Are you looking to transform your photos from a well-taken iPhone into professionally polished and great-looking snaps? Well, you’re in the right place. You can get excellent results by editing your photos on an iPhone in just a few minutes. In this blog, let’s look into the process for turning any photo into a beautiful, professional-grade picture.
How to edit photos on iPhone to look professional?
1. Use the Built-in Photos App
You can use the built-in app to edit your photos from the Photos App on your iPhone. To edit a photo, you only need to tap on the image you want to improve and click “Edit,” which will bring up some built-in editing tools. Increase the exposure and contrast of the image, bringing to light more details by deepening shadows and mid-tones, thereby making a perfect dramatic image. The color balance and saturation sliders also make the colors more punchy or just true-to-life. Play around with the adjustments for that finishing touch to make your image stand out.
2. Adjust the Brightness
When it comes to correcting the overall exposure of your photo, adjusting brightness is one of the essential things you should do. If your image is too dark, increasing the brightness should allow you to see some new details and colors.
On the other hand, if your photo looks too bright and blown out, then reducing the brightness can correct that balance while preventing you from losing detail in overexposed areas. It is essential to have a well-calibrated brightness that makes every photo aspect visible as the image obtains appropriate clarity and pop. Play around with them, and you can avoid overexposure or underexposure, making the image look more natural and balanced.
3. Balance the Exposure
Exposure dictates the brightness and detail in your photo, so balancing this correctly is crucial. By adjusting exposure, problems such as underexposure or over-exposed can be addressed. Brightening the image allows you to draw out objects in more shadow, increasing exposure level and apparent detail.
It can also reduce exposure by managing overexposed areas and highlights while drawing attention to certain parts of an image without getting overshadowed. You want an exposure level that the photo is not too light or dark by maintaining detail and clarity.
4. Change the Saturation
Saturation changes the intensity of colors in your photo, making their purposes more or less vivid. Another excellent way saturation can be implemented in your photography is by boosting your photo’s colors, making it more lively and energetic.
But, again, be careful and only go all the way to add a little saturation; otherwise, you will get unrealistically bad colors. Alternatively, if you reduce the saturation of an image, it will have a more subdued or artistic effect that is great when paired with older and dark-toned photos. Saturation with a bright but natural taste makes this picture vibrant in color.
5. Tune the Contrast
Contrast in your photo makes a difference in how you see your picture’s light and dark areas, giving it depth and dimension. Increasing the contrast makes lighter areas of an image brighter and darker parts darker, which can let details pick up significantly in shadows, adding some textures to a photo.
This would give your image more depth and an exciting look. In reverse, lower contrast smoothens the transitions between light and dark zones, which can lead to an even more subtle tone. Tune up the contrast to get a good-looking range of tones and make the image pop.
6. Highlights and Shadows
Finishing touches of highlights and shadows allows you to control each lit or dark area in your photo. Dropping the highlights can give you some of that information back in bright regions, reducing glare and making it easier to see things like carry distance.
Here, the shadows are increased to reveal details in the darker areas of your photo, giving you a more complete tonal range. This allows both the light and dark areas of your picture to be in focus so it appears less over-processed. This is quite handy for photographs with large variances in lighting, as you can get every part of them looking their best.
7. Create Unique Tint & Warmth
Color adjustments like tint and warmth are essential for fixing color biases and setting your photo’s mood. Changing the tint fixes what happens to colors in your image from different lighting and ensures they look like their true selves.
For example, adding a subtle green or magenta tint can minimize undesirable color casts. Correcting warmth affects the general temperature of your image, either cooling or warming it up. While warmer tones make it cozier and more inviting, more fabulous shades add a crisp look. Use these settings to achieve the desired mood and ensure the colors are balanced and natural.
8. Tweak the Sharpness
Sharpness can be tweaked so the sharper image has better-defined edge and texture details. This can be especially helpful in calling out important objects and gives your image a more polished feel.
Do note that sharpening is somewhat cautious, as overdoing depth editing can introduce noise or blur, ruining the quality of the image. Adjust the sharpening to emphasize important details and keep it natural and clean. Getting the perfect degree will ensure your photo looks sharp and crystal detailed but not overdone.
9. Noise Reduction
In particular, noise reduction is necessary to remove graininess in lowlight photos. It removes any distractions in the picture that prevent it from looking clean. In general, the less noise you have in an image, the easier it is to tweak and get a better result, which finally makes things look cleaner and smoother, keeping up with good-quality images.
Just be careful to do it sparingly because smoother handling can blur details and make things more transparent. Target a happy middle ground to reduce noise, but not at the expense of fine details and sharpness of your image.
10. Vignette
The vignette effect will slightly darken your photo’s edges and root it to more central. It’s a great way to add depth and professionalism by focusing more on the major object of your photo.
Next, change the vignette strength to give a lovely soft border on your image, an enhancing element to add but not something that takes over. In other instances, adding a vignette effect will give your photo depth and polish it by making it look more elegantly composed.
11. Straightening Your Photos
If your photo is tilted or misaligned, straightening will level it out and improve the composition of your image. From there, use the straightening tool to set an angle that would give our photo a more professional feel.
This one move can make a huge difference to the overall aesthetics of the image, making it more purposeful and visually pleasing. A straightened photo will help you keep the composition balanced and center-aligned or aligned in your desired way.
12. Filters
Filters can make color better or worse in your photography. These are styling effects, but they might have an actual purpose, like fixing a wrong white balance.
Choose filters to emphasize your photo’s mood, making it more prominent without overshadowing its original features. Tweak the strength of your filters to have a more finished and unified-looking feed. Filters should not overpower the natural beauty of a photo but enhance it, so try them out until you reach that level where your picture looks professional.
13. Experiment with Third-Party Apps
Although the built-in Photos app offers a lot, third-party apps can take everything great about it and improve your editing experience. Snapseed offers more advanced options that help you fine-tune your images without overspending and is ideal for selective edits or detailed retouching.
Adobe Lightroom is the granddaddy of features with its pro-grade tools, robust color and tone control presets. The polished look can also be achieved with one of the various VSCO filters and editing capabilities. Give these apps a shot to get more from image editing and improve the quality of your photos.
You can master editing on your iPhone with these quick and easy tips, ready for making professional-looking photos. Play around with these tools to optimize your image and bring out the best in every shot.
Also Read: How to Clear History on iPhone?
FAQs on How to Edit Photos on iPhone to Look Professional
What are the basic steps to edit a photo on my iPhone?
Open the Photos app, select your photo, and tap “Edit.” Adjust brightness, contrast, exposure, and apply filters as needed. Save your changes by tapping “Done.”
How can I adjust brightness and exposure?
Increase brightness to lighten dark areas and decrease it to fix overexposure. Adjust exposure to balance light levels, revealing more details or reducing glare.
What’s the difference between contrast and saturation?
Contrast enhances the difference between light and dark areas, adding depth. Saturation adjusts color intensity, making colors more vivid or muted.
How do highlights and shadows affect my photo?
Lower highlights to recover details in bright spots and increase shadows to reveal more in dark areas. Balancing these settings improves overall detail and clarity.
What are tint and warmth adjustments for?
Tint corrects color casts, and warmth adjusts the photo’s color temperature. Warmer tones give a cozy feel, while cooler tones create a crisp look.
How can I sharpen my photo without adding noise?
Increase sharpness to define details, but avoid over-sharpening to prevent noise. Make subtle adjustments to enhance clarity while keeping the image natural.
