If we’re being honest, many of us have become a little obsessed with our pics. It probably takes up more of our time than it should. But hey, if you’re having fun, who cares? And it’s fun to check how to edit hair or apply the newest filters, as the case may be.
The world of photography is also way bigger and more complex than we sometimes imagine, so there’s a lot to get into.
Cropping
Setting up an image is crucial, to begin with. You need to develop an eye for composition to take great snaps. However, it’s not all over once you’ve hit the button. For some compositional elements, you can use some crafty cropping afterward.
If you notice that the focal feature of your pic seems a little too far off to the side, some trimming from the other end can work well. Similarly, if there’s too much sky behind you, it’s easily sliced away to achieve the best look.
Color
You can use any number of apps that let you minutely adjust your palette until you get the right tonal effects. It sometimes pays off to do a little experimenting here because each software application will differ a little on this.
Contrast
Contrast is a kind of ratio of light to dark and is different from the color spectrum. Playing with contrasts can express anything from high abstraction to vivid realism in one pic! It lets you bring out certain features or soften others into the background.
Saturation
A third color and shading feature is saturation. This is basically about how intense you want the colors to be. A heavy saturation will emphasize the richer colors, while a low saturation will give the subtler hues more of a chance.
Sharpness
Often, it’s effective to let contours merge almost into each other. At other times, you get far more of a pop from your pic with harder edges. Most photo apps will give you a spectrum that you can go across to see how crisp you want the image to be.
Sharing
Once you’ve gone up and down on all the filters and zooms, you’ll have cropped and changed your pic to perfection. Then it’s time to upload the image for all to see. A good tip here is to let the pic rest for a bit so that you can see it with fresh eyes.
This is an old trick. When we get really into an image, it’s easy to lose perspective as we go down a pictorial journey of our own. Folks seeing the image for the first time may not see the same thing, so it helps to rest it and come back later to see it freshly.
Last Thoughts
Taking photos is fun, and with the technology we have, it’s truly accessible to anyone who enjoys it. As a creative activity, it’s really hard to top photography because visual imagery is so effective at conveying things.
The central message is experimentation. Try every effect, tone, shade, and composition until you wind up with the image in your mind. If you have the aptitude for it, you may find yourself getting totally hooked!