Home > Processing Photos > Basic Editing > Photo editing steps
Photo editing steps
There are countless ways to enhance an image by editing known as post-processing. What follows are some basic, most frequently used steps to process digital images.
Always work on a duplicate of an original image. If you make a mistake along the way, just make another copy of the original and start editing again.
Some images need little, if any, post-processing prior to printing. However, the same photo may need enhancing if it will be displayed on a website.
Don't over editing as an image can lose detail and become unnatural looking.
Six basic photo editing steps
- Open photo via the image editing software open menu.
- Flip the image if its orientation needs to be changed.
- Crop - remove unwanted portions of a photo if desired; crop to a specific aspect ratio (eg. 4x6", 8x10").
- Resize - make a photo larger or smaller, most typically smaller. Its height and width change proportionally if the "constrain" or "keep sspect ratio" setting is enabled.
- Enhance image by adjusting its brightness and contrast, sharpenig it if an image looks "soft," or correct a color cast to make an image have more true-to-life colors
- Save an image
For printing - Save your image as a TIFF, Bitmap or high-quality jpeg (jpg).
For the web - Save a photo as a jpeg. You will be given options to adjust the compression level. If the compression is set too low, the image will degrade in visual quality. If set too high, a photo can take too long to load into a web browser.
During any step in the editing process, if you do not like a change you made, click the "undo" command.
For more sophisticated post-processing you should use a photo editing program that has layering capabilities.
