How to: edit your own photos

Hey guys! So, I thought I would put my graphic design knowledge to good use and teach those of you who are unfamiliar with photoshop the basics in editing your own photos. The most important part of any fashion blog is the content. Right? This, of course, includes the photographs. Nobody likes to look at a bad photo! If your photos are low quality than your blog might also appear low quality to the observer. Below is an example of a photo before and after editing so you can see the difference between an edited photo and unedited one. 
Hola chicas! Pense en usar lo que se del diseño grafico un poco mas en este blog y hoy decidi enseñarlas como editar sus propias fotos utilizando photoshop. Si tienes un blog de modas, es importante tener muy buenas fotos para que se vea profesional. A nadie le gusta ver una mala foto! Abajo les enseño dos fotos. Una antes de editar y la otra despues.

See the difference? One has brighter and more vibrant lighting, less harsh shadows and a bit more detail while the other one is dull, dark and just plain boring. I might over edit a bit with the brightness and color but..thats just how I roll. How much color, vibrance or light you want your photograph to have is up to you. So, here are a few tools you can use in photoshop to help your photo look more professional and polished.. therefore creating a more pleasant visual experience for your readers. It's important to keep in mind that each tool should be used sparingly. Try not to overdo it. It's always better to start small and see where it takes you. 
Si notan la diferencia? Una de las photos se ve mas vibrante, con mas detalle y con menos sombras mientras el otro es obscura y mas aburrida. Tu decides el brillo del color o detalle que deseas tener pero es importante saber como poder editar lo que tu quieras cambiar. Aqui les va un pequeño tutorial en ingles sobre como editar tus fotos usando photoshop. 

curve tool

Curve tool adjusts the overall contrast, local contrast, and color. Basically you can change the lightness and darkness of the pixels within your photograph. Find this under 'Image' (top left corner of photoshop), then 'adjustments' then 'curves' (seen in step 1). Play around with it first to see what it does by moving the two anchor points you see highlighted with red arrows up and down. I like to simply move the bottom left anchor down very slightly and the top left anchor the opposite direction (step 2). This should create a smooth stretched out S shape and a nice even edit to the contrast and color. Don't move the anchors too far. Remember to always lightly edit and not overdo it.

levels

Level tool is used to change the brightness or tonal range of the photo (ie, make a photo overall darker or lighter). Find this under Image-adjustments-levels. Working with the three points you see (little arrows seen in step 2), the hash marks on left will adjust blacks and the hash marks on right will adjust the whites. I find that it works best when you simply adjust the end arrows to where the beginning or end of black image are and then slightly adjust the middle hash mark to my liking.  

patch tool
Patch tool is used for retouching blemishes, spots, bruises..etc. It uses sample pixels or patterns from another area. Select the patch tool (found on tool bar on left hand side of screen).  


Click and circle over your selection you want to retouch then click drag and drop the selection on top of another surface that is similar. For instance, if there is a pimple you want to remove. Make a circle around it by clicking and dragging and then click on that selection, drag and drop onto a smoother part of skin. The selection will automatically erase and blend in with the other selection. This one is my favorite! So easy and so efficient.

dodge and burn tool

Dodge and Burn tool is also a favorite of mine. I use this a lot to make details stand out and make the shadows on my face be where they are supposed to be instead of where they are not. The 'dodge' is to lighten the exposure and 'burn' is to darken exposure. You can simply click and drag around where you want to use this. Its important to make sure the exposure (seen in step 2) is set up very low or else it will be too obvious therefore making your photo look worse than it was before. You can adjust accordingly but I find that it is mostly not necessary to bring the opacity up past 10 %. The Dodge and burn will be found in the tools palette on the left of the photoshop screen. 

Well, I hope this gave some useful info! Let me know if you this worked out for you guys and if you have any other photoshop tutorial requests please let me know :) You can leave me a comment below... or just email me at Frankvinyl@gmail.com. You can also find me on Facebook here!

PS. Here's another great page I found for beginners that want to know more about photoshop: 
12 Beginner Tutorials for getting started with Photoshop 


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