architecture and close-up photography.

Step 18: Apply your desired filters and effects

If you want your photos to have a specific look and feel, filters are a great tool to use as they help tie everything together and create the aesthetic you desire for your brand.

Filters: Internal filters not used in moderation. They can improve the tonal quality of your image, but be careful to apply them in moderation. Keep it to a filter style that reflects your brand’s identity.
Effects: Most apps also let you add creative effects like bokeh (blurred lights in the background), vignettes, or grain to create a vintage aesthetic.

Pro Tip: If you want to keep a consistent feed on Instagram, use the same filter or set of filters on all your pictures.

Step 19: Retouching Portraits and Skin in Photoshop

When editing portraits, you can improve a lot with some retouching as well.

Smooth Skin: Use the skin-smoothening tool to minimize blemishes, wrinkles or other imperfections. Just don’t overdo it, skin should still look like skin.
Whiten Teeth and Eyes: Use the whitening tool to brighten teeth and eyes, but don’t go too far too much can make them look unnaturally bright.
Spotless Skin: Use a healing or cloning tool to remove any unwanted skin blemishes or imperfections.

Step 20: Editing Titles and Graphics

You can add text and graphics to help tell your story and make your images more interesting.

Text: Use bold fonts that are easy to read for captions, quotes, or promotional messages. Do not use a lot of different fonts, or it can appear out of sync visually.

Logos and Watermarks: If you’re branding the images, adding a logo and/or watermark is a good idea. Put it where it won’t be too obtrusive but is still visible.
Add Stickers and Icons: If your audience consumes fun, creative content, add in some icons or stickers. Just don’t clutter the image too much.

Step 21: Molding Aesthetic Uniformity

Maintaining a consistent aesthetic on your social media feed helps build a consistent brand identity. Here’s how you can keep a consistent aesthetic:

Color Palette: Select a color palette that represents your brand’s personality and apply it consistently in all your images.
Theme: Choose a theme (glamorous, vintage, moody) and stay true to it for a signature look.
Templates: When sharing promotional content or quotes, templates of text and design save time and promote consistency in appearance.

Step 22: Exporting and Sharing Your Edited Photos

After editing your image, it’s time to export and share it.

Social Media: The best file formats for social media are JPEG and PNG. JPEG is mostly used for images, PNG also for graphics although works well on one with alpha transparency.

Resolution: Use a high enough resolution for your platform, but don’t go so big, it just delays loading times. For most platforms, images should be 1080px wide.

OR: Each social media platform

Photo editing is a key skill for social media content creators, influencers, marketers, and anyone who wants their photos to stand out online in today’s digital world. With billions of photos traded each day, it’s no longer enough just to post a picture. To hook your audience, you should ensure your photos are eye catching, stimulating and professional!

In this guide, we’ll walk you through some essential photo editing tips and tricks to use for social media. With these tips to follow regardless of the platform be it Instagram (or Insta stories), Facebook, T(w)itter, Pinterest or some other venue you’re bound to end up with higher-quality photos as well as the tools to create images that appeal to your target audience and the platform of your choice.

Step 23: Our Most Read Social Media Photography Articles

So before we get to photo editing details, first things first, let’s talk a bit about social media photography basics. The platform you post on typically will dictate what types of images perform best, so keep these tips below in mind:

Aspect Ratios: Each platform has its preferred image size. For example:

Instagram: 1:1 (square), 4:5 (portrait), 1.91:1 (landscape)

Facebook: 1200 x 630px (horizontal), 1080 x 1080px (square)

Twitter: 1600 x 900px (landscape)12120 x 1200px (square)

Pinterest: 1000 x 1500px (portrait)

Lighting and Composition: Natural light is usually best, though editing tools can improve pictures taken in less-than-optimum lighting. Composition: things like the rule of thirds make images look more balanced and compelling.

Remember Quality Over Quantity: Instead of uploading hundreds of pictures, put out a few good quality edited images that show your personality, brand, or message instead of a feed of bad pictures.

Pick an app that fits your needs and the content you’re making.

Helpful Editing Tips to Make Your Photos Better

Now let’s take the photo editing process step by step for easier understanding:

Step 24: Begin with Cropping and Straightening

Crop photos to remove distractions and make sure that your subject is the subject. Crop out anything that isn’t necessary, keeping only what matters.

How to Crop:

Compose your subject following the rule of thirds.
As necessary make sure the horizon is straight.
Keep in mind the aspect ratio for the platform you’re posting on.

Straightening:

Images can sometimes look tilted, even when you believe they’re level. The straighten tool can help make sure yours is correctly aligned.

Step 25: Tune Exposure, Contrast and Brightness

Exposure is simply how much light there is in your image. You can completely change a photo by adjusting its exposure, contrast, and brightness.

Exposure: Adjusting the exposure will help balance out the photo if it’s too dark or too bright.
Contrast: Adjusting the contrast lightens and darkens areas of your photo, making your subject stand out.
Brightness: In some cases, your image may appear flat, and increasing the brightness helps in highlighting the details present in darker areas.

Step 26: Fine-Tune the White Balance

That said, one thing that’s important is the white balance in your camera, so that colours look natural in your photograph. If the picture has an orange, yellow, or blue tint, you can fix the color by changing the white balance settings.

Cool tone (blue): For when the photo looks too warm.
Warm Tone (Yellow): use when the photo comes out on the cool or blue side.

Advanced Editing Techniques

Once you’re established with the basics, use these advanced techniques to elevate your photos.

Applying Filters and Presets

Filters can make your photos look a little different, too, particularly when you’re going for a cohesive feel across your feed. Most editing software gives you a variety of filters but always remember to use them at only a fraction of their full strength to suit your image.

Create a Consistent Look: To ensure the same look on your feed, create a preset based on the settings you enjoy for brightness, contrast, saturation, etc. You can save this and apply it on all your photos for a consistent aesthetic.
Trending Filters : Instagram has inbuilt filters such as Clarendon, Juno and Lark, whereas VSCO gives you A6, C1 and F2.

Step 27: Cleaning up Blemishes or Imperfections

If you have imperfections in your photo, like pimples, stray hairs, tools like the clone tool or healing brush can remove them. If the photo has a distracting background, you can use background removal also.

How to use: Select the tool, paint over the blemish, and the tool samples the surrounding area automatically to replace the blemish.

Step 28: Add Creative Effects and Text

Add interesting elements like textures, bokeh, or text overlays to make your photos stand out. This can help your post be unique and add additional context or character.

Text: Use apps such as Canva for adding cool fonts, quotes, or captions to your photos.
Bokeh Effects: Soft, blurry light spots can create an ethereal, artistic look to your photo.

Step 29: Layering and Blending Modes Experimentation

Layering for more advanced editing, layering is using different images or elements and layering elements to create a composite. You can use the blending modes so that those layers interact with you.

Types of Blend Modes: Multiply, Screen, Overlay, Soft Light. Try all of these to make some interesting visual effects.

Step 30: Using the Gradient Tool

They often bring depth and dimension in your photos. Use them to accentuate areas of an image or to create an artsy background.

Social Media Image Optimization

After you edit your photo, you’ll need to optimize it for the platform on which you’re posting. Some optimization tips are as follows:
File Size and Format: Use compressed images to prevent longer load times without sacrificing quality. JPEGs should be used for photographs and PNGs should be used for images containing text or any logos or images requiring transparency.
Resolution: The higher the resolution of your photos, the better as it will avoid pixelation, especially when viewed on larger screens.
Use Hashtags and Descriptions: You can attract and reach your target audience more by using the right hashtags to accompany your pictures and also writing good descriptions.

Step 31: Declare Your Aesthetic

When you’re editing for social media, it’s also important to stay on brand with your aesthetic. This entails using consistent editing styles, colors and themes that embody your brand’s identity.

Create a Visual Style: If you lean toward bright, airy photos or dark, moody images, maintaining a style that represents your brand’s personality is a must.
Consistency: Putting photos that share a color palette, tone, and feeling, an editing style makes your feed more cohesive, and visually pleasing!

Final Thoughts

Knowing how to edit photos for social media can enhance your intrinsic value. With a basic understanding of editing techniques, the right tools and some practice with advanced effects, you will be able to create photos that not only stand out but also fit with you or your brand identity.

With practice, you´ll edit photos so easily, and it makes your content more attractive and be appealing with your audience.

UK Clipping Path can take off your complex photo editing chores for seamless professional results. We provide services like ecommerce photo editing services, ghost mannequin services, multiple clipping path service, jewelry retouching service and many more. Want top-notch service at an affordable price? Try us for free and see the difference.

Note: Quality over quantity. Dedicate some time to edit your photos, and it will pay off by showing up in your engagement, your follower numbers, and overall, everything online.

That’s the complete guide! If you need, I am here for help with expanding any part or modifying it on specific social media platforms.