Editing is every photographer’s guilty little secret. While the more glamorous, exciting part of the job is inevitably the shoot, the editing suite is just as important. Snapping an awesome event or styling couples for an engagement shoot is only half the work. In addition, long hours editing the raw footage is as important as what happens behind the camera.

Editing doesn’t come naturally to everyone. Even the most experienced professional photographers can sometimes find it hard to really get the best out of their images. With that in mind, here are some of the best tips, tricks, and hacks for photo editing that will make the process simpler and the finished photos pop!

Shortcuts

Workflow during the editing process can be mind-numbing and time-consuming. Even just editing one or two photos can take hours when you are fiddling with panels and sliders, saving changes, and finding your way around the interface. Luckily almost every photo editing software out there has a set of keyboard shortcuts that can dramatically reduce the time you have to spend making changes and edits. This will speed up the process and allow you to spend more time making your images more beautiful.

Presets

Presets are one of the most effective, useful, and brilliant ways to make your photos look awesome, and build an established, consistent brand as a professional photographer. Once you’ve made all the edits you want to on a photo and got the look and feel just right, you can save the particular combination as a preset. This means that with the click of a button, the changes you’ve made are applied to every photo in your project. You save a huge amount of editing time, all your photos look awesome, and you create a personal style that makes your work instantly recognizable.

The Golden Ratio

Framing your scenes is vital. Photographers put a lot of work into this while taking the photos in the first place. But you can also do a lot of good framing work in the editing suite with the Golden Ratio. This classic photography rule imagines a Fibonacci Spiral over the frame and places the points of interest along the curve from the edge of the frame to the center. This draws the eye and creates a perfect image.

Of course, your expertly edited images need to be stored somewhere once your work is done! ImageCoast is the perfect solution to all your photo storage needs, so get in touch today!