Ever wondered how other photographers achieve that perfect, polished look in their images? Whether you're an amateur photographer or just someone who wants to make a picture look professional, this guide will walk you through the essential steps to edit pictures professionally.
Before diving into tools and techniques, it's important to understand what makes a photo look professional. It’s not just about adjusting brightness or contrast; it’s about enhancing details, correcting colors, and refining composition.
Professional photo editing involves multiple elements like color correction and grading, exposure adjustments, removing unwanted elements, skin retouching, sharpening, and noise reduction. FilterPixel, with its AI-driven platform, allows photographers to handle these aspects with precision while maintaining consistency across a photo set.
To achieve photo professional editing results, you need the right tools. Popular software like Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and FilterPixel offer advanced features to edit pictures and enhance them to perfection. FilterPixel, for instance, leverages AI to help photographers edit photos quickly while maintaining creative control. With features like Survey Mode, photographers can quickly compare and sort duplicate images in a grid view, making it easier to identify the best shots. You can also customize labels and rate photos to streamline your workflow.
FilterPixel simplifies the process of professional photo editing by automating repetitive tasks like culling and sorting. Its Comparison Mode lets you view multiple shots side-by-side with detailed views, including zoomed-in facial features for precise evaluation. The Custom Editing Profile feature enables you to train the AI with 3,000+ Lightroom images, creating a custom profile that aligns perfectly with your unique style. This ensures that your editing remains consistent and reflects your creative vision.
Import and Organize Your Photos: Efficient organization is key to a smooth workflow. FilterPixel’s intelligent culling feature automatically selects the best shots, saving hours of manual work. With Survey Mode, photographers can quickly review and sort duplicate images in a grid view, while customizing labels and rating photos for streamlined management.
Adjust Exposure and White Balance: Correcting lighting and color temperature is crucial for a natural and balanced look. FilterPixel’s Inspect Mode allows you to zoom in on all duplicate shots simultaneously, making it easier to examine details and ensure consistency in exposure and white balance.
Apply Basic Corrections: Enhancing depth and texture involves adjusting contrast, highlights, and shadows. The Tone Curve tool in FilterPixel allows for precise control over the tone and contrast of your entire image set, helping to create a cohesive and professional look.
Retouch and Enhance: Enhancing finer details in a photo can take hours manually. FilterPixel’s Expert AI Profiles streamline this process with pre-configured profiles tailored to different editing styles. Plus, with FP Edits, you can refine each image to match your unique style, ensuring editing reliability with every shot.
Apply Creative Edits and Filters: This is where you shape your artistic vision. Experiment with color grading or black-and-white conversions to suit your style. With Adjust Profiles, you can personalize ready-made editing profiles to achieve the exact aesthetic you want, ensuring consistency across your photos.
Maintain Consistency: For photographers editing multiple photos, maintaining a uniform style is essential. FilterPixel’s Filtered View allows you to sort and review images based on specific criteria like Selected, Rejected, Duplicates, Stars/Colours, Focus Tags, Eye Tags, Camera Model, and Lens Model. This helps in ensuring your edits remain cohesive across the entire project.
Export in High Quality: Saving your photos in the right resolution and format is crucial for both web and print. FilterPixel’s Multiple Exports feature allows you to tailor your export process to fit your needs, whether you want to export in Lightroom, Photoshop, Bridge or CaptureOne or even your local drive.
The FilterPixel Lightroom Classic plugin seamlessly integrates into your editing workflow, making it easier to edit pictures professionally without switching between multiple platforms. The plugin allows you to:
Import Your Photos: Open Adobe Lightroom Classic and import your images from your desired source (hard drive, memory card, or cloud storage).
Select the Images: Navigate to the folder with your photos and select the ones you want to edit (Ctrl/Cmd + A for all or Shift + Click for custom selection).
Access FilterPixel Plugin: From the top menu, go to File > Plug-in Extras > Edit with FilterPixel Edits.
Launch FilterPixel Interface: A new window opens. Choose between training your own AI profile (with 3,000+ Lightroom images) or using ready-made Expert AI Profiles.
Apply and Adjust Edits: Select your preferred profile (like DreamTone or Timeless), fine-tune the edits if needed, and let FilterPixel enhance your photos.
Sync Back to Lightroom: Your edits will automatically sync back to Lightroom Classic for final review and export.
Pro Tips for Wedding Photography Editing
For those working in wedding photography, capturing emotions and moments while enhancing clarity is key. Focus on:
- Correcting lighting and exposure to match different scenes and moods
- Removing noise and grain from low-light shots
- Enhancing sharpness without over-processing
- Retouching skin tones and enhancing details subtly
- Maintaining a consistent style across the entire wedding album
With FilterPixel’s Keyboard Shortcuts and Multiple Exports, you can streamline your workflow and achieve high-quality results also boosting efficiency in high-volume scenarios.
Professional photographers often develop a unique editing style that sets them apart. FilterPixel’s FP Edits feature refines and perfects each selected image in the photographer’s unique style, ensuring editing reliability with every image. Additionally, the Expert AI Profiles allow you to apply professional-quality edits quickly and easily, saving time and effort.
Mastering how to edit photos takes practice and patience. With tools like FilterPixel and a solid understanding of editing techniques, you can achieve stunning, professional results. Whether it’s for social media, a photography portfolio, or photojournalism, the right approach to photo editing can truly transform your work. By leveraging advanced features like Survey Mode, Inspect Mode, Comparison Mode, and Filtered View, FilterPixel allows photographers to efficiently manage their workflow while delivering high-quality, personalized edits every time.