We use our smartphones or professional cameras to take interesting photos, while photo editing turns our images from flat to stunning professional-looking photos. Editing photos is an exciting and rewarding process. Seeing your images turn from their original state to photos with fascinating backgrounds, tones, and depth brings deep satisfaction. However, the secret of professional photos lies in the skills of the photographer and editor. Consider these 6 steps on how you can edit photos like a pro.

1. Select an Editing App or Program

Many apps and computer software out there offer a variety of photo editing features that can produce stunning editorial photo finishes. The software you select depends on your level of photo editing. If you are a beginner, start with free software applications such as Adobe Photoshop Express and Photos POS Pro and thereafter move to paid software that offers more editing features. 

2. Straighten, Crop, and Remove Unwanted objects 

Straightening tools help you in correcting the angle of a photo. For the removal of unwanted objects in your photo, crop or use cloning and removal tools depending on the software you use. Cropping your photo allows you to cut out unwanted objects surrounding your points of interest in the photo. Cloning and removal tools allow duplicating one part of the image to cover or ‘erase’ the unwanted objects. Adjust the clone or removal brush to the desired size. Click on the part you wish to duplicate and then brush over the unwanted object until you ‘erase it’ from the photo. 

3. Resizing original size of photo

To create sharp photos, it is important to keep the correct size and resolution of your photo. Work on a large-sized photo before resizing it to a smaller size, than from small to large size photo. When resizing from a small to large size photo, the image resolution becomes blurry and you lose out on the sharpness of the image.

4. Emphasize the Interesting Parts of Your Photo

The best photos tell a story. Remember the saying, ‘a picture is worth a thousand words?’ That stresses the goal of taking pictures. When you take photos, include not only the people or objects in your view fender but also the surrounding scenery. Ask yourself, what do I find interesting in this photo and why? Doing so will allow you to highlight your point of interest, bring out surrounding areas as complimenting features to your focus point. To give an example, you might have a close-up photo of a person’s face. What is your point of interest? Is it the expression in the eyes? Edit your photo to highlight and enhance the intensity of the eyes’ expression.

5. Adjust Exposure and Contrast of Your Photos

 Exposure refers to how light or dark you want your photo. Contrast refers to how dark or light your photo tones. Adjusting the exposure and contrast of your photo allows you to correct the color of your photo and create a mood and feel. Most editing software has brightness, highlighting, sharpening, hue, saturation, white balance features. The brightness tool is used to adjust the photo’s exposure. For example, your aim is to whiten teeth in a photo. Use the hue and saturation layers to adjust the lightness of the teeth.

6.  Change Your Photo Background Composition

 New background can transform your photo from its original background to new scenery. Combining two or more photos can change your photo’s composition and add interesting features. Remember the perspective of both the new photo and your photo should match.

 Photo Finish Summary

It is important not to edit your photo with too many features. You still want to maintain your original photo’s emotions and quality with slight improvements to get stunning professional photos.