The Best Editing Advice I Can Offer

Musings
Written By Jim Nix

I love editing photos, and started writing down a few bits of advice that I figured could be helpful. It’s not a comprehensive list but hopefully this gives you some things to think about. Enjoy!

  • Slow down - there’s no reason to rush through it

  • Focus on adjusting the light first, last, and everywhere in between

  • Also focus on the direction of the light in your image

  • Light adjustments like contrast affect how color appears in your image

  • Learn masking early and use it often

  • Don’t use too many color tools on a single image - you will likely overcook the edit if you do

  • If it’s noisy, denoise it first

  • Learn how Curves works - you don’t have to use it all the time, but understanding it will go a long way

  • Find an app that you like to edit with, and learn everything you can about how to use it before buying more apps - if you buy more apps in the future, your knowledge will transfer

  • You can get great results with many apps on the market - you just have to know how to use them

  • Don’t get overwhelmed when learning a new app - just pick a single tool per day and use it repeatedly until you know how to use it well - then, start on the next tool, etc - in less than a month you can be near expert level with your chosen app

  • Don’t use a white vignette unless you are making the photo look like an antique, old western sort of thing

  • Don’t apply detail enhancement across an entire image, most of the time - mask it in selectively

  • Get your photos organized - it doesn’t matter how, as long as it makes sense to you, and you can find what you are looking for

  • You don’t have to dedicate hours at a time to learn how to edit - if you can spare just 15-30 minutes a day, without any distractions (phone, internet, etc), then you can make a lot of progress

  • Find a photographer whose photos you like and study them - you’ll likely learn a lot about editing

  • HDR peaked in popularity years ago, but it’s still a really useful technique to learn and use and is still a personal favorite of mine - so don’t be afraid to try it

  • Luminosity masks are my favorite type of mask, but honestly you can do so much with just a radial mask or linear gradient 

  • If you feel like you pushed your edit a little too far, take a break from that image and come back and look at it tomorrow

  • Have fun and enjoy being creative

  • Just keep going

What would you add to the list?

Jim Nix
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