Photo Edit Fundamentals for PC & Mac
Tags: Editing, Photography, Editor, Photo Editing, Education

So you’ve decided that you want to get more out of your photos. Perhaps you’re graduating from our guide on Photo Edit Fundamentals for Mobile, tried editing a little on your own time and got frustrated, or you’re just about to take your first shot at photo editing on desktop.

Either way, this guide will teach you everything you need to know to take your photo editing skills to the next level. Though you’re more than welcome to supplement your knowledge with further resources, like this Skillshare course, with a special 2-month free trial. But enough chit-chat. Let’s start editing!

Step 1: Get some photo editing software 💻

Picasa and Instagram are both commonly used for basic edits. But you want your photos to look really amazing don’t you? That’s why we recommend you reach for something a bit more serious, designed for serious photo editing.

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for professional photo editing, but you don’t need to pay for an Adobe subscription to do professional photo editing. GIMP is a free and open-source photo editing program that has many of the same tools as Photoshop, and can be downloaded for free.

Step 2: Save your images to your computer 💾

After you get some photo editing software, you need some photos to edit. If you have a digital camera, you can transfer photos to your computer via an SD card, or a USB. If you are using your mobile phone as your camera, you can save your photos to a cloud service such as iCloud, Google Photos, or DropBox, which can be accessed from a computer.

Remember, for the best outcome, always work with quality, high-resolution images!

Step 3: Crop your images ✂️

Cropping a photo adds more focus on the subject in the photo by removing some of the excess background in the image.

The crop tool resembles two right angles forming a square. It’s typically located in the toolbar to the left. Then click and drag a square around the subject of the image. Drag the corners to adjust the light part of the image. Click the center of the screen, or the checkmark icon to finalize your crop.

Step 4: Change the contrast 🔆

This is a standard setting for any photo editor. It makes whites brighter and darks darker, making an image look more dramatic and clearer. Though do be careful. If you make your picture too bright or too dark, you risk losing much of the fine detail in the final image.

To adjust the contrast in Photoshop, click the icon that resembles a sun that is half white and half black above the Layers panel to the right. This adds a brightness and contrast adjustment layer to the photo. Click the layer in the layers panel and use the brightness and contrast slider bars above the Layers panel to adjust the brightness and contrast.

To adjust the contrast in GIMP, click Brightness and Contrast in the colours menu at the top. Then use the slider bars to adjust the brightness and contrast. Then click Ok.

Step 5: Change the saturation 🌈

Saturation is how bold the colours in a photo are, and a saturation adjuster is another common feature in photo editing programs. Sometimes, the picture can be improved by lower the saturation (moving towards black and white), and sometimes it can be improved by increasing saturation. Experiment to see how it affects your image.

To adjust the saturation in Photoshop, click the icon that resembles three gradient bars (Hue & Saturation) or the icon with a triangle (Vibrancy) above the Layers panel. This adds a new adjustment layer to the image. Click the new adjustment layer and use the saturation slider bar above the Layers panel to adjust the saturation. You can also adjust the lightness, hue, or vibrancy slider bars.

To adjust the saturation in GIMP, select Saturation from the colours menu at the top. Use the Saturation slider bar to adjust the saturation of the image. Then click Ok.

Step 6: Adjust the colours 🌺

You can adjust the colour balance to make subtle colour changes to the highlights, midtones, and shadows of an image. You can also use the Hue slider bar of the Hue and Saturation adjustment to make major colour changes to your image.

To adjust the colour balance in Photoshop, click the icon that resembles a scale above the Layers panel to the right. This adds a colour balance adjustment layer. Click the radial button next to “Shadows”, “Midtones”, or “Highlights”, to select what you want to adjust. Then use the slider bars below Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, or Yellow/Blue to adjust the colour of the image.

To adjust the colour balance in GIMP, select colour Balance under the colours menu at the top. Click the radial button next to “Shadows”, “Midtones”, or “Highlights”, to select what you want to adjust. Then use the slider bars next to Cyan/Red, Magenta/Green, or Yellow/Blue to adjust the colour of the image. Then click Ok.

Step 7: Adjust the levels ↕️

The Levels tool allows you to change the overall image tone and contrast. You can click the icon that resembles a graph in Photoshop to add a Levels adjustment layer, or select Levels in the colours menu on GIMP. The levels adjustment has two bars for colour input and output.

Drag the black slider in the Input bar to the right increase the dark levels in the image. Drag the black slider in the Output bar to the right to limit the dark levels in the image.

Drag the grey slider in the Input bar left to lighten the midtones. Drag it to the right to darken the midtones.

Drag the white slider in the Input bar to the left to increase the light levels. Drag the white slider in the Output bar to the left to limit the light levels in the image.

Step 8: Use blurring and sharpening 🪒 filters carefully

You can find the Blur and Sharpen/Enhance filters in the Filters menu at the top of both GIMP and Photoshop. Be careful how much blur or sharpen you apply to an image. Instead of applying the filter to an entire image, you can use the marquee, ellipse, lasso, or quick select tool to select a part of the image and then apply the filter to the selected part of the image.

When making adjustments to an image in Photoshop or GIMP, it’s a good idea to right-click the image layer in the Layers panel and select Duplicate. This creates a duplicate layer of the image that you can use for editing, leaving you an unedited copy of the original image in case your edits don’t turn out the way you want.

Step 9: Use the brush and eraser tools 🖌️🧽

The brush tool allows you to draw and colour on an image or add texture. The eraser tool allows you to remove unwanted marks in an image. The Brush tool has an icon that resembles a paintbrush in both Photoshop and GIMP

Below the toolbar, there are two overlapping rectangles. The one on top is the primary colour, the one on the bottom is the secondary colour. To pick a primary colour, click the rectangle on top. Click a colour in the rainbow colour strip, and then use then click a shade in the large square on the left. You can also click the icon that resembles an eyedropper in the toolbar and click a colour in your image to select that colour.

In Photoshop, the brush menu appears above the toolbar to the left. Click the icon that resembles a solid or faded circle to display the brush menu. In GIMP the Brush menu appears below the toolbar to the left. Click a brush type, circle or pattern to select a brush type. Use the slider bars to adjust the brush size and hardness of the brush.

You can use different brush types with the eraser tool, as well as the Healing tool, and Clone stamp tool.

Use the Opacity slider bar to adjust how solid or see-through the colour is.

Step 10: Use the Clone Stamp and Healing tools 🩹

The Clone Stamp and Healing tools are a good way to remove small blemishes and imperfections within an image. The Healing tool has an icon that resembles a bandaid in both Photoshop and GIMP. The Clone Stamp tool has an icon that resembles a stamp in both Photoshop and GIMP.

To use the Healing tool, click the healing tool and then select a brush and brush size using a menu above or below the toolbar. Click the spot you want to heal. The Healing tool will blend over it using colours and patterns that surround the spot.

To use the Clone Stamp tool, click the Clone Stamp tool and pick a brush and brush size from the menu bar above or below the toolbar. In Photoshop, hold “Alt” (“Command” on Mac) or “Ctrl” (“Control” on Mac) in GIMP and click a spot of the image to sample from the image. Click another part of the image to stamp your sample in another location.

Step 11: Copy and paste parts of an image 🔄

There are several tools in both Photoshop and GIMP that allow you to copy and paste, or cut and paste, parts of an image.

In order, these tools are:

Marquee and Ellipse tool: The marquee and ellipse tools are the icons that resemble a rectangle or oval drawn with a dotted line in the tool. These tools allow you to select a part of the image by clicking and dragging to draw a rectangle or oval-shaped selection in the image.

Lasso Tool: The Lasso Tool is the icon that resembles a Lasso in the toolbar to the left. This tool allows you to draw your own shape to select a part of an image. You can use this tool to copy a specific shape in your image.

The Magic Wand Tool: The Magic Wand tool has an image that resembles a magic wand in the toolbar to the left. This tool automatically selects parts of an image by colour or shape.

Add or Subtract from a selection: After you make a selection using one of the above tools, you can add or subtract from the selection. The add and subtract modes are listed above the toolbar in Photoshop, and below the toolbar in GIMP. Click the icon that resembles two squares joined together and then use one of the above tools to add to your selection. Click the icon that resembles a square with a square cut out of it, and then use one of the above tools to remove parts of your selection.

Copy and Paste your selection: After you make a selection in your image, click Copy in the Edit menu at the top of the screen. Click Paste in the Edit menu to paste your selection as a new layer. Use the Move tool in the toolbar to move the selection. You can copy a selection from one image and paste it to another.

And with that, you’re ready to dive right into your editing software of choice! Take what you’ve learned here, throw in a couple of your photos, and see just how big of a difference your new know-how makes! Or, if you prefer to take your training a step further, take a look at that Skillshare course we mentioned, or check out our Medium account for more helpful guides on practical skills from the digital sphere!