What is the hardest part when editing photos?
Editing is not a tough task, except you are not able to see some colors and shades as a colorblind person.
These days, with so many filters available on social networks and thousands of apps, editing photos is not rocket science, and you can do it with only a few clicks. However, with these simple solutions, the results won't be outstanding.
Why do you need to learn photo editing?
Social media has become an essential part of everyone’s life. It not only helps us to build relationships but also, share our unique personalities through images. Social media has played a big role with how people interact with each other and it is something that is not slowing down anytime soon. So it's better to learn how to edit your photos once, and use these tricks your whole life!
In this post, you’ll learn basic photo editing on your smartphone, most popular filters, and you’ll also get a breakdown of some of the best photo-editing apps that can take your images to new heights.
1. Start with a quality shot
The ultimate shortcut to crafting a great post is to begin with a quality photo. A bad photo will always be a bad photo no matter how much you try to alter it. Try shooting in natural light, and take a bunch of shots. That way you have choices.
2. Choose your filter
If your image editor offers filters, you can apply those filters to your digital photos for a wide range of uses. Most photo filters manipulate colors, saturation, light exposure or simulate a change in focus.
Either you use the built-In photos App on your phone or you editing your photo in a social network app like Instagram, you can choose a filter first and then start the adjust setting (part 3).
Filters are like ice cream flavors: tastes vary by person, but some are more popular than others. According to a U.S.-wide study, the best Instagram filter is Clarendon. It offers brightening and highlighting effects that flatter most pictures, contributing to its universal appeal. Runner-up favorites include Gingham, Juno, and Lark.
3. Adjust your settings
There are 6 essential adjustments that can make a normal photo outstanding.
Increase the saturation
Increase the Sharpness
Adjust Highlights
Adjust Shadows
Adjust Brightness
Adjust Contrast
All of these adjustments are available in IOS and Android phones.
Increase the saturation
The Saturation tool makes the colors more vibrant or less vibrant.
In most cases, increasing the saturation a little bit will make your image “pop.” But be careful not to over-saturate the colors. If you make the colors too vibrant, they won’t look natural.
Maybe as a colorblind user, you don't notice many differences by using some of the adjustments, but it turns an average image into an amazing one!
Increase the Sharpness
The Sharpness tool sharpens detail in your photo by making edges crisper and more defined. Be careful not to increase sharpness too much. Over-sharpening will reduce the image quality.
Adjust Highlights
iPhone; The Exposure tool brightens or darkens your photo. Drag the slider right to brighten the image, or left to darken it. The Exposure tool has more effect on the bright tones in your photo more than the dark tones.
Android; The Highlights tool is designed for the same effect on Android phones.
Adjust Shadows
iPhone; The Brilliance tool is great for bringing out details and making your photo look richer and more vibrant. Drag the slider right to brighten shadows and darken highlights. If you drag left, the shadows will become darker and the highlights brighter.
Android; The Shadow tool is designed for the same effect on Android phones.
Adjust Brightness
The Brightness tool brightens or darkens your photo. Drag the slider left to darken your photo, or right to brighten it.
The Brightness tool has more effect on the shadows and midtones. This means the dark and medium tones get adjusted more than the bright tones.
Adjust Contrast
The Contrast tool adjusts the contrast between the dark and bright tones in your photo. Drag the slider right to increase contrast, making the shadows darker and the highlights brighter. Or drag left to reduce contrast, making the shadows and highlights more similar in tone.
Source: iPhone Photography School
Best photo & video editing apps for IOS and Android
If you’re looking for more advanced photo & video editing apps with more tools, these 3 awesome free photo-editing apps open up endless creative opportunities for your phone photography.
1. Snapseed
Google-owned Snapseed offers a wide range of exposure and color tools to make tweaks to your images, but also has plenty of filter options.
2. Picsart Photo Editor
We start the list with Picsart photo editor. Not only can you edit photos, but it also helps you with quick tweaks for videos. You can add filters to images, apply photo effects, remove the background to add a different texture. It even supports adding text to photos or use designer fonts. It also comes equipped with an AI-powered smart selection tool for quick removal of objects from the image, whenever required. As for videos, you can embellish them before posting on Instagram or TikTok. You can trim the content, and make a slideshow with music.
3. VSCO
VSCO is renowned for its large library of filters. And besides that, it lets you edit photos with crop, borders, and vignettes. It also allows you to adjust the temperature, color, skin tone of an image. VSCO has its own online community, so you can either share these photos on the platform or spread it wide using Instagram or share it with friends via WhatsApp.
DON'T FORGET TO HAVE FUN!
Online Training for Colorblind People
