In today’s world, getting into photography is easier. The internet provides access to a vast amount of readily available information and tutorials. You can never have a valid reason to not jump right into it.

Taking photos and posting them on social media has become a popular trend. Hence, words such as “instaworthy” and “instagramable” were born. And the quality of the photo should be of the utmost importance when it comes to capturing special moments.

How your photos turn out depends a lot on how you set the exposure on your camera. Once you learn a few simple terms and techniques, it’s easy to know how to expose an image correctly.

What is Exposure in Photography?

Exposure is the overall brightness or darkness of the photo. More specifically, it is the amount of light that gets to the film or camera sensor. The photo will be lighter the more you let light hit the film or camera sensor. The darker your photo is, the less light it will have.

Exposure is one of the most important factors in determining whether a photograph appears amateurish or professional. It is best to have a simple understanding on this.

What Influences Exposure?

There is not just one method for adjusting the exposure settings on a camera. There are three distinct data settings that affect exposure, collectively referred to as the exposure triangle. The shutter speed, the aperture or the size of the opening, and the ISO all play a role in photography.

• Shutter Speed – The length of time that the camera’s shutter is open, expressed in seconds, is referred to as the shutter speed. For instance, 1/100 means that your shutter is open for 1/100th of a second. The longer the shutter is open, the brighter the photo will be because there is more time for light to get in.

• Aperture – This is the size of the opening that lets light in. It is measured in f-stops. Contrary to what you might think, the higher the number, the smaller the opening. The aperture affects the depth of field. When the opening is bigger, the depth of field is shallower, while when the opening is smaller, more of the image is in focus.

• ISO – An ISO number indicates your camera’s sensor’s sensitivity to light. The greater your camera’s sensitivity to light, the higher its ISO setting.

Adjusting Exposure Using Colorcinch

Even inexperienced photographers can edit their photos and produce stunning images. There are numbers of web-based editing software to use. This time we will be exploring Colorcinch to manipulate and adjust a photo’s exposure.

 A Step by Step Guide Using Colorcinch

This step-by-step guide will show you how to use an easy-to-use app to make your photos look more professional. Let’s begin!

Step 1: Open Colorcinch and Upload image

Step 2: Click Edit – Exposure

You will see a bar of features on the left side corner of the application that will help manipulate your photo.

Click on the Edit tab and you will see sub-groups such as Basics, Enhance, and Creative options. The Enhance option brings you to where the exposure feature is located.

Step 3: Navigate Exposure

By using the Exposure tab, you will have complete creative control over your photographs. It has four essential components, allowing you to make straightforward adjustments to the exposure.

The four components that you can easily adjust with a slider are:

•  Brightness – Brightness refers to how light or dark the image is as a whole. When the brightness is turned up, every pixel in the frame gets brighter.

•  Contrast  –  Contrast is the difference in brightness between objects in an image. Increasing the contrast makes the light areas brighter and the dark areas of the frame much darker.

•  Highlights – In photography, the term “highlight” refers to the area of an image that is the most illuminated.

•  Shadows – In photography, the shadow is the darkest area of the picture while retaining some level of detail.

Experiment with the sliders and make adjustments until you achieve the desired result.

Step 4: Save and Share

Once you get the correct exposure, you can Save the image and may start sharing it on various social media platforms.

Why Should You Properly Expose Your Photos? 

When you take a picture with the correct exposure, you are able to see every detail in the highlights and shadows. Underexposure is the term used to describe the effect that occurs on the camera’s exposure when the sensor does not receive enough light.

People who are new to photography or who only take pictures for fun and not as a means of earning a living may find it especially difficult to understand all of this photography jargon.

If you are not familiar with how to use the exposure triangle, it will be difficult for you to ensure that the exposure is correct. The good news is that there are a lot of web apps that make it simple for novices to get the results they want and to adjust the exposure of a photograph.

In conclusion, the quality of your photographs will undoubtedly improve if you take the time to get the exposure in-camera right. When you expose the photos correctly, it will give the impression that you are more professional and that your photos are more appealing.

However, if the photos taken directly from the camera require additional adjustments, just keep in mind that there are other ways to fix the problem.

The post How To Adjust Exposure in Photos Using Colorcinch appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

If you are a professional photographer, wouldn’t you agree that a single photo has the capability to speak a thousand words? Those of you who are in the professional photography arena would realize how important it is not to let any margin for error or commit any photo editing mistakes.

Whether you consider product photography, nature photography, or fashion photography, it is important to understand that you need to be adroit enough to maintain its aesthetic appeal.

To ensure that the photo appears appealing and serves the shot’s purpose, photo editing is used. While editing your photographs, you need to practice caution since you want to present the best possible output to the end-user. Bad photo editing can spoil the entire objective of your shot.

You don’t want to make such photo editing mistakes, do you?

Whether you are a beginner or a professional photographer, it is important to stay in tune with the latest happenings in your arena. Peruse the coming section to help you attain the perfect picture post-editing in 2022.

10 Common Photo Editing Mistakes to Avoid

1. Crop the Photos 

You cannot present the final picture with a blurred background with irrelevant objects. Cropping helps you put the entire focus on the important part of your photograph and get rid of the unnecessary things in the image.

Don’t get us wrong. We are not recommending simply cutting off the background of the images. Cropping the photographs is an art, and it must be done adroitly. Improper cropping may render your photograph look unattractive.

To avoid this photo editing blunder, make sure you understand the aspect ratio requirements for the platform for editing your images, such as print or a fashion portfolio. Focus on only removing the extraneous and unusual details.

2. Over-Sharpen the Image

Photo sharpening is done to make the image look more attractive. However, many novice photography enthusiasts go overboard with sharpening, making the image look unnatural. Many over-sharpen their photographs while editing Instagram photographs, making them look angrier. Therefore, you need to practice caution while sharpening your image.

Keep the purpose of sharpening in mind, such as fixing blur. You don’t want to sharpen your image too much and show halos around the object in the picture. You need to aim for a perfect balance between noise and sharpness, whatever photo app you use.

3. Overdoing HDR

The purpose of HDR in photo editing is to present the dynamic range between light and dark parts of the image. Professional photographers use HDR in the sunset or sunrise shots to get the correct exposure.

Just like over-sharpening, overdoing HDR may make your image unrealistic. To maintain its aesthetics, you need to use HDR judiciously. You can use copywriting software  to edit your photos but make sure that you apply HDR moderately.

4. Computer Monitor Calibration

Another common mistake that photographers make is ignoring the monitor calibration. You don’t want your altered photo to seem different when printed or shared with the client on another device. You notice that the image hue or brightness in the final altered photo differs from what you had specified. When your monitor isn’t calibrated, this happens.

When you calibrate your laptop or desktop monitor, you ensure that the color, contrast, and brightness are within acceptable limits, i.e., close to the natural tone.

This guarantees that the colors in your images are accurate to the settings you’ve chosen and that they seem the same on all devices. As a result, you should calibrate your computer screen regularly.

5. Using Loud Text Colors

Novice photographers make this common mistake of using aggressively loud colors in deep contrasts. It is a big no-no when editing your image.

Have you ever tried reading words on an all red or blue image? It’s difficult, inconvenient, and may even cause physical harm to your eyes. Bright text is notoriously difficult to read, so you rarely see it in professionally created graphics.

Many users commit this Instagram mistake of posting edited pictures with loud text colors. We recommend setting the color picker to a dark gray instead of 100% black text because most designers don’t use it.

6. Put Too Much Emphasis on Edge Vignette

For many photographs, adding an edge darkening vignette is a smart idea. However, going overboard and making the vignette too powerful and evident is not smart.

This style of edge vignette is rarely sought or effective. It just appears obvious, and your attention is drawn to it due to the high contrast it generates – the exact opposite of what you want to happen.

Some marketers appear to believe that vignettes make their photographs look edgier. However, it is a big brand marketing mistake since doing it too excessively can detract from the original image’s beauty.

When your subject isn’t in the center of the image, using a Radial Filter in Lightroom to produce an off-center vignette is ideal. It even lets you use effects like zero Clarity and edge softening.

7. Applying Too Much Noise Reduction

Applying noise reduction to your image may be necessary if you photograph at a high ISO. But be careful; if you go too far, your image may become blurry.

This will mostly rely on the software you use and how it functions, and whether or not you can mask it to apply only to specific places.

It may appear fine when seen in full on your screen. However, enlarge the image to determine if it’s gone too far. It’s difficult to convey this in a low-resolution web image.

8. Not Shooting Raw

If you shoot JPEG and edit in Lightroom or Photoshop, you’re missing out on the advantages of having all that fantastic raw data at your disposal.

You might want to explore shooting raw at some point if you want to grow your business. It simply provides you with a lot more options to deal with.

If you’re processing photos in any way, whether using Lightroom, Photoshop, Elements, Luminar, or your camera’s software, the workflow for JPG and RAW is the same.

9. Neglecting Processing

Purists will argue that processing photographs isn’t photography, and they want reality. On the other hand, digital artists are on the opposite extreme of the spectrum. They can spend hours manipulating a single image or combine many to produce a completely new work of art.

The majority of photographers fall somewhere in the middle.

You may need to process to complete your vision of how you saw the image in your mind’s eye.

10. Unnecessary Conversion to Black and White

Any image will not appear nice in monochrome if the saturation slider is set to ‘-100.’ When retouching a black-and-white image, it is important to check if the frame has enough contrast. If not, then you must stay away from monochromatic conversions.

Check if any conspicuous colors complement the colored image, even if the scenario has high contrast. You may have a lovely and colorful sunset in your frame, but because you are accustomed to turning any image to monochrome, you may make a mistake.

Patience is required as you examine the image. If you don’t like the colors or the image has a lot of contrast, you can convert it to black and white.

Final Thoughts

Just like photography, photo editing is an art. And you must keep yourself updated with all the good practices. It is equally important to know about the bad practices to keep them at bay. The above content reflects what mistakes one must avoid while editing photos in 2022. Hopefully, you make the most of it and come up with a picture-perfect photo.

About Guest Author: Ayush Koul

Ayush is a content writer at RankHandy and he likes to write about SEO, digital marketing, and social media. He enjoys sharing his experience with like-minded professionals and aims to provide high-quality content.

The post 10 Common Photo Editing Mistakes to Avoid in 2022 appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

Are you familiar with the acronym KISS?

It stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. It can pretty much be applied to anything in life.

And if you are in a business where you need to constantly edit photos, then keeping it simple should be your main mantra, not only to save time but to save your sanity.

In this guide, we’ll be covering certain benefits of simplifying your photo editing with the correct platform.

There are several steps involved with the photo editing process: taking the photo, uploading it to your computer, editing it in a photo editor, and saving it to share on social media.

The problem often lies in that third step, the editor program you decide to use.

Using an editor that has a great user flow and experience can streamline your process — reducing the time it takes to edit a photo, allowing you to focus on other parts of your business.

How Long Should Photo Editing Take?

There’s a common misconception that photo editing should take a certain amount of time.

However, the actual time spent should depend on what you’re going for and what your needs are. If you’re just making some minor edits to brighten the color, maybe only 5-10 minutes at most is necessary. But if you’re looking to achieve a certain mood or tone, that can take much longer.

For example, if you want the sky in the background to be bluer than blue, it might take much more time than just applying a filter over the top of the original image.

Photo editing with the correct editor can reduce your time drastically.

But before we touch on what to look for within a photo editor, let’s cover some of the obvious benefits of using an editor.

Benefits of Using a Photo Editor

Here are 3 simple benefits of using a photo editor.

1. Quickly crop and rotate your photos

Cropping is a tool that editors have at their disposal. This allows you to focus on the subject of your photo by removing unnecessary parts. Rotating is also a great tool, especially if the shot was taken at an angle.

2. Change the perspective of your photos

The perspective tool lets you quickly turn your photo into what it would look like if looking at the subject through different types of camera lenses. This can create a portrait, landscape, or even a fish-eye look.

3. Turn your photo into artwork

One of the fun features an editor has is the ability to turn a photo into art. They work by taking what colors are in your photo and applying them to lines and typography – creating a hybrid image with beautiful results.

What to Look for in a Photo Editor?

So now that we know the benefits of photo editing, let’s cover what to look for in a photo editor.

When it comes to photo editors, there are 3 things you should look for:

1. The Number of Features

Depending on your needs and the type of photography you capture, editors can offer many different types of features, with some even offering exclusive features such as cartoonizers.

Some might specialize in creating art out of photos while others are more simple editors that just enhance the image itself. So it’s important to read over the features before investing time and money into an editor.

2. How Easy Is It to Use?

The best editors will have an intuitive UI that you can just start using. There are no manuals or tutorials necessary to get up and running.

If you are a personal brand running your own business, you don’t have time to learn all the bells and whistles of a program such as Photoshop if you are just going to be using it for edits.

The User Experience

Photo editing can be fun, but having an easy-to-use interface makes it even more enjoyable. Having a well-thought-out user experience allows you to improve your workflow and your overall edits. So look for user experience to ensure the editor you pick allows for a great experience. 

3. How Customizable Is It? 

Depending on your needs, you might want more customization options than others. Look for things like color controls, detailing, vignetting, etc.

Photo editing has many benefits, and using the right editor can help you get there faster and with better results. So next time you’re editing a photo, try putting it through a well-streamlined editor to see if it makes all the difference. 

Colorcinch Covers It All

Colorcinch has all of these features and more. This free Adobe Photoshop alternative is a great platform for any business owner. It allows you to do everything mentioned above — crop, rotate, add perspective, apply effects and filters, and turn your photo into art with built-in graphics and templates.

The best part is, it’s all available for free. With Colorcinch you can save time and money while still achieving professional results.

Photo editing has never been simpler. 

The post Photo Editing Taking Too Long? Simplify It appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

You’ve long dreamed of learning to edit Instagram photos like a pro, so your images would resemble ones uploaded by your favorite celebs.

Right?

No worries! Here’s good news:

I’m about to turn your dreams into reality.

This guide covers the steps you could take to edit your Instagram pictures like a professional—even if you have zero editing experience.

Before You Start Editing Your Instagram Photos

Stay ahead of the curve and be aware of the latest Instagram trends and don’t just set out to edit random, low-quality images. You won’t love the result regardless of the efforts you put in.

So the first step to uploading a beautifully edited photo on Instagram is to take a clean shot.

Thankfully, you don’t need an expensive camera to capture lovely photographs.

Got an Android or iPhone?

Then you’ve got all you need to take excellent shots.

Here are 3 quick tips for capturing attractive photos using your mobile device:

1. Clean Your Phone’s Lens

Naturally, dirt from a greasy hand, wet pockets, or dusty surroundings could easily accumulate around your phone’s lens, making your images look blurry or faded.

So, it’s essential you check (and clean) your phone’s lens before taking your pictures. 

Soft material like a handkerchief should fix this issue in a few seconds.

2. Choose Natural Light

Don’t go around taking pictures with your phone’s flash on. Unlike natural light, the phone’s flash may alter specific colors and affect your images’ overall quality.

So to get a beautiful and clear image to use on Instagram, rely on natural light instead of your phone’s flash when taking your photographs.

This might mean that you’d have to take your photographs outdoors or take your indoor photos from an angle with rays from a natural light source.

3. Embrace Multiple Perspectives & Avoid Long-Range Shots

To get a clearer picture when taking photographs on a mobile phone, move closer to the subject rather than zooming in from afar. Doing this is one smart way to obtain high-quality images.

Photos that are captured from odd angles, orientation and multiple perspectives often end up unique and beautiful. 

Instead of standing opposite the subject while taking a shot, explore other angles to see which would turn out the best. And don’t forget to play around with negative space too.

Learn more ways to improve your photography skills.

How to Edit Your Instagram Photos Like a Pro

Once you’ve got a clean, high-quality shot, it’s time to add bits of freshness to your picture. 

Depending on the result you’ve pictured in mind, you could edit your images directly within the Instagram app or use an external tool to achieve extra sleekness.

Using the Built-in Editor to Edit Instagram Photos Like a Pro

1. Upload Your Photo

If you already have images on your Instagram page, then it means you know how to upload a photo on the app. So you can skip to the next step.

But, if you are entirely new to this feature of the app, then I’m going to walk you through the process quickly.

First, open the Instagram app on your mobile device.

Second, tap the (+) button on the upper right corner of your phone’s screen.

Third, locate the picture you’d like to transform from your phone’s gallery. 

Tap the picture to select it, then tap the arrow on the upper right corner to upload it.

Once your picture uploads successfully, it’s time to pick up your editing wand and do some magical enhancements.

2. Pick a Filter

Instagram has a series of filters. You’re free to try them all and see which would work best for your image.

The process of choosing a filter can easily become an endless loop. Because, sometimes, more than one filter might catch your attention, even though you know you are to pick just one—and then reserve the remaining for your future uploads.

If you ever fall into this situation, here are two foolproof tricks I always use to break the loop:

1. I scroll through my Instagram feed, find someone else’s edited picture I love, and then use the filter the person used (or one close to it).
2. I check my previous uploads, find a picture that got lots of attention (likes & comments), and then re-use the filter I used there.

These tricks help to cut down the time you’d naturally spend sorting through numerous filters that might all appear cool at the same time.

3. Enhance Your Image

Start your adjustments by playing around with Instagram’s lux feature.

This feature helps to automatically adjust the contrast and saturation of your image, thereby increasing its vibrancy, highlighting little vital details, and making it look more attractive generally.

To use this option, hit the magic wand on the top of your screen and then adjust the slider from left to right to enhance your image’s looks.

After tweaking the lux, navigate to the edit tab.

You can straighten your photo (if it’s slanted), reduce/increase its brightness, add shadows, sharpen your image, and make other adjustments.

There’s no general rule to follow here. 

Carefully move the different editing tools’ sliders and find the settings that’d help make your image look better. Just avoid overdoing things so your photo won’t appear overly edited and unnatural.

After enhancing your image as you desire, hit the blue arrow on the top of your screen to save your settings.

Now you’re done, you can go ahead and post your image publicly.

You can also try out Lightroom presets as an alternative to Instagram filters although you need to be more of a professional to know how to use Lightroom and its presets. In case you’re not familiar with it, check out this quick guide on how to install Lightroom Presets.

Using a Dedicated Photo-Editing Tool to Edit Instagram Photos Like a Pro

You can choose from several mobile and web-based tools to edit your Instagram photos.

In this guide, though, we shall go over the steps for editing Instagram photos like a pro using Colorcinch.

So let’s begin.

1. Upload Your Image

Open this page and click on the blue button.

Next, locate and select the Instagram image you’d like to edit.

2. Choose a Filter

Colorcinch has a load of stunning filters suitable for editing pictures for both business and personal needs.

We’ve previously reviewed loads of Colorcinch’s filters (and ones from other software), so you can read this guide to get some ideas.

When you find a filter that goes well with your image and perfectly fits your needs, move the slider from left to right to adjust the filter strength, and then hit APPLY.

3. Enhance Your Image

Colorcinch has all the basic editing features you’ll find in most editing apps and even on Instagram. 

To adjust the brightness, contrast, exposure, and other features of your picture, navigate to the edit tab, click on a photo enhancement option, and carefully move the sliders from left to right.

4. Download Your Image

After editing your Instagram image using Colorcinch, hit the arrow on the top of your screen, and then click on My Computer (to download the image to your mobile/desktop).

You can now proceed to upload your image on your Instagram page without editing it within the app.

Unleash Your Editing Prowess

Quality is crucial if you desire to obtain a pro-looking, irresistible photo at the end of the day.

So ensure your original image is of high resolution and quality. 

If you would prefer to upload a stock photo rather than use yours, ensure you download a high-resolution version of the picture.

Creativity is one vital ingredient for editing photos beautifully.

Let yours burst forth!

The post The Beginner’s Guide to Editing Instagram Photos (The Pro’s Way!) appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.

How cool would it be if you could turn your photos into a sketch, or even an oil painting!?

The great news is that you can do just that in a few simple clicks!

But, before take a look at these sketch Photoshop actions and amaze yourself.

In this quick tutorial, I’m going to showcase some of my favorite features and effects using Colorcinch to transform my photos into art. And when all is said and done, be sure to also check out the beautiful collection of sketch Photoshop actions for true inspiration.

Let’s get right to it!

How to Turn any Photo to Sketch

Step 1: Upload an Image

Click on Upload and select an image.

Step 2: Select an Effect

On the left-hand column, select Effects, followed by Sketcher.

After selecting Sketcher, you will see a whole range of different sketch-based designs to choose from. We offer both free effects, as well as many additional Plus Feature Effects, which are part of our Colorcinch Plus Subscription Plans. (This provides access to all of our premium features and effects!) 

However, for this example, I’ll be using one of our free sketch effects. Effect IC221.

And now for the magic!

All that you need to do is to click once on one of our sketch effects. Boom!

Easy enough, right!?

Now, while some effects might look great right away, I always like to make tiny adjustments to my effects.

In the next section, I will show you how to further customize your sketch effects.

Step 3: Customize your Sketch

Part 1: Using the Effect Slider

The first thing to do is to adjust the Effect slider.

By default, it will apply the effect at 100%. The further you move the slider to the left, the less intense the effect will be.

If you move the slider all of the way to the left, the effect will not be displayed at all.

Below you can see this effect applied at 100%.

Here’s what the effect would look like at 50%.

Now, this is all down to personal taste, so have fun with it and play around with the slider until you find the look that you’re after!

Part 2: Using Effect Settings

To customize the effect further, simply click on the Settings button.

Here we have 3 additional options: Detail, Color Range, and Hue.

• Detail: This slider essentially adds more texture/sharpness to the effect
• Color Range: If the chosen effect has color, you will be able to add additional saturation to the image by moving the slider to the right
• Hue: This will shift the color/tones within the image

In my example, I added 9 to Detail, 35 to Color Range, and 3 to Hue.

Seriously, how cool is that!?

Conclusion:

Whether you’re looking to create sketches out of your photos for Instagram, get them printed, or make an infographic, Colorcinch is a one-stop-shop for achieving your editing goals.

As you can see, with a simple click or two of a button, you can turn any photo to sketch, or an oil painting with ease. It doesn’t get easier than that!

With all of the different effects that we offer, you can easily lose a few hours trying them all out while turning your photos into art. (At least I did!)

I really hope that you enjoyed this tutorial and were able to turn some of your images into digital art.

So until the next tutorial, have fun with these effects and let your imagination run wild! Start editing.

The post Turn Any Photo to Sketch or Oil Painting appeared first on Photo to Cartoon – Cartoonize Yourself & Create Avatar Characters for Free.