Photo editing basics: The best tips for polishing and perfecting finished images

Photo editing is a very interesting technique that helps you alter the image and enhance the overall quality and final appearance of the image by using a host of tools available in the photo editing software. At the same time, photo editing is viewed as a not very reputable activity since heavy editing may lead to changing essence of the image. In such a situation, one has to keep a strong balance between using the editing tools and keeping the essence of the image intact. By following this method, the overall appearance of the image will improve but it will not change the original image in such a way that it appears fake or false. Here we give to you the best tips for polishing and perfecting finished images.

Save the originals separately

This is one of the most basic and important technique to be used for photo editing – always save your originals and make a separate layered file for the edited picture. It is important to save the second file as a layered file since it is possible to adjust and edit the layers individually. For the uninitiated, PSD (Photoshop) and TIFF (Tagged Image File Format) are the two best layered formats. In fact, almost all of the tools available in the market will either use Save As or Export to one of the two formats mentioned. It is not suggested to save your images as JPGs because the image is compressed when saved in JPGs. In other terms, saving to JPGs will create smaller file sizes (to accommodate applications with limited resources such as email and mobiles) and each time it is re-saves, the quality of the image degrades a bit. Also, more importantly, it does not support layers. Other formats like GIF, BMP, EPS and PHG etc are not ideal working formats and not appropriate for editing images.

Resize properly

Resizing the image down that helps in reducing the overall size of the image is a very helpful tool. The problem appears when one tries to resize up. As soon as you try and make the pictures better, the pixels explode and create illusionary halos around the various objects in the image. The result achieved by trying to resize up is known as pixelation or picture compression noise. Hence, it is very important to resize the image properly both in case of down or up.

Without adjusting the pixels to compensate and trying to magnify the image will only give disappointing results. Rather, one has to step up the pixels accordingly as per the size of the picture in order to ensure that it doesn’t get pixelated.

How to save blurry and out-of-focus photos

Sometimes we do have some pictures that we like but they are slightly out of focus or blurry and that breaks our heart. To save such pictures, one needs to use a sharpen/sharpen extra filter. However, as a word of caution, every time you will use this tool, the final picture may appear grainier and will start to resemble sandpaper. That’s for your to decide if that is a good or bad thing. But if you like artistic pictures, it won’t bother you too much. More importantly, most applications provide the grain filter to be used as part of the special effects package.

How to remove unwanted background

Removing the busy unwanted background has been a challenge for the photo editors. You can always use the Polygonal Lasso tool to select the object in the foreground, invert image to make background an active layer and then delete it. Otherwise, it is also not a bad option to cut and paste the image onto a new layer and choose a special effect to fill the background. Alternatively, using the pen tool to outline the object and then creating a clipping path is the suggested method. Once the object has been outlined, one can press and hold the Ctrl key and click the vector mask on the layer palette. Once the selected area has been surrounded, move to the background layer and invert the image, post that press delete. This way you will be able to handle the unwanted busy background.