Photo by Timothy Exodus on Unsplash
Photos play a very important role when it comes to communicating with your audience. According to research, our brains process and respond to images faster than text or other data types. This makes them important for your website and social media accounts.
However, you need to make sure that your photos stand out and are correctly edited for them to attract your audience. There are different tools for you to use to achieve this. You should, however, use the right photo editing tools for your photos to stand out.
Choosing a Photo Editing Tool: Features to Look For
A few years ago, photo editing was a preserve for graphic designers. Fortunately, things have changed. Technological advancements have given birth to powerful photo editing tools that can be used by anyone, even those without a background in graphic design.
However, you need to ensure that you are using the right tools, with the right features for your photos to stand out. Some important features to look for include blurring and sharpening features, contrast and color adjustments, and brightness, resizing, and cropping capabilities.
Others include the ability to magnify images for you to work on different areas of your photos effectively, text addition, filters, straightening and rotation tools, and the ability to undo all edits to your photos.
With such a photo editing tool, you will be able to quickly and easily get high-quality images for your website and social media accounts by performing the following photo edits;
Enhancing Backgrounds Through Blurring
Sometimes, you might want to enhance some elements of your photos without making them the central point of attraction. These are elements such as backgrounds that might take a behind-the-scenes or neutral role in your photos.
Photos make amazing backgrounds in different designs. However, most people add text to their photos. With this, you might find yourself in a situation where the text is not readable due to the photo details.
If, for instance, you want an attractive Instagram account, you can blur the photo to get an uncluttered and smooth background. When doing this, add some light to the photo for moderate blurring. This allows you to retail the photo scenes and shapes.
Enhancing Composition and Focus Through Cropping
One of the easiest ways to transform photos for websites or social media accounts is through cropping. It is also one of the best ways to get rid of distracting or unwanted areas, emphasize a certain part of the photo, and improve the photo’s composition.
However, when cropping photos for your website or social media accounts, start with large images. This is because you will be reducing the resolution and quality of your photos the more you crop them.
If, for instance, you have taken photos for your website but realize that you do not want to show some elements of the photos, you can crop them to remove unwanted areas. You can also blur these areas if that option works for you.
Enhancing Shadows and Highlights Through Contrast
Sometimes, you might have an amazing image that does not stand out on your website or social media accounts. One way of making such images pop and shine is by increasing their contrast. This helps you attract your social media audience easily.
When you increase the contrast of your photos, you produce darker darks and lighter lights. You also add a range of tones to the photo, something that makes the photos look much better than they originally did.
If you are looking for an even and flat tone, you can reduce the contrast of your photos. However, you need to be careful when playing with the contrast of your photos. Too much of it can blow out highlights and make shadows dark. This destroys your photos.
Reducing or Enhancing Color Intensity Through Saturation
Most people use saturation when they want to play with or adjust the colors of their photos. Saturation is all about the intensity of the color of your photos. A more saturated photo has brighter and bolder colors.
A less saturated photo, on the other hand, has more faded colors. It looks grayer than it originally was. If you completely desaturate a photo, you will end up with a black-and-white image.
When saturating photos for your website or social media accounts, you should avoid a lot of saturation since it makes photos look unnatural and strange. You should, therefore, use saturation only when you need it.
Photos are important in helping you attract your audiences and pass on the message you are trying to convey with ease. However, ensure that you have used the right tools to edit your photos for your website or social media accounts.
Caroline is doing her graduation in IT from the University of South California but keens to work as a freelance blogger. She loves to write on the latest information about IoT, technology, and business. She has innovative ideas and shares her experience with her readers.