9 Simple Photo Editing Tips that will make Your Blog Photos Awesome!

You all know how important images are, right? It’s the first thing we see and usually what makes us get interested or push us away. In the Blogging world, photos are {besides the content itself and SEO} the most important aspect of our content. Especially when it comes to social media. When you are on Pinterest, you don’t pin a dark, dull and bad composed picture to your boards. You just scroll down and keep going. I bet you don’t even actually see those pictures because they don’t pup up. I do see them because while I’m surfing the net, besides looking for inspiration, I also look for new ways to compose my photos. Today I’m sharing 9 simple photo editing tips so you can create awesome blog photos.

9 Simple Photo Editing Tips for Awesome Blog Photos

If you are a blogger, you know what I’m talking about. Either if you are starting or a established blogger, you know how important your photos are. Of course most of us, when we started, we didn’t really know much about what was the deal so we just took pictures with our phones or compact camera and uploaded to our posts. Am I close?

The problem is not really the camera itself, is more about how you take your photos and then how you edit them.

You see…

The biggest mistake we can make is to use the photos just like they come out of the camera or phone. I mean, for blogging purposes. Especially when you are a food blogger, every photo needs some touches and love so they get more attractive. A dish can be mouthwatering but a bad photo can disgust people and drive them away. I know because I’ve been there. You have no idea how  really bad were my photos from my first posts and Oh boy! I so need to update those. I also have been driven away from a post because of the photos.

So, please, if you are a blogger, don’t under-estimate, not for a second, the importance of your blog’s photos. Before you even think of understanding techy stuff, go for a how to take photos and how to edit your photos first.

In this post I’m not going to teach how to take photos because that would take a really long post and also probably a series of posts. What I want to give you is some really important but simple photo editing tips so your photos will look amazing. I’ll also share a couple tips for while you are taking your photos that I think will make a huge difference while you are editing them.

Of course, editing doesn’t fix composition, styling or the choice of colors and props on your setup. Again, that’s a conversation for another time. Editing will help you make your already well taken photos stand out and get a lot of eyes on them.

So let’s get to it!

While taking the photos Tips

1. Use NATURAL LIGHT.

Yes. ONLY NATURAL LIGHT. Even if you have fancy lighting equipment, you can never beat the power of natural light. I know there are great ways to make awesome photos with artificial light, but believe me Sun/Day light has that something that can be beaten. It’s also good to make the light come from sides or slightly diagonal to back. This creates great looking photos.

2. Use LIGHT BOUNCER.

A light bouncer can be bought or simply made with some foam board. I specially like white bouncer or white foam board. This will help you fill the subject with enough light so you won’t get those hard shadows. You can use one, or two, or as many as you think will work best. Unless of course the main purpose of your photo IS actually those high contrast, dark{ish} styling.

3. ALWAYS USE A TRIPOD.

Yes pleaseeee. Especially if where you are, there is not enough light. The camera probably will need slow shooter speed and no matter how still you can be, the image will still have some blur in it. Most importantly, since the ideal is to shoot with no more than 400 ISO, the tripod becomes your best friend to get a sharp and crisp photo.

Ok so, while Editing, Photo Editing Tips

No matter what app you are using, these tips can be done. I know Picmonkey does, Photoshop, Lightroom, canva, etc. If you use a DSLR camera I highly recommend using your RAW image quality setting in your camera instead of jpg and edit with Lightroom or Photoshop Camera Raw. If your camera only allows .jpg image then I recommend Lightroom and PicMonkey best. But of course, there are many other apps out there that are as good. If your app doesn’t have these features, then I highly recommend changing it for one that does.

4. Adjust EXPOSURE.

Exposure is just the amount of light that is captured when a photo is taken. When a photo is way too bright, we call it over exposed and when it’s too dark that we can barely see something we call it under exposed. This is something you can adjust in your app making the photo lighter or darker depending on your photo’s needs. Often photos come from the camera a bit dull and dark. So increasing it a bit or a lot {depending on the case} can bring more life to the photo.

5. Adjust HIGHLIGHTS.

The highlights are basically the brightest points in the image. Places where the light hit the most. What I usually do is turn it down almost all the way. I do this because when I increase exposure those highlights get too white, without shapes. It doesn’t look good. I always recommend turn down highlights and increasing exposure and whites. You can see what I mean by looking at any of the photos from my settings.

6. Adjust WHITES.

Not talking about white balance. White balance is the whole thing we are doing when editing. If you use Lightroom or Photoshop Camera Raw you have some sliders. One of them is WHITES and I usually take it between 40 and 50 {halfway} when I’m working with light background photos.

7. Adjust your TEMPERATURE.

In my opinion this is one of the most important aspects during a photo editing. Color temperature is a measurement of the hue of a particular light source. It is measured in degrees Kelvin. Most photos come from camera really blue{ish} and that’s really something you don’t want, specially with food photos. When photos are blue{ish} we say it’s cool and when it’s yellowish we say it’s warm. The ideal temperature is somewhere in between but slightly warmer {see second photo bellow}. When you start increasing the temperature you notice how the colors come to life. Browns, reds, pinks, oranges get brighter and gorgeous. But there’s a limit, if you add too much warmth then you lose it all and the photo looks burnt.

I love how Todd from B&H Photo Video explains about photo color temperature. You can jump there if you want to learn more about it!

8. Adjust SHARPNESS.

Yup! Important too. Most apps have a tool called Sharpen. That tool makes the photo to have more defined edges and details. Less blurry. In a cake you want the detail in the grains of the inside. Usually photos come from the camera with a bit of blurriness that is easily fixed by adding some percentage of sharpness. But again, not too much, not too little. Just enough so you see details but not too much so you crack it up!

9. Adjust SHADOWS & BLACKS.

These two features I don’t modify them much. My styling is usually light color, whites mostly so I barely move these sliders. When I do, I usually make them -10 to -20 just to have a slight volume but not high contrasts. Except when I use black or really dark backgrounds, then I do push these some more.

There are tons of other editing features but these are the 9 most important ones. All my photos are edited this way and my numbers are usually a lot alike, with white or dark backgrounds. Jus a few things can change from one to another.

Of course, what works for me, not necessarily works for everybody. My main purpose here is to give you tips so you can adjust them to your own styling and needs. Maybe turning down highlights is not your thing, so you just leave it or increase it.

This kind of settings are a bit subjective as each photo is unique. 2 photographers can take the same photo, edit the same and not getting the same results. So, this is only a place to start.

What I’m trying here with these photo editing tips is to guide you a little bit so you can get the best photos possible. A blue{ish}, dull, unsharpened photo is not attractive but a warm, sharp, and crisp photo gets tons of shares and attention. It’s not hard to accomplish a good photo. All you need is to try and practice so it starts coming naturally.

I hope this helps you even if it’s a little bit improve your photos. I know it can get really overwhelming but it’s not that hard. Please I would love to know if this post was helpful for you and also if you have any tip and trick that I missed here. I would be more than happy to add it.

Thank you for stopping by!

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