As a beginner, you may be confused about what post-processing is, or how it can help your photography. Post-processing is an essential part of the digital photography workflow. It is the step where you process and edit your images, adding effects and making changes to your photographs.
The importance of post processing your photos
It’s important to understand that post-processing is not just about “fixing” your photos. In fact, the best way to learn post-processing is by learning how to use it creatively.
The process of post-processing is when you take the final image and make it look like you want it to look. This can be anything from color correction, to adding grain and vignetting. It’s a vital part of photography because it allows you to control how your images look.
You may have heard that post-processing is bad or wrong, but this is not true at all! Post-processing is meant to help enhance your photos and create the final look you want. It can help add drama to a photo, or make it appear more natural. The most important thing about post-processing is that it’s up to you! You don’t have to do anything unless you want to!
Tips to post process your photos
If you’re just learning how to edit photos, there are some things you can do right away to improve your images.
The following are some tips for beginners:
Use layer masks instead of dodging and burning.
Layer masks are one of the most powerful tools in Photoshop and they allow you to make selective changes to an image without affecting any other areas. For example, if you want to darken the background of an image without darkening any other areas such as skin tones or hair, use a layer mask with an inverted black brush and paint over the area that needs darkening only (see photo above). This method works better than dodging and burning because it keeps all other areas untouched.
Use Curves instead of Levels to adjust contrast in an image.
Curves give you more control over how much contrast gets added or reduced in certain parts of an image compared
Master using a photo editing program
If you use Photoshop, make sure that you are proficient in using the program. Also, make sure that you will be able to add different effects, such as brightness, contrast and curves to alter colors.
Learn to crop
Cropping your image means you can choose the size of your final picture. Start off by printing out small, hand-sized images and experiment with cropping them until you get the effect you want.
Experiment with black and white photography
This technique has been around for hundreds of years. You can use it to add depth and create shadows. To do this, make sure your camera is set on manual and take a series of pictures, one with flash and one without. Then, when you view the two pictures on a computer, you can use the slider in the bottom left corner to select which parts of the photo you want to print in black and white.
Use filters
Filters can be used to create dramatic effects. Try adding a filter to your camera lens to change its focal length. This will change the way the picture looks. You could try taking a picture and then turning it into a painting with a watercolor or oil paint filter.
Use auto white balance to eliminate the color cast in photos.
It is very common that when you shoot outdoors, the colors will appear dull due to the color cast. This problem usually happens to beginners. When we shoot outdoor photos, the problem will be very obvious. You can find it in the form of blue color, orange color, etc. In this case, you need to use the auto white balance function to eliminate the color cast.
There are two ways to correct the color cast: you can correct it by adjusting the white balance tool, or you can adjust the white balance value manually.
Adjust the white balance tool.
Adjusting the white balance tool is the first method. When you use the white balance tool, you need to select a gray object to set as a reference. Then you can use the white balance tool to achieve the desired result. For example, if there is a greenish cast in the photo, you should use the blue channel to correct the cast. In general, if the color cast in the photo is very obvious, you should not use the white balance tool. You can use the white balance tool to eliminate the cast only if it is less obvious.
Adjust the white balance value manually.
This method is used to correct the color cast caused by the camera sensor. You can use the white balance tool to eliminate the cast, but the effect is not as good as the first method. For example, if there is a bluish cast in the photo, you should use the red channel to correct the cast.
Check the color cast in each channel.
If you want to eliminate the color cast in the image, you need to check the color cast in each channel. The red, green and blue channels are very important, because if the color cast is obvious in one channel, it will be obvious in other channels.
Reduce the brightness of the picture.
The brightness of the image is related to the exposure. However, when you shoot a bright subject, the brightness of the subject will be too bright and it will affect the clarity of the image. Therefore, you need to reduce the brightness of the image.
Reduce the saturation of the image.
The saturation of the image is related to the color depth. Reducing the saturation will make the image more gentle and natural.
Increase the contrast.
You can increase the contrast of the image to make it more vivid. To do this, you can adjust the black and white point. You can also use the saturation and brightness adjustment tools.
Increase the sharpness of the image.
If you want to sharpen the image, you can adjust the sharpness. You can use the unsharp mask or noise reduction functions to sharpen the image.
Reduce the noise in the image.
If you want to reduce the noise in the image, you can use the noise reduction function.