If you are a photographer, you might be expected to be aware of some basic editing skills. However, sometimes, you need a lot of time to learn all the useful tricks that can make editing faster and easier when you are on a tight schedule. While you can easily avail photo editing services for complex images that require faster and more professional editing, some simple tips can take your edits to a whole new level. Here are some of the techniques that every beginner should know.
Learn to use the Healing Brush
The healing brush tool is used to fix imperfections such as scratches and blemishes in the image. It either samples the surrounding area or uses a predefined pattern to allow you to blend the visible defects into the image. It is more useful than the spot healing brush because of its precision- it allows you to pick your own source points as well. It is very useful in portrait photo editing for fixing blemishes on the subject’s skin and can even get rid of various distractions in the background.
Use Dodge & Burn Properly
Since the dodge and burn tools are destructive in nature, you always have to create duplicate layers to work with them. By using separate layers to work with them, you can also go back and alter some of the changes. They are quite powerful and versatile since they can be set to manipulate shadows, mid-tones, or highlights. By creating an interesting transition from dark to light, you can develop a sense of depth in some of your images.
Experiment with Layer Masks
Layer masking gives you more flexibility while editing since it’s a reversible and not a permanent method to hide parts of a layer. It is useful for creating composite images, separating objects to use them in other documents, and limiting some edits to a part of a layer. Layer masking is very useful in instances when you don’t want the edits to be global and only want to manipulate certain parts of an image. In portraiture, some body parts often have uneven tones. Layer masks allow you to balance these colors and get a more even skin tone in your final image.
Explore Layer Blending Modes
There are different ways to blend or interact with the layers, all of which are offered in blend modes. The only way to blend layers without using blend modes is by lowering a layer's opacity, but it doesn't have a very aesthetically appealing effect. When it comes to editing, retouching, and restoring photos, blend modes are extremely useful. When you pick a blending mode, you blend the selected layer with the layer below based on the mode you have chosen. The pixels from the top layer will alter the color and luminosity of those on the underlying layers to produce the desired effect.
Fix Color Casts with Selective Color Tool
The selective color tool allows a lot of control over the color in an image such as removing all but one color. You can cross blend individual color channels using sliders by adding blue hues to your shadows, gold/yellow tones to your highlights, and more to make your images look fantastic. It can also be used to edit specific tones and fix various color casts. In portrait images, it can correct darkening lip colors or fix uneven skin tones.
Try Out Different Gradients
The gradient tool allows a gradual transition between two or more colors and can be applied to any selected area in an image or just the background. Without a selection of a particular area, the gradient appears on the entire layer. As vibrant as its results are, it should be used sparingly since the overall effect can be a bit overwhelming and change the effect of the image. It can completely transform images that lack visual interest and provide a subtle vibrant effect.
Save Time with Presets
Presets are effects that change the position of either all or some of the sliders to a predetermined place to edit an image to your liking without wasting too much time trying to replicate the same effect. It works by saving the exact combination of different positions of the sliders after you make an edit and use it later on another image to achieve the same desired effect. They are very versatile and user-friendly making repetitive tasks easy by allowing one-click edits, which works well on images with similar exposure.
Even though these are just some tips for beginners, you might get the desired effect or might be working with an image that requires more professional expertise. If you are looking for a photo editing agency, contact us at Clipixie for easy, effortless editing.
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