1

2

“There are no secrets to success. It is the result of preparation, hard work, and learning from failure.”

- Colin Powell

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Thanks for downloading this ebook and congratulation on taking action to improve your photography!

Over the years since I started blogging, I came across many people asking the same question: “how to edit images”.

You might think there’s a magic formula...the truth is, it’s really simple. Because it’s so easy, people don’t believe it and they ignore to look for what they want to hear.

Photo editing is about developing your personal style and the key is to keep on experimenting. Obviously, you need a good photo to work with in the first place, so having a good camera skills is also important. Remember: rubbish in, rubbish out.

I’ve outlined 22 photo editing techniques in this ebook. It may look simple, but I guarantee it will make a significant difference to your photo. In fact, “the effect” is often achieved by one or a combination of these adjustments.

Although I use Photoshop and Lightroom to explain these techniques, many are “generic” and can be easily replicated in other editing software. Everything you learn here is completely transferable.

3

Congratulations!

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

4

Content

Page

Lens profile correction............................................3Remove chromatic aberration................................4Corrective horizon and perspective........................5Remove sensor dust...............................................6Remove red eye...................................................... 7

Cropping.................................................................8Highlights/shadows details.....................................9Digital ND filter........................................................10

Contrast..................................................................11Clarity......................................................................12

White balance.........................................................13

Color temperature...................................................14

Vibrance..................................................................15

Hue/saturation/luminance (HSL).............................16

Adjustment brush....................................................17

Spilt toning..............................................................18

Black and white conversion....................................19

Page

High pass filter........................................................20

Sharpening..............................................................21

Denoise...................................................................22

Adding light.............................................................23

Vignette...................................................................24

What now?.............................................................. 25

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

All lenses, particularly zoom and wide-angle lenses suffer a certain degree of barrel, pin-cushion or moustache distortion. Besides, there is also vignetting/light drop off as you move away from the centre of the image. Fortunately, these can be easily corrected in post-processing.

From the left: barrel, pin-cushion and moustache distortion.

This image demonstrates the difference between the before and the after of enabling lens profile correction in Adobe Lightroom.

Check the box on Enable Profile Correction as shown below.

Go to Filter > Lens Correction and select the camera and lens model in the drop down menu.

If your camera or lens make and model isn’t in the menu, just pick one that gives you the best result. You can find out more on how to do so in this article.

5

#1 Lens Profile Correction

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Chromatic aberration is caused by lens dispersion, with different colours of light travelling through the lens at different speeds.

Because of this, your image may look slightly blurred. Either that, it can leave purple or green outlines around your subject.

Modern camera lenses often have better optical quality compared to the older ones. Therefore, chromatic aberration is less of an issue.

You can remove chromatic aberration in Lightroom, Photoshop or Adobe Camera Raw Filter, which is a plugin in Photoshop.

Check the box for Remove Chromatic Aberration.

Go to Filter > Lens Correction. Select the make and model of your camera and lens. This will allow you to check the box for Chromatic Aberration under Auto

Correct. Alternatively, you can do so manually in the Custom tab.

To use Adobe Camera Raw Filter, go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter. Go to the Lens Correction tab and check the box for Remove Chromatic Aberration as shown.

You can also learn more about preventing and fixing chromatic aberration in this article.

6

#2 Remove Chromatic Aberration

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

This means keeping the straight lines straight.

Nobody likes to see an image of a spectacular sunset with a wonky horizon.

When we take an image, we often tilt our camera upwards or downwards to ensure we include our subject within the frame. This inevitably creates a perspective distortion. This is more of an issue in image that involves buildings or structures.

You can easily tell this image was taken with the camera tilted upwards.

Go to the Transform tab and click on Auto. Lightroom will automatically make the necessary correction for you. The disadvantage of this is that

you will have to crop your image, which can make the composition tighter.

Go to Filter > Lens Correction. In the Transform section under Custom tab, use the slider on Vertical Perspective and Horizontal Perspective to make the

necessary adjustment.

Check the box for Show Grid to make your life easier!

7

#3 Correct Horizon and Perspective

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

If you own a DSLR, MFT or a camera that has interchangeable lens, your image sensor will accumulate dust over time. This is through no fault of your own and it happens to every photographer.

Larger sensor dusts are easily seen on your image, particularly on the brighter part such as the sky. Sensor dusts are also more visible in images taken at smaller aperture.

It doesn’t affect the image quality but can be unsightly. The good news is, removing sensor dust is super easy.

Click on the Spot Removal tool (keyboard shortcut Q) as shown below. You can set the brush size, feathering and opacity as you like it. It doesn’t matter

if you choose Clone or Heal as both do the job in removing sensor dust.

Select the Spot Healing Brush tool as shown below. Adjust the brush size enough to cover the size of the sensor dust and paint over the spot.

Duplicate the layer you are working on and use the Spot Healing Brush on the new layer. If you’re not

satisfied with the result, simply delete the layer and start again.

8

#4 Remove Sensor Dust

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

This is a common problem when taking portrait using a flash that is very close to the lens of the camera. It’s caused by the light reflected off from the back of the eye.

Click on the Red Eye Correction tool and then click on the red circle in the eye to apply the adjustment.

Select the Red Eye Tool. Use the cursor to draw around the red eye to apply the adjustment.

9

#5 Remove Red Eye

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

You don’t always have to stick to the frame your image was taken. We change our mind and we see things differently when the image is in full view on the computer screen.

It is ok to crop your image.

Cropping your image changes the composition.This may change the perspective and redirect focus.

This was the image before cropping. There was plenty of space in the sky which didn’t really add to the composition.

The image is now cropped from the top. There is now less sky. The tree and the limestone in the foreground suddenly become more apparent.

Click on the Crop Overlay (keyboard shortcut R). If you want to crop outside

the original ratio, you need to click the lock to unlock it first.

Click on the Crop Tool (keyboard shortcut C). You can select a preset size

from the drop down menu located on the top or crop freely as you like.

10

#6 Cropping

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Recovering details in the highlights and the shadows can improve the tonal balance of your image. Check the histogram to see if you need to do so.

Highlights or shadows clipping occurs when the graph in the histogram touches the far right or the far left. You can click here to learn more about it.

This image was taken straight out of the camera without adjustments to the highlights or the shadows.

Move the slider for Highlights to the left to recover details in the highlights. Move the slider for Shadows to the right to recover details in the shadows. You

can see the histogram changes as you do so.

You can apply a Curves or Levels adjustment layer. Alternatively, go to Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights. Move the sliders to make the

adjustments. Find out how to use Curves adjustment layer here.

The tonal balance has improved after the adjustments.

11

#7 Highlights / Shadows Details

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

A neutral density (ND) filter is often a landscape photographer’s best friend. It is used to stop down the exposure in the brighter part of the image.

In simple words, it is used to darken part of the image. Click here to read more about the role of ND filter in HDR photography.

In a high contrast scene, the sky is often too bright or even overexposed. This is because our camera is unable to capture the entire dynamic range of the scene.

Select the Graduated Filter. Click and drag where you want the transition from dark to bright to be. Move the Exposure

slider to the left to darken the filter.

Use the Gradient Tool on a new layer so you can change the opacity of the filter to you liking. Once you have selected the Gradient Tool, click and drag

across your image to apply the filter. Simply undo it if you don’t like the result and reapply it again.

Details in the sky have recovered after applying a Graduated Filter in Lightroom.

12

#8 Digital ND Filter

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Contrast in photography is the difference between the darkest and the brightest in the image. High contrast means there is a bigger gap between the darks and the brights. Images with good contrast are naturally more visually appealing.

Increasing contrast in post-processing also increases the saturation subtly in most image editing software.

This image taken in Yosemite on a gloomy day lacks contrast.

Move the slider for Contrast in the adjustment panel to the right to increase contrast and to the left to reduce it. You can also move the slider for Whites to

the right to increase the intensity of the white colour in the image. Move the slider for Blacks to the left to increase the intensity of the black colour.

Adjust the contrast of your image by adding a Brightness/Contrast adjustment layer. Make sure the box for Use Legacy is unchecked. Alternatively, you

can also apply a Curves or Levels adjustment layer.

By increasing the contrast, the image pops and looks more interesting.

When applying a Curves or Levels adjustment in Photoshop for contrast, change the blend mode to

“luminosity” to preserve the colour saturation.

13

#9 Contrast

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Clarity works by affecting the contrast in the midtones. This is in contrast with sharpening, which affects the edges between the darks and the brights.

Increasing clarity increases the edge detail in the midtones which boosts local contrast. Your image becomes more eye-catching as the result.

You can increase the clarity of your image in Lightroom by simply moving the slider for Clarity to the right. In Photoshop, you have to do it via Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter. To do so, go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter and you’ll see Clarity in the adjustment panel.

Have you ever seen images with dreamy effect? You can achieve this by lowering Clarity. This gives your

image a soft and vivid look.

Increasing clarity will inevitably affect the entire image, which may not be what you want to do in some image. You can increase clarity selectively by using the brush tool.

Use the Adjustment Brush to paint in Clarity selectively. Select the icon as shown below, move the slider for Clarity to the right and paint the

adjustment in the areas that you want. You can increase the Clarity later or simply paint it more to increase the effect.

You can do the same in the ACR filter. A useful step is to convert the layer you’re applying the filter to a Smart Object (right click on the layer and choose

Smart Object). This allows you to go back to the filter’s adjustment panel to fine tune your adjustment later.

Once you’re in the ACR filter panel, click on the Adjustment Brush on the top left corner of the panel as shown below. Paint in the adjustment for Clarity like you would do in Lightroom.

14

#10 Clarity

Secrets To Photo Editing

White balance becomes more of an issue when shooting indoors or with a filter such as an ND filter. These situations often give your image a colour cast (image below) which can be easily removed during post-processing.

Changing the white balance only works if you shoot Raw.

Click on the drop down menu as shown below and select a preset. Alternatively, select the eyedropper tool and click on a 50% grey pixel on the image. You

can also change the white balance manually using the Temp and Tint slider adjustment.

You can select another white balance preset in Photoshop by going into the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter.

Another way is to apply a Curves adjustment layer. Select each eyedropper tool as shown in the image to select the black, white and grey pixel in the image to set the white balance manually. You can learn this technique in this tutorial.

15

#11 White Balance

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Colour temperature makes your image looks “warmer” or “colder”. A warm image has more yellow in it whereas a cold image has more blue in it.

An image taken in an overcast weather may look dull and flat. You can change the mood by injecting some energy with contrast and warmth.

Changing the colour temperature will inevitably change the white balance of the image. There is no

right or wrong as to how much you should change, be sensible and don’t overkill it.

This image was taken in bright day light but in the shadows of the mountain to the right.

Move the Temp slider adjustment to the right to increase the temperature. Use Tint to fine tune your adjustment.

Change the temperature in the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter. The steps are exactly the same as in Lightroom. You can also apply a warm filter by

applying a Photo Filter adjustment layer. This gives a similar effect compared to changing the colour temperature.

The image now looks more alive with energy after increasing the colour temperature.

16

#12 Colour Temperature

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Increase the vibrance instead of saturation when you want to boost the colour of your image.

Vibrance increases the intensity of the muted colours and leaves the well-saturated colours alone. This is particularly useful when you want to preserve the skin tone while giving your image an overall colour boost.

Vibrance can be easily found in the adjustment panel in Lightroom.

Adjust vibrance by applying a Vibrance adjustment layer as shown below.

17

#13 Vibrance

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Also known as HSL for short.

To clarify some terminology:

Hue = ColourSaturation = Intensity of colourLuminance = The amount of B&W added to the colour

There are times when we only want to adjust selective colour in our image. HSL does the perfect job for this.

The HSL panel in Lightroom is easily accessible through the adjustment panel.

In Photoshop, it is part of the Adobe Camera Raw filter.

Hue allows you to change the colour of a colour. Saturation is pretty much self-explanatory and Luminance makes a colour brighter or darker.

For easier editing, click on the colour picker tool as shown in the image (in red box). Now pick a colour in

your image, click, hold and drag on it up or down. This applies the adjustment to that colour you have just clicked. Released your mouse when you are done.

You can learn more about how to use HSL adjustment tool in this tutorial.

18

#14Hue / Saturation / Luminance (HSL)

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Don’t get confused with the Brush Tool in Photoshop.

The Adjustment Brush can be found in Lightroom and the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter in Photoshop.

You can refer back to Post-Processing Tip No. 10 - Clarity on where to locate the Adjustment Brush.

The advantage of it is that you can paint in any of the adjustments in the panel on your image selectively. It’s a powerful tool that is often under-utilised by beginner photographers.

How To Use The Adjustment Brush:

1. Click on the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom or ACR.

2. Choose a brush size, start off with Flow 50% and Density 50%.

3. Paint in the areas you want adjustments to apply.

4. Move the sliders in the adjustment panel to apply the effect you want.

5. Click “Done” when you are finished.

Check the box for Show Selected Mask Overlay to see where and how much you have painted. The more

passes you have gone through, the heavier the adjustments. You can always fine tune it with the slider bar on the adjustment panel.

The red colour represents the area you have painted. The denser the red, the heavier the effect.

19

#15 Adjustment Brush

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Split toning is part of colour grading, which is a topic by itself.

In this case, you alter the colour of the highlights and shadows to change the mood of your image.

In colour rule, complimentary colours work well in split toning because of their opposition in the colour wheel. For example, blue and orange.

The split toning panel can be found in the Develop Module. Choose a colour for the highlights and the shadows, increase the saturation for each to your

liking. You can also move the Balance slider to put more weight on the highlights or the shadows.

The easiest way is in the Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) filter. The layout is almost exactly the same as in Lightroom. Once you have opened up ACR, go to

the split toning tab by clicking the icon as shown.

The other way is to apply a Colour Balance adjustment layer. Click on the drop down menu and select Highlights. Use the sliders to add colour to the Highlights. Once you have done, choose Shadows from the drop down menu again and do the same.

Use the free colour wheel in Adobe Kuler to learn about the colour rule.

Split toning (right) completely changes the mood of the image.

20

#16 Split Toning

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Depending on the composition, some images look better in black and white (b&w).

Here are a few suggestions as to which image looks better in b&w:

1. Simple composition

2. A single main subject

3. Minimalism

The image before being converted to black and white.

You can click on the Black & White in the main adjustment panel. You can also use the B&W option in the HSL adjustment panel. Use the Black & White

Mix to fine tune the tones.

Apply a Black & White adjustment layer to your image to convert it to B&W. You can

select a preset from the drop down menu and fine tune it with the sliders.

Alternatively, get a plugin software dedicated to b&w conversion. Nik Silver Efex Pro is a free Photoshop plugin that does a great job in this. I highly recommend it to start with.

After conversion to black and white in Photoshop with Nik Silver Efex Pro.

21

#17 B&W Conversion

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

High pass filter is a way of enhancing details in your image. Similar to sharpening, it increases the contrast between the lights and the darks. Unlike sharpening, it only applies changes to the edges only.

First, duplicate a copy of the layer. Go to Filter > Other > High Pass. Set the radius between 5 and 15, depending on your image. Next, change the blend

mode of the layer to soft light and check out the result.

The image before applying a High Pass filter.

To avoid going back and forth to create the perfect High Pass filter, set a higher radius first. You can

reduce the opacity of the layer if the effect is too strong.

The image after a High Pass filter has been applied.

There is no High Pass filter in Lightroom. However, you can apply a similar effect with Clarity (Post-Processing Tip no. 10).

You can apply a High Pass filter selectively. Add a layer mask and mask out anything that you don’t

want the details to be enhanced (such as the clouds).

22

#18 High Pass Filter

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Sharpening is often necessary when working with Raw images. You can stilll apply sharpening even though you have already applied Clarity or High Pass filter to you image.

Move the Amount slider in Sharpening to the right. Increase the Radius if you want a stronger effect. A

higher Detail means more edges in the image will be included in sharpening. Lastly, use Masking to apply sharpening selectively to the areas you want only.

Go to Filter > Sharpen and you will find 6 options to apply sharpening to your image. Unsharp mask is a

commonly used method by most photographers

In unsharp mask, increase the Amount for a stronger effect. A higher Radius means more area between the lights and the darks will be affected. Threshold looks at the contrast

between the lights and the darks. A higher Threshold means only areas with high contrast will be sharpened.

Apply sharpening selectively by masking the unwanted area with a layer mask.

23

#19 Sharpening

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Noise is common particularly in images taken at high ISO. This is due to a lower signal-to-noise ratio in the digital sensor. It causes the image to be grainy. This becomes more obvious as you enlarge the image.

There are 2 types of image noise: monochromatic and colour.

Monochromatic (left) Vs colour noise (right).

Denoising can be done directly on the Details

panel in Develop module. Note that Lightroom automatically applies noise reduction for colour noise when you import Raw image.

To reduce monochromatic noise, move the slider for Luminance to the right until the grains are just about to smooth out. Too much and you will lose details in the rest of the image. Use the Details and Contrast slider to recover some details and contrast but this might bring back some residual noise.

If you want to denoise your image in Photoshop, you can go to Filter > Noise > Reduce Noise. Personally, I

would use a denoise plugin such as Nik’s Define or Topaz Denoise because I feel these are more robust.

24

#20 Denoise

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Photography is all about capturing the light. Light also direct viewers to see what we want them to see. Adding light is a good way to highlight the subject and create a dramatic effect in your image.

Adding light may sound unnatural, but it is only unnatural if you overkill it. It is your job as the photographer to bring your image to life.

The image was taken on a cloudy day. It looks ordinary and dull.

Use the Radial Filter located just underneath the histogram to create light. You can change the size

according to the subject that you want to highlight.

Move Feather all the way to 100 to ensure a smooth transition. Don’t forget to check the box for Invert Mask so that the light created is within the circle.

It is much more tedious to create the same effect in Photoshop. First, create a new layer. Use the

Elliptical Marquee Tool to draw a circle, inverse the selection and increase the feathering. Then, fill the selection with black and adjust the opacity of the layer to your liking.

An easier option is to use plugin such as Nik Viveza where you can add control point to add light or shadow.

The overall exposure of the image was reduce by 0.5 stop. Light was added to highlight the foreground, the path and the waterfall. All adjustments were applied in Lightroom.

25

#21 Adding Light

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

Vignette in photography means a reduction in the image’s brightness around the corners. It may not be a desirable feature of a lens but can add mood to your image in post-processing.

Essentially, you are darkening the corners of you image so that the centre of the image appears brighter and highlighted.

The image before vignette was applied.

Go to Effects and move the slider for Amount to the left until the corners are darkened slightly. Midpoint

changes the transition from bright to dark, Roundness changes the shape of the vignette and Feather determines how smooth the transition is.

You can also choose a style: Highlight Priority, Colour Priority or Paint Overlay. For simplicity, I recommend Colour Priority to avoid any colour shift in the corner where vignette is applied.

Create a new layer. Select the Elliptical Marquee Tool and draw a big circle. Inverse the selection and

feather it by 30-40 pixels (go to Select > Modify > Feather). Apply a Curves adjustment layer and drag the curve down to darken the corners.

The mountain in the distant becomes more apparent after vignette was applied.

26

#22 Vignette

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

The only way to get better in photo editing (and ultimately creating better photos) is to put what you have learned into practice. The time you spent in mastering the art is directly proportional to the quality of your photos.

Another tip I can give you from my experience is to learn outside the box. If you’re a landscape photographer (like me), don’t just learn from tutorials on landscape photography but also tutorials in other genre. After all, it’s all photography and you will learn some new tricks that you can apply in your genre.

So here’s what you need to do:

1) Finish this ebook (if you haven’t).

2) Get out and shoot plenty of photos.

3) Get an image editing software if you don’t have one yet.

4) Use the techniques in this ebook to edit your photos and keep on experimenting on what works for you to develop your own style.

5) Don’t stop, keep on learning. Learn outside the box.

27

What Now?

Lastly, publish your photos...be it magazines, social media or competitions.

You need to get your work out there!

To better photos!

Yaopey

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

28

Secrets To Mastering Photo Editing Like A Boss

“Every child is an artist, the problem is staying an artist when you grow up.”

- Pablo Picasso