Today, the most common way to share occasions with family, friends, and followers is by using social media platforms. Thus, it’s not a surprise that photography plays a part in most of our lives as social media rules the communication of brief messages. Celebrities and non-celebrities capture dear moments and share their experience. Let’s not forget the business and organization segments. Businesses keep their online presence through the regular use of photo and video posts on their social media platforms.
Nowadays, many people get entertained by photos and videos and avoid spending too much time reading long articles or documents. So how can you tell your message in the shortest time? Storytelling photos, be it advertising gimmicks or sharing personal moments with others, is one way to tell brief news. But, let’s not forget that interesting, well-thought-out images get the most likes.
So how can you edit your social media photos without overdoing the edits? Well, it is not a secret that we don’t have a well-defined standard of stating a photo is over-edited. Why? Everyone has different tastes and opinions. Like art, photography largely depends on an individual’s creativity. Creativity relies on imagination, which differs from person to person. However, basic know-how exists that helps to identify signs, which can let you know you might have overdone your photo. For example, take the following suggestions: –
Compose Before Shooting
It’s a debate whether to edit your original photos. Some form the opinion of keeping your initial images as shot. What does this mean? When taking a shot frame, your object of focus within the camera lens forms a composition (capturing surrounding or background elements to enhance the focus subject). Your composition comprises elements that meet your imagination or what you want to portray. Snap several photos to review later. Taking a shot of the subject with the correct lighting and other elements without editing takes practice. If you have to edit, keep the editing as close to the original photo as possible.
Overuse of the Vignette Effect
What is a vignette effect? Vignette is the reduction of light or saturation around an image. Using the vignette effect creatively draws the viewer’s attention to the focused object. But what happens when you over-edit your photo with a vignette effect? It simply ruins your picture and makes it look unnatural. Too much use of the vignette forms unsightly darkness around a photo’s boundaries. The edited photo looks like a ’60s picture. The dark circle distracts your viewer’s attention away from your intended focus. Instead, they focus on the dark shadows around your photo. You thus lose out on passing information on why you took the shot. Professional photographers’ advice is to use the vignette effect sparingly to achieve your creativity.
Overexposed photo
Have you sometimes looked at a photo someone has posted on their social media which looks like a fading picture? During editing, overexposure of the image might lead to a faded photo effect. The resulting photo looks flat and uninteresting. Dial back on the exposure and use of brightness in your photograph.
Oversaturated Photo
Saturation refers to the intensity or vibrancy of the photo colors. Oversaturation leads to the photo losing out details and forms a burned-out effect. It is advisable to maintain the natural colors of the images. Find the balance of scaling back on saturation to bring out these natural colors. However, this is not a fast-hand rule. The creativity, tone, and mood you want to portray in the finished photo affect how much saturation you need. Instead of using the saturation effect on the whole shot, try saturating different areas of your photograph through masking.
Conclusion
Keep comparing your edited photographs with the initial photo during editing. The comparison will help you keep the original story you want to communicate while enhancing it to create details and bring your pictures to life. Learn how to create depth on facial features such as red-eye removal to obtain original eye colors. As stated before, we cannot say a clear set of rules exist for editing photos. It all rests on your knowledge over time, skills, hints, and advice you gain from other photographers and blogs such as this one. Why not allow your imagination to run and avoid over-editing your social media photos?