4 Photo Editing Tips to Enhance Your Social Media

Are you ready to take your social media to the next level?

Though you could buy followers or craft the perfect caption, there’s something else that will help you get ahead of the game. Any guesses?

In the highly visual world, we live in, gaining attention through your photos is the fastest and easiest way to build engagement. When viewers see the images on your social media, they’re connecting to your service, product, or idea.

Here, some of the top photo editing tips to get your content noticed.

Start Behind the Camera

Before you can think about editing your photos, first, you have to take quality pictures. Follow these quick tips to get started.

Composition Is Key

Where things appear in your photo matters. Divide your camera screen into thirds horizontally and vertically. Then, frame your object in those 9 sections.

Use the grid to direct the viewers’ attention to where you want them to look. This is also a good time to play with natural lines and directional cues in your photos.

Don’t Underestimate Lighting

One of the biggest mistakes photographers make is overexposing their photos. Keep the exposure down and you’ll have an easier time editing later on. This ensures your photos won’t look washed out–unless that’s the look you’re going for.

Plan Your Aesthetic

Especially if you’re promoting a commercial or personal brand, you want each of your photos to fit together. Think about these things when planning your posts:

• Clothing style
• Colors in the photo
• Types of landscape
• The angle of the photograph
• Poses in the photos
• Object placement

This will help you have an idea of where to start when you edit your photos.

Photo Editing Tips

Now, time to get to the good stuff. Use these photo editing tips to help build your photo portfolio and maybe gain some followers along the way.

1. Pick a Filter

If you want your photos to flow and tell a story, pick a filter for your photos. This goes for photo portfolios and Instagram. You want your content to be coherent and look put together.

Though you may have seen filters built into the process of posting on social media, there’s a bit more to it.

So, what is a photo editing filter? A filter is anything that changes the colors and shades of part of or the entirety of a photo.

There are a couple of ways to add filters to your photos. One option is to apply a filter to the photo before uploading it to social media. There are several apps you can download to your phone or computer to help you edit.

Once you have your editing app open, edit your photo one of two ways.

Manually adjust the saturation, contrast, color highlights, shadows, etc. Or, pick from already curated filters. Many times you can choose the saturation of the filter, too.

When you’ve decided on your favorite combination, save it! This way, you can access it in the future and apply it to each of your photos. Keep in mind, you may have to do minimal adjustments to fit individual pictures.

The second option is to edit your photo in the social media app. This method works similarly to working in an editing app, but may not have the “save” option. In that case, write down your filter specifications so you can add them to each photo later.

2. Use Contrast to Your Advantage

Another way to grab viewers’ attention? Give them contrast!

Contrasting colors, images, and aspects are trademarks of social media photos. These are the elements that make your photo stand out.

By having contrasting colors and space in your image, viewers are instantly drawn in. They’re intrigued by the stark differences and want to learn more.

To add contrast to your photos, you can use the contrast adjuster in your editing app. Or, play with the highlights and shadows features. Both of these will help the colors in your photos stand out.

Using contrast works well with word photos, too. If you’re promoting a business or announcing something on your personal page, add words to grab viewers’ attention. You can use a color wheel for referencing colors that complement and contrast one another.

3. Refocus Your Photo

Earlier, we talked about using the Rule of Thirds to creatively compose your photo. But, if you need to refocus the photo, use the grids in the editing software or social media platform.

This way, you can use old photos and make them more visually appealing and interesting. Using the grids will also help you realign any tilted or off-balance aspects of your photo.

4. Sizing Matters

Though it may seem easy enough to post any photo on Instagram, consider the size first. To begin, understand how to edit Instagram photos.

For each aspect of Instagram and for other social media platforms, they use specific sizing guides. We all know there’s nothing worse than going to post a photo and the best part being automatically cropped out.

So, what’s the solution? Learn the Instagram aspect ratio. This will help you figure out how and where to post certain types of photos.

Keep in mind, though, that aspect ratio and size vary a bit. They measure the same things, but in different ways. The size counts the number of pixels in a picture, measuring the resolution.

To have a good post, you’re aiming for great composition and photo resolution.

How to Generate Leads from Social Media

Ready for Posting on Social Media?

After following these photo editing tips, do you think your photos are ready for posting?

It’s ok to post a few photos to see how they do while still figuring out your style. You can also list your Instagram or social media as a business page for even more insight into who is viewing your photos and when.

Check out and follow along on our social media blog for more tips, tricks, and insights for the best posts.