Wednesday 20 August 2014

How I edit my blog photos

how i edit my blog photos

Unfortunately, I don't own a DSLR or any other decent camera for that matter (except for an old Canon that barely works anymore). I take the pictures for this blog with my Samsung Galaxy S2. Yeah, I know, shocker - a blogger who takes pictures with their phone?! But honestly, it works for me and I don't see the point in spending a fortune on a DSLR at this point, when after editing, the pictures I take with my phone look half decent. In this post I'm going to show you exactly how I edit my blog photos in Photoshop CS3, but I bet you can do the same with any other editing program.

Basically what I do is play around with the brightness and contrast and the curves and put some finishing touches with the Spot cleaning brush to correct any mistakes. I prefer adding new adjustment layers as this way I can control their opacity and fill and mix it up a little bit. I would advice against making the adjustments to the background layer directly because you can't make changes to it later if you feel like you need to.

Brightness and contrast:
how to edit your blog photos

Adjusting the brightness and contrast can improve your pictures immensely. However it's important not to go overboard with it because you want to show the product's true colour, noting too bright or too dark. What I do here is add a new Brightness and contrast adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness and contrast) and up the brightness to about +20 and up the contrast to about +5-10 if needed. A pretty self-explainatory step, but a very important one as well.

Curves:
how to edit photos for your blog

You can skip this step if you're satisfied with the results you got, but for me it's good to add a little extra depth and to brighten up the image a bit more. What I do is create a new Curves adjustment layer (Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Curves). And here's where you can get extra creative and make your pictures stand out. I use the built-in curves such as Linear Contrast and Lighten, but you can also buy or download pre-made curves (to install them simply click on the button left of "OK", then click on Load preset, choose your target colder and load your curve). I like the ones from Digital Film Actions but you can search Deviantart for more curves or Photoshop actions to find the ones that suit your needs best. Once you've completed this step you should have an almost finished image.

Spot Healing Brush: If there's a pesky little speck of dust on your background, or of there's a stain on the packaging of your product that you've missed, that's when the Spot healing brush comes in handy! And oh, yeah. It's great for removing pimples as well! Score. So what I do is basically take the spot healing brush and click on the stain/spot/dust and it blends seamlessly with what's next to it.

Extra tips: You can crop your images if you haven't composed your shot well. It's a quick fix for that. Also, if you find that you stick to the same routine, you can compose a Photoshop Action to speed up the process. Or you can download some pre-made actions and see which ones tickle your fancy.

7 comments:

  1. I use my Iphone and honestly I was going to get a DSLR but then after being told about curving the lines to make it look straighter and adjusting the brightness slightly I dont see the need for it anymore! Its funny how we can feel pressure to get the best things while blogging when really we probably have what we already need.

    http://allthingskerri.blogspot.co.uk/

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    1. Yeah, exactly. Not saying this wouldn't look bether if it'd been shot with a DSLR, but it still looks pretty decent :)

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  2. Great tips :) I also use my iPhone and edit the photos in iPhoto on my MacBook. I definitely want to invest in a good camera down the line but for now this is getting the job done! It can be a pain trying to get good photos of a makeup look though (such as a close up of the face/eyes/lips) x
    Beautywithcharm

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    1. Glad you found them useful :) Yeah it's a bit of a pain sometimes, but I'm sort of used to it, haha.

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  3. Great tips, thanks :)
    http://alittlebitofjenn.blogspot.co.uk

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  4. Love this! I take photos with my iPhone 4S and I find that with the right light and background the photos only need little editing, but they're great! ;) xx

    Gyudy’s Notes Of Beauty

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Thanks for taking the time to read my babblings, I try to answer every signle comment, so make sure you leave one (and a blog link as I love checking new blogs out)! Love, Hristina!

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