Based on personal experience, Ill share my top fixes for common photo editing mistakes on your smartphone.
These tips are valid for images taken on your phone and DSLR pictures you may import.
However, that couldnt be further from the truth.
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Instead, I recommend applying minimal edits with color filters.
The same problem can occur when you give a shot to smooth other parts of your picture.
You should look at these tools as, well, tools.
It’s best not to over-rely on them and only use them for subtle enhancements.
You probably dont even need to use skin smoothing in most cases.
Aim to make peoples skin look as natural as possible in your pictures.
If you need more assistance, consider checking out this guide onhow to smooth skin in Photoshop.
I get it; smartphone photos sometimes lack detail and you want to make them more punchy.
Thats fine, but you have to understand where the limit is.
To tackle this problem, I suggest slowly moving the definition or clarity.
If your picture starts to look too fake, dial the sliders back a bit.
Lens correction will make automatic adjustments to your images framing.
For example, if the corners are distorted, tapping this button will bring everything back into check.
We have a full guide onhow and when to use lens correction in Lightroomif you want more tips.
In Lightroom, I suggest learning how to use noise reduction and tweaking your white balance.
They might make sense in portraits, but even then, you should still use them sparingly.
This also applies to changing the aperture ofpictures you take in Portrait Mode on your iPhone.
If you use background blur, double-check that people can still see whats happening in the background.
Most of the time, you dont need to do anything more than that.
When I first began manually editing and retouching my pictures, the initial results were inconsistent.
Doing that will enable you to learn more quickly and get better results.
For example, if you want to post on Instagram, you should pick 4:5.
My general rule of thumb when cropping photos is to remove everything I dont want.
For example, trash cans and some street signs can go unless they really add something.
Some editors also let you crop freely by removing the padlock.
However, I think these should be the first things you tweak.
But whatever editing app you use, attempt to avoid these common pitfalls for top-notch photos.
