There are many photo editing tools out there, but most photographers typically start out with Adobe Photoshop for basic editing. It’s a powerful yet intuitive tool that can help you bring out the best in your images, so if you are a serious photographer, it is essential that you learn how to edit pictures with Photoshop. Lightroom PRESET PACKS: Music I use in All my videos: - AMAZING for YouTubers!Color Graded with my PM LUTS Pa. Best for: Image editing with extensive filters. IPhone Photo Editor Photo Editor by Aviary. This free iPhone photo editor is widely lauded for its variety of photo editing tools and effects, clean interface, and wealth of sharing options that make posting your shots online a breeze. Photoshop & Lightroom are the most common photo editing software. We know that these can be expensive (even with the lowest mont hly Adobe subscription available for them) and that you have other expenses you need to worry about, so we’ve compiled a list of free software that you can use instead.
The Editing Difference
![Best Best](https://images.pexels.com/photos/2244330/pexels-photo-2244330.jpeg?auto=compress&cs=tinysrgb&dpr=1&w=500)
You’ve spent many hours on making your latest line of jewelry. You’ve spent another bunch setting up and completing a photoshoot of the new pieces. Now all you have to do is post them online, right?
Wrong!
While your photos can look great right after you snap them, especially on phones where complex algorithms do many basic adjustments behind the scenes, spending even just a little bit of time on editing the photos before posting them online can take them from good to amazing.
To illustrate I want you to look at the photos below.
RAW Image
This first photo is right off a DSLR camera in RAW format (some smartphones have the ability to save in this format). RAW is a file type (think JPG) that saves more data than a JPG and therefore allows you greater latitude when editing your photos. As you can see, even though the piece is well lit the image is rather dark and under saturated.
Raw image without edits |
Add Basic Edits
Now we’ll show you the same photo with basic adjustments of things like brightness, contrast, and color. Already you can see a huge improvement in the look and feel of the image compared to the one before. If you were taking the same photo with your phone’s automatic camera settings, the photos should be similar due to your phone doing the basic adjustments already.
Raw image without edits | Image with basic edits |
Make It Pop
The third photo is after more edits. Now this photo is a scroll stopper, the bright and vibrant colors are sure to catch any social media users' eye as they scroll through their feed. Here we’ve spot healed some dust and spots on the succulents to remove distractions as well as adding more brightness, contrast, and saturation. A filter was also added to give the photo set a distinct feel compared to the rest of our themed photos. Filters are a great way to give your brand and social media a cohesive look. If used consistently, social media users will automatically and subconsciously mark the photo as yours just by the feel of it, which is exactly what you want.
Raw image without edits | Image with basic edits | Image with full edits & filter |
How to Edit Your Jewelry Photos
Now that we’ve illustrated how much editing can make a difference on your jewelry photos, we’ll go over some simple steps that can make a huge difference. I’ll walk you through the steps as I edit one of our photos so you can see the process and the changes that occur. This is a product photo of gold-filled beads using a potted succulent as a seasonal prop. The jewelry photo I chose has an abundance of issues, including lots of gunk and debris from the soil in the plant. By using such an extreme case it should be easier for you to know what steps you’ll need to take when it comes to working on your own photos.
These steps may look overwhelming at first. But in as little as 6 minutes (or even less once you get the hang of it) spent in total on editing you will see a huge difference in your final images.
Step 1: Brightness & Contrast
Time - 1 minute or less
This is the most basic of edits and probably one of the more critical since it gets you to the starting point for other edits. If your photo is overexposed (too bright), you’ll want to bring down the brightness. If it is underexposed (too dark like the photo below), you’ll want to bring up the brightness. Most photos can also use a bump up in contrast. How much depends on both the photo and your personal taste, just remember not to overdo it. Toggle back and forth between the original and the updated version as you work on it to make sure you haven’t gone too far with the edits. While you can post after doing brightness and contrast, as discussed in the section before, more tweaking on your jewelry photography can make you stand out in the crowd!
Raw image without edits | Image with Basic Edits |
Step 2: Color Correction/White Balance
Time - 1 minute (May be more if you are new to color correcting)
While important, this step is sometimes not needed. Smartphones and DSLRs have gotten extremely good at color correcting your photos when taking the shot but depending on the situation they can be off by quite a bit. Take the photo we are currently working on, it looks pretty good color-wise, right? For most people, I would say it’s good and go ahead and move on to the next step, but if we are being finicky, the color is slightly off with a bit of a yellow cast. As you can see below by removing the yellow cast the succulent now pops a bit more in color.
Raw image without edits | Image with Basic Edits | Image with Color Correction |
There are many ways to fix color that range from extremely simple to extremely complex. The most basic (besides using an Auto White Balance option) is adjusting the Temperature (Blues & Yellows) and Tint (Greens and Purples). This method was used to fix the image above by adding more blues in the Temperature setting and more greens in the Tint. |
If you are having a hard time seeing the differences above, below is an image that needs extreme color correcting. As you can see it has an extremely yellow-green color cast.
Image with no Color Correction |
In cases like this, what you’ll want to make the changes bit by bit. Start off with what you know – the image looks too yellow. The green cast is hard to discern at this point, but you do know you need more blue. So first you’ll drag the Temperature slider to the blues section. Once you get to the point that the image is starting to look too blue but the color is still off you know you need to work on the tint. Adjust the Temperature so the image is before the too blue point and move over to the Tint.
Image with no Color Correction | Image with Temperature Correction |
Now that the Temperature has been adjusted, it’s easier to see that there is now a green cast to the image. In the Tint settings add more purple to the image until it looks true to life. You may need to make small adjustments back and forth in the Temperature & Tint sliders to get the perfect combination.
As you can see below, by adding more blues in the Temperature and purples in the Tint the image has drastically improved.
Image with no Color Correction | Image with Temperature Correction | Image with Temperature & Tint Correction |
If you feel the Temperature/Tint method is just not cutting it you do have other options. The Curves fix is more complex but offers greater control over what areas are color corrected. Let’s say you have an image where everything looks good except the shadows seem to have too much blue in them. You could use the Temperature/Tint method, but that will just adjust the whole image and you’ll have to spend time masking out the areas you don’t want to be affected.
Using the Curves tool you’ll be able to target the Lights, Midtones, and Darks of an image directly and adjust their RGB (reds, greens, & blues) levels. The lower left point adjusts the shadows, while the upper right adjusts the highlights. If you wanted to add blues to any point, you would move those points towards the upper left corner. If you wanted to remove blues (aka add yellow) you would move the points towards the lower right corner. Therefore if you wanted to remove blue from the shadows of your image, you would move the lower-left point to the right, as seen in the image. You can create new points anywhere in between on the line to adjust the mid-tones accordingly.
Tip 1 - Sometimes your eyes become biased to color as you edit so a good way to see if you've done a good job or have gone too far is to walk away for a few minutes then come back to the photo. Your eyes will now be adjusted to the real world and will let you know if your jewelry photo has been over corrected or not.
Tip 2 - Adjust your monitor color. While modern monitors do a better job making colors more true to life, your monitor may still be off. Look for tutorials on how to correctly adjust your monitor and do so as you are ending the day. Your eyes will be biased on the color (like as discussed with Tip 1) and will look off after you've corrected it so by doing this at the end of the day, you'll start the next day with the correct coloring that you won't feel looks off.
Tip 3 - If you want to take the guess work out of color correcting, you can buy a gray card. These provide a neutral gray in your jewelry photos that you can use as a point of reference when you go to fix the white balance. Place the card with the jewelry setup at the beginning of each new lighting setup (so if the lighting never changes, you don't need to worry about getting multiple gray card shots). When you start to color correct, most programs offer an eyedropper tool in the White Balance editor that will allow you to select the gray card as the neutral spot. If you move the eyedropper tool around you can see how hovering over differently areas of the image affects the color cast. If you hover over a blue spot, the overall image will take on a yellow tone in order to make the blue spot appear gray. So with the gray card, you know you'll always be giving the eyedropper tools a perfectly neutral gray spot to work with. Once you've selected the neutral gray, you'll be able to see what the exact adjustments you'll need to make for the rest of your photos. You might need to make these adjustments by hand (so write down the adjustment numbers), but some programs will let you apply the edits from the last photo you worked on (which is a great time saver!)
Step 3: Editing Your Jewelry Photography for More Impact
Time - 1 to 3 minutes (depending on your aesthetic preferences)
While brightness and contrast are universal, but depending on what editing program you are using (I will be using Photoshop for this blog) the terms and techniques can vary. This step is one of those cases. Some editing programs may use a tool called Luminance in place of some of the terms in this section. In the Camera Raw panel there are sliders to adjust the Highlights, Shadows, Whites, and Blacks of an image. Much like the Curves tool to the White Balance Tool, these act like a more fine-tuned version of the Exposure tool (though you can definitely use them together).
The best method is to lower the Highlights and Blacks while increasing the Shadows and Whites. I’ve found that working in increments helps to add oomph to the image without overblowing the pieces. So instead of trying to get the image bright like I want on the first try, I’ll use this method and apply the adjustments two or three times.
3 Small Adjustments | 1 Large Adjustment |
So now you can see the difference from Beginning to Step 2 to Step 3 in how much more your image now pops.
Raw image without edits | Image with Color Correction | Image with More Oomph |
Step 4: How to Use Masks When Editing Jewelry Photos
Time - 1 to 10 minutes (depending on complexity of piece/s)
As you may have noticed in the final image in the step above, while the image overall looks good, our poor little beads are now overblown. You can barely even see the gold tone of the product. We have seen this many times on social media where the overall image has been edited to look good but in doing so the jewelry item is then washed out. There are two ways to combat this issue and both involve masking.
What is masking you ask? Let’s say you want the beads in the image to look silver instead of gold-filled. The easiest solution is to desaturate the image. But now you’ve also desaturated the succulent and that looks weird.
Original Image | Image with Desaturation Layer |
So basically you want the desaturation to only effect the beads. To do that you will use a mask on the desaturation layer.
Original Image | Image with masked Desaturation Layer |
In short, a mask effects how much and where the layer it is attached to (such as our desaturation layer) is seen. Below is what the desaturation layer’s mask looks like compared to the final product. As you can see, even though the mask is somewhat sloppy (if you just saw the image of the mask, you would never guess it was for beads), the sloppiness is hard to see in the final product. In some cases this can work, in others you’ll need to be more precise, it all depends on what image you are working on and what effect you are attempting to accomplish. Black hides the effect layer (so the succulent is not effected by the desaturation) while white allows the effect layer to show through (therefore making our beads silver). Masks aren't just black and white either. Lighter grays allow most but not all of the effect layer to show in those areas, while darker grays allow only a small percentage of the effect to show.
After creating your effect layer (in this case the desaturation layer), you will then move on to masking that layer. I suggest looking up how to access the masking options for the program you are working on, unfortunately the ways of bringing up the masking option is very varied between programs.
After setting up the mask option, you will now use a brush to specify which areas you want the effect to show through and which areas you want the effect to be hidden. In this case since we wanted only the beads to be effected, we first filled the layer with black (to hide the effect), then used a feathered white brush to brush over where the beads are to let the effect show through. An easy way mask out your piece is to outline the item (as discussed in the clipping section at the end of this article) and then fill in the outline. Since the beads were so small in the example image I just used a medium sized brush to make the beads' general shapes instead of the outline method (hence the sloppy look of the mask.)
Image with masked Desaturation Layer | Desaturation Layer Mask |
So how does this help you with fixing an overblown jewelry piece? To keep your piece from being overblown you’ll either need to 1. Mask out the edits you have worked on thus far to fix the overall image or 2. Add new edits that only affect the jewelry piece in question.
My preferred method is to start masking out the items as I go along so I won’t have more steps down the road. Once the edits get to the point where the jewelry pieces are overblown I’ll start to mask out the jewelry (or even pieces of the jewelry) so everything looks nice for the final product.
Sometimes the items overblown from the start and you’ll need to add fixes anyway. For this image the beads were not only overexposed, but also the gold coloring was washed out. To fix this we’ll lower the exposure on the bright spots and add a color overlay to all the pieces to bring back that nice gold-filled look.
Beads with More Oomph | Beads with Masked Layer Edits |
You’ll really want to get comfortable with masking because it’s always a good rule of thumb to desaturate your silver jewelry products. Silver really tends to reflect the environment and when that happens it no longer looks silver which can beconfusing to your customers. When your silver is on a plain white background or in a position where it’s not reflecting something from its immediate environment (like when the silver is facing you) you’ll want to desaturate it completely. In cases like the image below where the beads are reflecting the orange of the pot you won’t need to desaturate the orange reflections completely but doing so slightly can help the silver stand out from the background.
Beads with no Desaturation Layer | Beads with semi-transparent Desaturation Layer |
Step 5: Spot Healing/Healing Brush
Time - 1 to 10 minutes (depending on how much you feel needs to be edited out)
This is another step that you might not need but can be extremely useful. Spot healing is a tool that removes image defects such as dust, debris, someone who was walking in the background of a model shot, or even your camera’s reflection in the jewelry piece. Healing works by filling in the trouble spot to match the surrounding area.
One of the reasons why I chose the photo I did was to really illustrate how helpful the tool can be and the difference it can make on a jewelry photo. The image would be nice except for the fact that the succulent is absolutely covered in dirt which makes it hard for a customer to focus on the jewelry. To put it simply, the dirt in the photo is distracting.
To use the spot healing brush you’ll want to make the area you brush on slightly larger than the thing you are trying to heal out. In the photo to the left you can see the black spot – that is the brush area. It is covering a huge white spot that you can somewhat see beneath the brush which is the thing we are trying to heal out. As you can see the brush area extends just beyond the spot – and remember you don’t need to be perfect on this. When it is done the spot should blend in with the surrounding area.
Now you can see what the image looked like before and after using the spot healing tool. What a difference it makes!
Image with More Oomph | Image with Spot Healing |
Step 6: Cropping Your Jewelry Images
Time - 1 minute
Now the photo we’ve been working on is a nice shot of gold-filled beads, but they get lost when you’re looking at the entire image. You see them but by showing so much of the photo they are not the focus like you want them to be. That means you’ll need to crop in the image to force the beads to be the main focus. Square is a great format since it is very versatile.It not only works great across all social mediaplatforms,it tends to be the main format for the product listings on many eCommerce website designs as well.
There are two simple formats that you can use as reference to crop your photo – have your item be dead in the center or use the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds basically divides the image into thirds and when cropping. You’ll want your item to fall either on one of the lines or on an intersection of two of the lines, as shown to the left.
As you can see below the beads are now more of the focal point after the image has been cropped.
Image with Spot Healing | Image after Cropping |
Step 7: Adding a Filter to Your Jewelry Photos
Time - 1 to 10 minutes (it will be shorter if you know what filter you want and longer if you are playing around trying to see what works best)
Congrats! You are now on the final step of the basics of editing your photos!
As I said in the beginning adding a filter to your images is a great way to make them not only look cohesive, but more recognizable on social media. Instagram has plenty of filters, but if none of them suit you, most editing programs and other photo apps you can download have a plethora of filters that you can choose from. Choose a style that matches your branding and stick to it!
As you can see below our image has come a long way. The first is the image without editing, the second is with basic editing, and the third is with everything to show how everything comes together!
Raw image without edits | Image with basic edits | Image with full edits & filter |
Tip - Once you are done editing all your photos, look over the final images as a group. This way you can make sure all the images are cohesive - some images may have turned out different than the rest and this is the best way to see where the issues are and correct them.
Clipping Your Jewelry Images
Time - 1 to 10 minutes (depending on complexity of piece/s)
Clipping is the process of removing the background from your image, leaving only the jewelry piece showing. If you look at our website, you’ll see that all our item images have been clipped out and are shown on a pure white background.
There are several reasons why we clip our item images, some of which include:
- Jewelry items will look more professional on a pure white background
- Customers have an easier time browsing through the thousands of listings since there are no distracting background elements
- Clipping makes it easier to use the images for advertising and in our catalog
- Props are often seasonal or trendy so staged images can quickly feel outdated
Since clipping is a laborious step, many jewelry artists use an outsourced clipping company. Cost canrange from $.25 to over $6 per image depending on the complexity of the item being clipped. Most clipping service providers will have your images finished within 24hrs. You can shop around with the different companies to see which will suit your needs better.
If you don’t want to spend the money on getting the items clipped, you can clip them yourself with different editing platforms. You’ll be basically making a mask (see Step 4 in the previous section) of the background to remove it. Unlike on Step 4, you’ll want to be very precise for this one. You’ll also want the brush to be harder/less feathered (unless your item is blurry in certain spots) so that you’ll have nice hard lines along the edge of your piece.
Brush Method for Clipping Jewelry Photos to a White Background
One method is to make an outline of the item using the brush tool. This method is the most versatile between platforms and is the best method to use while on mobile apps. The smaller your brush size the more precise your lines will be. If your piece has a cutout spot (think jump ring or hole) you’ll also need to draw around the edge of that so the background that can be seen through the cutout spot can be clipped out as well. After you are done making the outline you’ll need to fill in the rest of the mask, which I do using the Paint Bucket in Photoshop. For other platforms you may need to keep using the brush tool until you have filled the entire area in.
A good tip is to hold down the Shift key (on a computer) as you click around the jewelry piece. This will give you nice straight lines between where you click. When you encounter rounded spots you’ll want to click closer together whereas in straight spots you can click farther apart.
Original Image | Brush Outline | Brush Outline with Fill | Masked Image |
Pen Tool Method for Clipping Jewelry Photos to a White Background
Another clipping method is to use the pen tool. You'll still outline the item just like with the brush method, but this time you won’t need to worry about issues stemming from using a brush tool such as opacity and feathering. To make the lines curved, click where you want the point to be then drag to give you the curve handles. When you are done you can use the Direct Selection tool to adjust the points and curve handles until you are happy with the result. Once you are done you can apply the path as a mask to the image (some programs may require you to fill the path which you can then apply to the mask.)
Original Image | Image with partial Pen Tool Outline | Image with full Pen Tool Outline | Masked Image |
One thing I do want to point out – in the original photo the item looked fine, but once it was clipped the reflection of the yellow really stands out. This illustrates the importance of desaturating sterling silver items completely when they are clipped out.
Auto Select or Auto Clipping
We generally don’t use these editing tools on jewelry items due to the fact that jewelry tends to reflect its surroundings and therefore the program has a hard time distinguishing what is jewelry and what is background. This option could work on dark or patinaed silver or non-silver jewelry that is photographed on a light background as long as there are distinct edges (aka no reflections blending into the background).
Saving Your Jewelry Photo Files
We always save the working files (which would be PSDs in this case since we use Photoshop) so we always have access to the clipping paths and original image so if there is ever a mistake, we can easily go back in and fix it. It also allows us to easily place a high-resolution version of the clipped image in whatever situation we need it in. If you need the clipped image for the web or don’t need the working file for whatever you’re working on, PNG is a great file type that has a small file size while keeping the background transparency.
Free Editing Programs
Photoshop & Lightroom are the most common photo editing software. We know that these can be expensive (even with the lowest monthly Adobe subscription available for them) and that you have other expenses you need to worry about, so we’ve compiled a list of free software that you can use instead.
- Pixlr
This web-based software is very similar to Photoshop with many similar tools and features. The interface is simple and intuitive, making it easier for newer users to get editing quickly. It does include ads, but depending on how good you are at blocking them out they should be no issue. - Adobe Photoshop Express
While this version is watered down compared to the full Photoshop program, this is still a great program to do quick and easy edits on your photos. You can use this program on both the web and as a mobile app. - GIMP
GIMP has long been the free opensource competitor to Photoshop, offering many of the same features and perks. You can change the interface and download plugins for the software so you can customize the program to your needs. But like Photoshop it can be overwhelming, especially if you are just starting with editing your jewelry photos. - Snapseed
This mobile-only application includes many in-depth editing features (such as masking) with an easy to use interface. Available for both android and apple.
These editors are the more in-depth programs we’ve found that are free. There are many more free apps and programs that offer less features but may work better for you if all you need is simple and quick fixes.
Want to learn more jewelry photography tips? Check out these helpful articles.
The Art of the Jewelry Selfie
Photographing Jewelry on Models
How to Photograph Jewelry on a White Background
Photoshop is generally the last step on a photo’s journey. You took your shots and now you need to get them where they need to be in Adobe Photoshop. The post-processing stage is an integral part of digital photography. Even when you’ve taken a picture that essentially looks perfect to you, there’s always room for a little photo editing magic to take it to the next level. In this guide, we will discuss photoshop editing for beginners.
How to edit photos using Photoshop:
There are many photo editing tools out there, but most photographers typically start out with Adobe Photoshop for basic editing. It’s a powerful yet intuitive tool that can help you bring out the best in your images, so if you are a serious photographer, it is essential that you learn how to edit pictures with Photoshop.
1. Crop the image to enhance your composition.
Sometimes, a simple crop can make all the difference. Out of all the photo editing tricks at your disposal, basic cropping is the easiest one that can effectively do wonders for your photo’s composition — it allows you to remove unnecessary elements, put more focus on the subject, and create more drama for maximum impact.
Here’s an example:
Looking at this picture, you might say that it already looks great—there’s no need to do anything else. However, by using the crop tool, you can improve the composition by doing a tighter crop on the model’s face, which will help emphasize her features even more.
How to use the crop tool in Adobe Photoshop:
- Select the crop tool from the toolbox.
- Select your desired aspect ratio by clicking on the drop-down menu (near the upper-right corner) and choosing from Unconstrained, Original Ratio, or any of the Preset options. You can also enter your own preferred dimensions in the text fields beside the menu.
- Drag the corners or the edges of the photo to achieve your desired crop.
- Press Enter or click the check icon to finalize the crop.
As you can see, cropping out most of the background gives more prominence to the most interesting parts of the photo — the model’s freckles, as well as her bright blue eyes.
Cropping is a very simple and seemingly inconsequential step in the photo editing process. Nonetheless, it does make a world of difference in improving a picture’s composition. If you’re unsure about how to crop a particular photo, experiment with different crops to find the composition that appeals most to you.
Additionally, you can crop and resize your images freely without worrying about ruining their proportions, as Photoshop now transforms most layer types proportionally by default.
Here’s a more in-depth breakdown by Miguel Quiles on how you can retouch and edit portraits:
2. Correct the exposure.
Despite your best efforts, there will be times when you still won’t be able to achieve the correct exposure for your image. Luckily, if you know how to edit pictures, this can easily be fixed.
The photo above is slightly overexposed, which washes out the model’s skin color and features. Using Photoshop’s suite of adjustment tools, you can correct the photo’s exposure to bring out more detail.
These tools can be accessed by clicking on Image (on the Menu Bar) and selecting Adjustments from the drop-down menu:
- Brightness/Contrast
- Levels
- Curves
- Exposure
- Shadows/Highlights
- HDR Toning
If you’ve never used these tools before, Brightness/Contrast, Exposure, and Shadows/Highlights are all pretty straightforward — all you have to do is move the sliders to the left or right to make adjustments. However, for more advanced Photoshop edits, you will have to learn how to read a histogram, which is a chart that shows the tonal range of the photo you are currently editing.
Knowing how to read a histogram will help you make more accurate adjustments, particularly with HDR Toning, as well as Curves and Levels, which are the preferred exposure adjustment tools for more experienced photographers. Adjusting the Levels and having the right Brightness and Contrast in your photos can highlight specific details in your subject as well as give it more clarity and depth.
To learn more about how you can edit bright and vibrant photos and other Photoshop editing tips, check out this video by Vanessa Joy:
3. Make color adjustments if needed.
If you’ve properly adjusted the white balance on your camera, you shouldn’t have to do any color corrections on the resulting photos. Using incorrect white balance will result in a color cast, and that can dramatically affect the vibrance, saturation, and contrast of your photos.
Let’s say your photo has a bit of a blue tinge to it. You can leave it like that if you like it, but if you want your photo to have more accurate colors, Photoshop tools can help you fix that. The simplest tool for this is the Color Balance, which lets you adjust the colors of your image’s shadows, midtones, or highlights, or Selective Color, which allows you to choose a specific color in the image and change only those colors — for instance, if your model’s skin appears too yellow or red, Selective Color allows you to make adjustments to the skin without affecting the other colors in the picture.
Always remember to create a Photo Filter adjustment layer so that you can modify the color of your image while preserving the original one. First, open your chosen image in Photoshop. Click the Adjustment Layer icon in the Layers panel after, and select your desired Photo Filter. You can also apply a photo filter as a direct adjustment (Image > Adjustments > Photo Filter), since it provides a layer mask for editing only a part of your photo while protecting the original photo from permanent changes.
How to use Color Balance in Adobe Photoshop:
- Click on Image in the Menu Bar, then click on Adjustments, then Color Balance.
- Select which tones in the image you want to change (shadows, midtones, or highlights).
- Check the Preserve Luminosity box.
- Check the Preview box to see your adjustments in real time.
- Move the sliders to achieve your desired color balance.
How to use Selective Color in Adobe Photoshop:
- Click on Image in the Menu Bar, then click on Adjustments, then Selective Color.
- Check the Preview box to see your adjustments in real time.
- Choose from Relative (a more subtle change) or Absolute.
- Select the color from the drop-down menu that you want to adjust.
- Move the sliders to increase or decrease the color cast from your chosen color.
You can also use Vibrance, Hue/Saturation, or Channel Mixer (under Adjustments) for color correction. If that wasn’t enough, you can also visualize how you want the colors in your image to look like using the Color Wheel Color Picker. This update on the Photoshop CC 2019 allows you to see and choose particular colors, from harmonious groups to complementary and analogous colors. You can do this by selecting the Color Wheel option from the Color panel fly-out menu.
The Dodge and Burn tools, on the other hand, allow you to highlight or darken specific areas in your photo to give it additional texture or character.
How to use the Dodge and Burn Tools:
- Create a new layer and set its mode to Overlay.
- Check the box that says, “fill with overlay-neutral color (50% gray).” Doing so lets you apply dodge and burn adjustments without manipulating the original image.
- Select the Dodge Tool and set your brush to a smaller and softer setting.
- Paint over specific areas you want to brighten using the Dodge Tool and darken areas using the Burn Tool.
- Remember to use a soft brush setting and do smaller strokes so as not to overdo the effects
4. Remove unwanted spots (sensor dust, blemishes, and more).
Now that you’ve corrected the color of your image, it’s time for some selective corrections. If your sensor is dirty, dust particles will show up in your photos, resulting in small spots that will consistently appear in the same area on every single picture you take. To avoid this problem, make sure to clean your sensor first.
Here’s a camera sensor cleaning tutorial by Doug McKinlay:
But if you’ve already taken photos with a dirty sensor, you can still edit them out (if there are any visible dust particles) using Photoshop by using the following tools:
- Spot Healing Brush Tool
- Healing Brush Tool
- Patch Tool
- Clone Stamp
Free Photo Editing For Beginners
You can use the same tools for any imperfections you would like to remove — perhaps some blemishes on the model’s skin, a stain on the model’s clothes that you didn’t notice during the shoot, a dirty background, as well as odd and fine patterns known as the moiré effect.
To learn more about moiré patterns and how you can retouch them in Photoshop, check out this video:
Before & After
How to use the Spot Healing Brush Tool:
- Select the Spot Healing Brush Tool from the Toolbox.
- Choose your desired brush size using the drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
- Choose Type: Content-Aware or Proximity Match.
- Click on the spot you want to fix.
How to use the Healing Brush Tool:
- Select the Healing Brush icon from the Toolbox (grouped under the Spot Healing Brush tool).
- Choose your desired brush size using a drop-down menu in the upper right corner.
- Choose Sampled as your source.
- Option+Click on a clean spot that you want to use as your source.
- Click on or drag the cursor along the spot you want to fix.
How to use the Patch Tool:
- Select the Patch Tool from the Toolbox (grouped under the Spot Healing Brush tool).
- Select Source (underneath the taskbar).
- Use the cursor to encircle the spot or blemish to create a selection.
- Drag the selection to a clean spot that is closest in color and appearance to the spot you’re trying to repair.
How to use the Clone Stamp:
- Select the Clone Stamp icon in the Toolbox.
- Adjust the brush size to the corresponding size you want.
- Alt+Click to “clone” a clean spot that you want to use for the blemish.
- Adjust Opacity if needed.
- Click or drag the cursor around the blemish or spot to “paint” over it with the cloned pixels from your sampling point.
How to use Content-Aware Fill:
The latest version of Photoshop now features the Content-Aware Fill option. This feature allows you to remove unwanted objects from your photos.
Here’s a quick summary on how you can use Content-Aware Fill:
- First, draw a selection around an area or object that you want to replace.
- Make sure to create the selection as close to your subject as possible but leaving enough space to give Photoshop material to work with.
- Open the Content-Aware Fill taskspace (Edit > Content-Aware Fill).
- Resize the sampling area and your initial selection using the Sampling Brush Tool and the Lasso Tool respectively.
- Tweak the Fill Settings to improve your output.
- Finalize your output by creating a new layer.
For a more detailed how-to guide on how to use the new Content-Aware Fill workspace, check out this tutorial.
5. Apply sharpening or blurring filters.
Even if your image is in perfect focus, it may still benefit from a bit of sharpening for greater emphasis on the details or to reduce any softening.
Or, if you don’t have the right lens to create a more attractive depth of field, Photoshop’s blurring tools can help you achieve that (to an extent).
Here’s a tutorial on creating depth of field in Photoshop:
Most images benefit from sharpening, as it adds more definition to the edges of your subject. The need for sharpening an image will depend on where you will be viewing the photo, whether on a computer screen or on print. Either way, the rule of thumb in photo editing is, always apply minimal changes in increments. If you want to sharpen your picture, make small adjustments and assess as you go to avoid overdoing it and creating noise in the image.
How to sharpen an image in Adobe Photoshop:
- Reduce the noise in your image (click on Filter on the Menu Bar, click Noise, then select Reduce Noise).
- Create a new layer of the same image (select Layer on the Menu Bar and click Duplicate Layer) or make a selection from the image (click Select on the Menu Bar, click on Edit in Quick Mask Mode, and use the Brush Tool to paint over the part of you want to select).
- Go to Filter, Sharpen, and select any of the Sharpening tools to apply a sharpening filter.
- Repeat if necessary.
Learn more about adjusting image sharpness here.
Pictures To Edit
Other important photo editing tips:
- Always shoot (and edit) your pictures in RAW.
- Calibrate your computer monitor to get accurate color.
- Always make adjustments on a duplicate layer (leaving the Background layer untouched) so that you have a reference and can compare the newly edited layer to the original.
- Make adjustments in small increments, and repeat if necessary.
More Photoshop tips
To flatten your Photoshop learning curve, check out some of the other great step-by-step tutorials available in our blog. With a little instruction, you’ll be restoring old photos, creating cinemagraphs, adding bokeh, and more in no time. We even explore some lesser-known tools you can use, provide tricks to help you improve your photography, and introduce some helpful plugins to expand your Photoshop skills.
Which Photoshop is best for editing?
Adobe has updated and adjusted its photo-editing offerings many times over the years. With so many products to choose from, it can be daunting to know which one to choose.
The Creative Cloud Photography plan is a monthly subscription service that includes Lightroom and Photoshop for a computer or iPad. You can also purchase the Photoshop app as a monthly subscription. In both of these cases, you’ll get the complete version of Photoshop with full functionality—the perfect tool for photo editing.
The great thing about the subscription option is that you’ll always have the most updated version. This gives you instant access to any new and exciting features Adobe may develop.
Plenty of competitors have popped up to offer alternative photo editing software, but Adobe remains the most popular choice. That means you’ll find more tutorials and plug-ins for Photoshop than for any of its competitors.
How can I Photoshop for free?
If you’re interested in using Photoshop without signing up for a subscription, you can use the Photoshop Express app for free. It’s available for Android and iOS devices, and it offers several of the most commonly used features in a light, easy-to-navigate version.
Adobe also offers a free 7-day trial of Photoshop and other Creative Cloud apps, separately or in various bundles. Sign up for a free trial to check out all the great Photoshop features at no cost. If you’re new to photo editing, Photoshop Express or a free trial are great places to start, but if you’re serious about editing photos, a Creative Cloud subscription is the way to go.