Forget Tricks - Here’s What Actually Works
I love editing photos, and creating videos showing off the tips and tricks that I discover along the way. But sometimes it feels like you have a long list of tricks or hacks you have to remember to file away so you can recall them at some future moment when needed. We all know that none of us remember them all, and so we end up not taking advantage of such things. But I recently realized that to make any image really shine, you just have to do three important things during the editing process:
Make sure the light is right. This is adjusting all the major sliders such as Highlights/Shadows, Contrast, Exposure, Whites/Blacks etc. But it’s also about dodging and burning. You are always working on the light throughout an edit, so be sure to keep it top of mind.
Create some tension with your colors. For me, this is about color contrast and playing the warm and cool tones off of each other. This creates color contrast, or what I like to call color tension. It adds a bit of visual interest to an image, not to mention a little drama as well.
Make your subject stand out. For me this is a compositional thing when taking the image, but during the edit this is about using masks to draw the viewers eye to the subject. Often I use a radial mask for this sort of thing, but it does depend on the image. Bottom line though is that a little extra pop on your subject really helps!
Check out these tips in action in my latest Luminar Neo tutorial, which is below. Enjoy!
