How I Edit My Blog Photos

Hello everyone! I often get asked about how I take and edit my blog post photos. So I thought I'd write this quick post showing you how I ALWAYS edit my product photos. When doing the screenshots for you to see what I do, it reminded me of studying A-Level Photography - having to screenshot every single step of an edit! I used to HATE doing that because I used to forget to screenshot stages and have to go back and do it all again haha! 

When editing my blog post photos I try to keep them as simple as possible.  If I had the time or energy, I could airbrush and completely chop and change my photos - but then you would see an image that made products look completely different. The main goal for me is to make a nice, bright looking image whilst keeping the colours of the products the same as they are in real life. I mean nobody wants to see a lipstick they like, go to buy it and find out that it is a completely different colour to the photo they'd seen. 

I always take my photos on a plain white background as I just prefer the look, and once I have got a few shots I transfer them onto my laptop to see if they look ok blown up rather than on the tiny viewfinder. I then sort through and see which ones have the best composition. Sometimes there is none, sometimes dozens. After I have found a decent shot, I open it up in Adobe Photoshop (CS6 Extended) and crop it down so it looks more interesting. I haven't shown this in a screenshot as I'm sure you all know how to crop a photo! 

After that I use the 'Curves' tool to alter the tones in the image. I use the tool to alter the mid tones which usually means the colours in the background (in this case the white background). By doing this I can achieve the style of photo I love! As you can see I have dragged the line upwards to make it into a curve if that makes sense.  By dragging the line upwards it brightens the tones and if you drag it downwards it has the reverse effect making the tones darker. 

Next to add a bit of contrast to the image I use the 'Levels' tool and simply just slide the bottom slider towards the right. I don't tend to touch the other sliders unless the image is still on the dark side. In this case it wasn't so I just moved the first slider SLIGHTLY to the right. Usually I only need to move it to number 3 or 4, but in this case I had to move it up to number 26! 

And thats it! That is literally all I ever do! So you can see how easy it is to create professional looking photos yourself! I do hoped this proved helpful for those just starting out using Photoshop. This is incredibly simple to do and I bet even my mum could do it if I showed her the steps! 

Thanks for reading!

Love Charlotte x

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