Photo/Image Editing In Adobe Photoshop For Beginners

Before Editing

After Editing

The idea of enhancing images was the primary motivation or my decision to learn photoshop. I was fascinated by the many tricks professional photographers apply to photos and images and thus photo editing became my first point of call in Adobe Photoshop. Here are five basic photo editing/enhancement tools every aspiring photo editor and photographer needs to master for photo/image enhancement in Adobe photoshop i.e cropping tool, level adjustments, working with layers, clone stamp, and healing and finally sharpen tool

CROPPING TOOL:
Cropping is the process of removing portions of an image to create focus or strengthen the composition. The Crop tools in Photoshop CS6 are non-destructive and you can choose to retain the cropped pixels to optimize the crop boundaries later. The Crop tool also provides intuitive methods to straighten the image while cropping.

CURVES AND LEVEL:

Another powerful tool available in Photoshop for photos/image enhancement is the curves and level tool. To perfectly enhance your images in a single step with improved Auto options for the Levels, Curves, and Brightness/Contrast adjustments. Use the curves and level too under adjustment.

WORKING WITH LAYERS:
Understanding the concept of layers in Adobe Photoshop and mastering its usage in relation to image enhancement is in my opinion, a critical skill every photo/image editor must acquire. One major advantage of using layers in photo enhancement is the fact that it allows you to make each image adjustment on its own layer, preserving the original and creating a finer sense of control over the edits

CLONE STAMP AND HEALING:
if there are any unwanted elements in your photo/images that needed to be removed, the clone stamp and healing tools are your best option. removing blemishes on skin and stains on sensors is made easier with the clone stamp and healing tool

SHARPEN TOOL:
The Sharpen tool increases contrast along edges to increase apparent sharpness. The more you paint over an area with the tool, the more sharpening increases. Mastering this tool demands that you experiment with it and learn as you go along however it is advicable to always apply this tool as the concluding step in your photo/image editing.

For the beginner photo editor, the aforementioned tools are a good starting point in your photo/image editing journey, I equally started with these tools however there are lots of other tools available in Adobe Photoshop for photo/image editing