In 2020, everyone loves to capture every moment and they put emotions into the frame by editing them. But editing is a tough task, Right? If you are an average photographer then editing a picture is a bit tricky task. But in this era of photography, we are making it simple on how to edit photos.

In Social Media, you must follow some Photographers and you always wanted to edit pictures like them. But, you do not know the exact process. You start editing a picture and ends up making many mistakes.

Do not worry as we are here to guide you on how to edit photos like a pro photographer with a little knowledge. We will tell you the exact process that you can follow in order to edit a picture with great style.

So, without a further due let’s get started.

Steps on how to edit photos like a pro.

This is simple and easy to understand. There are many Software and Application on both Mobile and PC platforms. A few of the best on PCs are Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom. And we have Adobe Lightroom, Google Snapseed, and PicsArt for Mobile Devices.

Indeed, You can download PC version of Adobe products from Creative Cloud.

And also, Download Adobe Lightroom, Google Snapseed, and PicsArt from respective links for Mobile devices.

The steps we are going to share is almost the same in each of the Software and Applications. We are taking Adobe Lightroom for this guide to explain the correct way of using these platforms.

To explain, here are the steps you should follow:

1. Understand the tools given.
2. Learn the Curve graph.
3. Use RAW Images.
4. Mimic your favorite Photographer
5. Look what other photographers are doing
6. Do not stick with the same editing pattern

1. Understand the tools given.

No matter which Editing software or application you are using the basic knowledge is must to have. Each and every application do have basic tools such as Lighting, Color, Details, and Curve Graph, etc. And these are very important tools to learn as we can achieve 80% of the editing with the help of these tools.

Additionally, there are many other tools also which you must understand in order to learn how to edit photos.

In Lightroom, we have tools like Basic editing, Tone Curve, Color, Split Toning, Detail, Lens Correction, Transform, Effects, Calibration, and Manual editing. Basic editing includes Exposure, Contrast, Highlights, Shadows, etc. Each of the tools has its own adjustments which you can learn in order to edit pictures.

# Basic or Light

Under Basic or Light Section you will get three sections like White Balance, Tone, and Presence. This may differ in the PC and Mobile platforms. In the Mobile platform, White Balance comes under Color Section and Presence comes under Effects Section. But the work will be the same in both situations.

Exposure: It will increase or decrease the overall exposure in the picture. Or in the easy words we can say is this tool will increase or decrease the light in the image.

Contrast: It will enhance the darks and lightens the lights in the image. You can increase or decrease the contrast by sliding it left or right respectively.

Highlight: It is used to enhance the brighter colors in the image. You can increase or decrease it by sliding it left or right.

Shadows: It is used to enhance the darker colors in the image. You can increase or decrease it by sliding it left or right

White: It is used to enhance the whites in the image.

Black: It is used to enhance the blacks in the image.

Also, we have White Balance settings in it which are used to increase or decrease the temperature in the image. Going to the left will make the Picture to the bluish side, whereas going to the right will make the picture orange.

Also, we have a Presence section which enhances the sharpness and removes the haze from the image. Also, it works with the colors in the image.

Apart from this, there are other sections which has to be understood in order to learn how to edit photos.

2. Learn the Curve graph.

If we say that you can edit your pictures by this Tone Curve graph only then will you believe this? Yes, you can edit a picture beautifully by using this Tone Curve Graph. You must learn this tool in order to get better editing in your pictures.

In this Tone Curve Graph, you will get a graph like the above image. It will be the same in almost all the applications available.

This Tone Curve Graph includes three points on the x-axis including the Shadows, Mid-tones, and Highlights from left to right. And on the y-axis, you go from a darker side to the brighter side.

Also, all the famous styling is done by the Tone curve graph. Like we all are impressed by the moody looks of the image. And we get this moody look by this Tone Curve graph. This famous curve graph is referred to as S-Curve.

• 

• 

As you can see in the above image, how the Tone curve graph changes the overall look and feel of the Image.

3. Use RAW Images.

Nowadays, every Smartphone and Camera saves the RAW images too. In RAW images we have the feasibility to edit the image with more accuracy. RAW images save the images in a format that we can easily manipulate the colors present in the image.

Using RAW images in editing will give us more power to adjust the overall colors and look. In JPEG or JPG format the colors are locked and to manipulate them we have to use extra tools. But this is not the case in RAW images. They are very easy to edit.

4. Mimic your favorite Photographer, how they edit their photos

We all have some photographers in our network whose work looks impressive. We can also mimic their style and look which they give in their images. This is not wrong, we can copy them. Many of them also provide their presets also, Just in case if you like to see our presets then click here. We can see their work and try to implement their kind of settings in our pictures.

Make a list of a few photographers that you love and then visit their social networks like Instagram. Watch their work and download their few images just to understand the basic colors that they produce (NOTE: It is unauthorized to use someone’s photos without their consent.)

But wait, do not use a very different kind of image to learn. By this, we simply mean that watch the work of a photographer who shoots a similar type of photos that you take. If you copy the editing style of the totally different picture then it will be quite difficult to get a better edit in your picture. For Example, There is no sense of copying the editing style of a wildlife-related picture to portrait pictures. Also, notice the lighting of the image.

Now, in Lightroom open the picture of your favorite photographer side by side and try to copy the editing style into your picture. It will be difficult to get the exact look and feel of the image but you can achieve maximum work from it.

5. Look around what other photographers are doing

If we see the work of different photographers then we will understand that there is variety in their work. We will find that there are many different ways to edit a picture. The more we will explore the more variations we will get.

6. Do not stick with the same editing pattern

Most people edit all their pictures with the same look and feel. But we will advise you to change your editing pattern from time to time. This way you will get many other variations of editing from the same image.

If you want to learn how to edit photos like a pro then follow these simple steps.

• Firstly, Make 5 copies of the same image.
• Then edit each photograph with different editing styles.
• Compare each of them.

By following these steps you will find that each editing style has its own way of putting the beauty into the image. Try this and you might get your own way of editing style.

Conclusion on how to edit photos

To conclude, we can say that if we remember these steps in order to edit photos then we can create many beautiful photos. But we also not forget that editing is free to do a thing. One can achieve good photographs by keep practicing how to edit photos. Practicing will enhance your editing level and it can help you develop high-quality images.

This guide will help you for sure if you follow each and every step. Also, you can get your own unique editing style.

Thanks for reading this article and I hope it will help you to learn how to edit photos. We will see you in the next one. Keep Shining.