Editing pictures is a skill that not everyone has. If you find yourself less than content with your pet editing skills, follow the advice below.
Your pet is one of the loves of your life. They fit right into your family as one of the creatures you take care of – and yes, we are including children under that description. Your dog, cat, hamster, gerbil, snake, or spider becomes just as valued in your household as the other members do.
Sometimes siblings even treasure pets over each other. Commemorating this can be difficult, though, because dogs are notoriously poor at holding still long enough for your to get the shot. Therefore, learning to edit your pet photos is so important.
How to Edit Dog Pictures?
Editing photographs is one thing but editing dog pictures is a whole other bowl of kibble. Here are the details to help you edit your dog pictures in a thought-provoking, classic way.
Step 1 – Background or no background?
If you take a great picture of your pup but want to isolate the image, you can remove the backdrop entirely. Use a background eraser tool so that you can get rid of any dubious items in the background. It can be so difficult to get a successful shot of your animal that you do not want to ruin the picture just because the carpet is a mess.
Step 2 – Sharpening the picture
Sharpening the image is an effective way to reduce some of the blur you might have gained during the photo shoot. To reduce blur during the shoot, up the camera shutter speed. This means the lens opens and closes faster, only allowing in a little light.
This little light makes for a sharper image. To clean up the blur in the edit, you can use sharpening tools. However, over-sharpening makes the picture look grainy. Unfortunately, this is one problem it’s best to solve in the shoot.
Step 3 – Red-eye reduction
If you have taken your pictures in natural light and without a flash, you shouldn’t need to worry about red-eye reduction. If you have done both things, then work your magic to remove the lights in your dog’s eyes in the edit. You should reduce glare here, too. If the sequins on your dog’s new Thanksgiving sweater are disrupting the light balance, get to work correcting it.
Step 4 – More on the eyes
The key to an excellent pet portrait is to focus on those eyes. Make them as bright and clear as you can. A dog’s eyes reflect so much warmth and love. They are the windows into their little personalities. Capture this well in the dog photo shoot and later clean it up in the edit.
You can enhance the color, the contrast of the shot, or up the highlights in editing to boost focus on a dog’s eyes.
Step 5 – Crop and adjust
Adjust the framing of your pet photo next. Once you have the exact adjustment you prefer, turn your attention to adjusting the levels of the photo. Every good photograph keeps horizontal lines lengthways across the shot, and vertical lines up and down. You can even adjust highlights to create a perfect photo of your best buddy.
