Blogger Basics #2: How To Edit Blog Photographs (Products)

As part of my blogger basics series, I'm going to be letting you guys in on all of my must haves, or things I can't live without for blogging. I get asked about my blogging photography on a daily basis and I'm going to be talking you through one of my favourite parts - Photo Editing. 

I've decided to start with my top tips on editing first, as when you take the time to practice this part, it doesn't matter what camera you've shot with, what your background looks like or what software you use. You can achieve these results with all of them. I edit my Images on Adobe Photoshop CS6.

Each image will have different requirements - please take that into consideration, as there isn't an easy one size fits all edit template for images, what works for these images, may not work for others. I'd also like to point out that i'm not a professional photographer, nor am I a professional retoucher - this is just how I like to edit my images.

Let's start with the unedited image.

For any camera geeks out there - Here are nitty gritty details:

Camera: Canon 600D

Lens: Canon 24-70mm

F Stop: f/2.8

Exposure Time: /160 sec

ISO Speed: ISO-200

Focal Length: 62mm

This was one of my favourite images from the selection (and also one of my favourite images i've ever taken).

It's important to mention that it's worth spending time to get the photo right in camera. No amount of editing can save a bad image, and often I reshoot products if I'm not happy with the unedited images. 

This image has made the cut! The product is in focus, is central in the shot, and the background is not too cluttered. These are all things I look for when deciding on an image to choose. I take probably around 30 of each product to get 4/5 images which make their way to the editing stage.

The first thing I do to my images is Adjust the brightness and contrast. In photoshop, I create a new Adjustment layer > Brightness & Contrast. I boost the brightness up - this image in particular was around 40 notches. I then Adjust the contrast (around 20 notches). 

If you're editing your images in PicMonkey then to achieve a similar look on this particular image. Use Exposure > Highlights & Shadows and turn those up. This image required boosts of around 40 on each and you do not need the next step!

Next up I add a new adjustment layer > Curves. I create a slight RGB curve on the image in an S shape. What this does is add more contrast to the image. Basically, it encourages the greys to become more black and the light shades to become more white. If you're struggling to tell the difference between the two images, have a look at the Kadalys Logo on the pot. The pot is slightly more yellow before the curve was added. Also the table the pot is sat on appears more grey before the Curve is added. 

If you're editing your images in PicMonkey then unfortunately you can't add a curve, but by boosting the highlights and shadows in the previous step you do not need to add a curve.

The last thing I do to my images is resize them and add a URL. I always resize my images to 900x600. Nobody needs to see a full 1980 x 1080 HD image on a blog, especially when you're scrolling through tons of images. Once I've resized my images I add a URL to the bottom corner.  The reason I do this, is my images often get lifted and posted to other websites or Pinterest without me being informed, they also come up in google imag search. When you work hard on an image, it's nice to be credited - You never know, that person may see your URL and then pop over to check out the rest of your blog! You don't have to add a URL, but I personally like to.

And that's it! it's really easy to transform an image from dull and grey, to bright and airy. When you get the hang of it, you can edit your images in no time. When I've chosen my images, it usually takes me around 10 minutes per set to edit them and save them in the designated product folder in my database.

I hope this post was useful. If there's anything else you'd like to know, let me know in the comments and I'll do by best to answer them!

Em xxx