3 Editing Tips That Aren’t About Editing

Most editing blogs will talk about exposure, colour grading, or even masking. In this one, I will share three tips that have nothing to do with actual editing. However, they will undoubtedly have a positive impact on your edits.

Zoom out from time to time

Most of us edit with the photo taking up as much screen real estate as possible. Some of us even zoom in to 100% and focus on the smaller details when editing. While there is nothing wrong with this, and it’s how I edit too, we can run the risk of getting lost in the edit without seeing the bigger picture. A while ago, while editing a sunset photo, I got so distracted by making the sunset as impactful as possible that I totally lost perspective on how it affected the image as a whole. As soon as I zoomed out, it became obvious that the sunset was way too powerful for the entire scene. The first piece of advice is to occasionally zoom out and get a bird’s-eye view of the whole image. This will ensure everything works together and nothing is out of whack.

Change the background

Most photo editors will have a background behind the image. Lightroom defaults to a neutral grey, while others might be white. If possible, I suggest changing the background colour to make sure you haven’t accidentally overexposed or underexposed the photo. I personally dislike editing on a grey background because it doesn’t feel natural to me, so most of the time I edit on white. While this works for me, I can often run into the issue of overexposing the photo. By flicking between different backgrounds as a final check, you can catch any discrepancies in exposure and ensure the image looks right.

Reset your eyes

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, I might sound like a broken record here. However, this is by far the most powerful editing tool at your disposal. Our eyes are fantastic at adapting to and normalising whatever they’re looking at. Spend long enough editing an oversaturated image, and soon enough it starts to look normal. Once you feel like an edit is finished, walk away for 24 hours and don’t look at it. When you come back, if you still like it and don’t see any issues, then it’s good to go. I often find that in 8/10 cases, I’ll make small tweaks to the edit, and in some scenarios, I’ll start from scratch completely. Giving yourself this break removes adaptation and allows you to see the image more objectively.