Post-production is an important stage in any photoshoot that can significantly improve any image. However, editing is not easy and many beginners can’t cope with this task due to lack of experience. It’s not the main thing to learn all the settings and tools. Understanding what you want, having a sense of balance and style are much more important. Statistics show that these 10 mistakes are the most common among novice editors.
10 Common Mistakes
1. The Contrast is never enough
Many people think that a photo with the added Contrast looks brighter and more expressive. It is, but it’s necessary to know the limits. Saturated colors look attractive, but only while they look natural. Images with artificial tones look ridiculous, especially if we talk about a photoshoot in a natural environment.
2. Blurring a background is not always a good idea.
The decision to blur the background completely is usually made by those photographers who forgot to adjust the exposure while photographing and want to fix it. Unfortunately, this trick doesn’t work. This photo editor tool is simply not designed for this. You can blur some objects but not the whole background. It looks unnatural and you can’t achieve the same effect as with the correct exposure.
3. Black and white photos aren’t as simple as they seem
Monochrome images always look more mysterious and attractive. Therefore, many aspiring photographers try to use this technique to improve their photo or even fix it. But it’s not so simple, because not every image is suitable to make it black and white. Dim colors, especially grays and browns, make the picture “dirty”. This problem is difficult to fix, so it’s advised to study the rules of monochrome shooting before starting.
4. A bright object on a monochrome photo
You probably saw a lot of black and white images with one bright object and understand how easy it is to make such a photo. Many beginners try this effect considering that it will bring some freshness to their picture. However, this trend has already gone and such images look shots and unprofessional. Play with the colors in the original photo or customize the beautiful monochrome effect.
5. Perfect skin and extra makeup in the photo
Working with the model’s face in the photo is the most crucial moment during retouching. Editing skin and removing imperfections is fine, but do not go beyond naturalness. Beginners often don’t know how to maintain balance, so they make the skin too smooth as if it was a mannequin. Until you learn to see the line between natural and artificial, look at the original image sometimes during editing. Also, remember that some facial imperfections such as moles may be a distinguishing feature of the model.
6. Wrong facial retouching
Many models don’t recognize themselves in the photo after retouching often due to the editor’s unsuccessful desire to make the face perfect. Each person has their own unique facial features that should not disappear in the picture. It’s a fact that the camera makes objects larger, so slimming a face and working on the contour is necessary. You will greatly facilitate your work if you use a face editor. Retouch me app retouchme.com makes it easy to fix flaws without changing the originality. The program was created by specialists in the field of image editing. You can use this face editor online.
7. Too white teeth
Another mistake during face editing is the excessive whitening of the teeth of a model. Of course, if the smile is not white enough, it needs retouching, but don’t go too far. Always remember to stay natural and look at the original photo.
8. A large number of effects are as bad as their absence
Editing is necessary in order to emphasize or improve the existing qualities of the photo, but not to overlap them. Using a large number of settings, textures, and effects, you only go away from the original in the wrong direction. Always keep a balance and remember that the image should look natural to please the one who looks at it.
9. Sharpening a defocused image
If a picture is failed and looks blurry, do not try to correct it with sharpening. It won’t lead to anything good, but only a waste of your time. Such images look unprofessional due to a clear overabundance of editing. The best solution is to forget about this picture and look for something new to work on.
10. Trying to cut out the background … to replace it with another
If you are not satisfied with the background in the photo and you want to transfer the model to another one, forget about it. Even image editing wizards can’t do it unnoticeably. If you like experimenting with backgrounds, take pictures with a chroma key to facilitate the post-production process. Alternatively, take a photo with the right background right away.
Conclusion
In general, you can see that the essence of all the mistakes is the desire of beginners to demonstrate as much as possible of what they learned about photo editing. This is a wrong approach as the essence of retouching is that no one should notice it. Remember that you must not reveal your secrets. If you want to do this permanently, then you will have a lot of time to try out all your knowledge.
