Complicated gym routines, strict diets with exact meal plans, and counting calories may be a barrier to accomplishing your goals. The same goes for photo editing
Too many tools and photos randomly stored on your hard drive with folder names that even Sherlock Holmes would not find a way around. You know, it can get pretty messy.
If you own a camera you could benefit from software that will do it all and even guide you along the way. To popular options on the market, there is one more that meets many points on the proverbial checklist.
I’m talking about Zoner Photo Studio X, software for Windows that has an intuitive user interface divided into 4 modules. Each of them covers a part of the photographer’s workflow. To sum up, it is a program for editing photos, not a complicated editor for graphic designers and it will guide you from A to Z.
From importing photos through editing, all the way to sharing in various ways, even via valuable printed photo products. Here are a couple of tips on editing and finalizing your photos.
Photo Editing – Expose your photos right
Taking a photo of your brunch in the garden? Everything ready and prepared for your guests under the shade in your yard, a table full of delicious finger-licking’ food but the background is overexposed, white, and screaming, “look at me!” more than the delicious food?
Save it by correcting the Exposure and the Highlights. In many cases, you can just do it just by pressing the Auto adjustment button. If you would like to be more precise though, you can use local adjustment tools like the Gradient & Circle filter or the filter brush and selectively paint over parts of the image.
Colors completely under your control
Adding your signature look and modifying the colors? Here, Zoner Photo Studio X really excels. You can use color correction to lift your favorite color, highlight the hue that you would like the viewer to pay attention to first or, reduce the saturation of colors that don’t match the rest of the image.
In the following picture, you can see how I lifted the greens on the salad, it looks fresher and healthier than you might even remember the salad being. You can use the Hue picker directly in the picture and ZPS X will automatically adjust the sliders as needed.
Adding a retro matte look
Would you like to achieve that vintage style look? Using Curves it is quite easy. And really, don’t be scared of trying it out. Just clip the shadows by adding a point in the bottom part of the graph and pull it upwards.
This is a basic workflow procedure to adjust and make your photos pop, shine, and get noticed on social media today.
Among the advanced tools, I would like to mention the Editor module. This is where you can unleash your creativity and make magic happen. Compared to the Develop module, which follows a non-destructive approach and processes RAW files, the Editor is a whole different ball game.
It is a powerful bitmap editor with a Photoshop-like layer and mask support. You can blend multiple images together or replace a boring background. It comes with even more filters and effects.
Sharing online and beyond
Photos edited in the Develop or Editor module can be exported to your hard-drive or uploaded in full resolution to the online album Zonerama gallery where you can upload full-resolution photos without compromising on quality, space, and what’s better, with many sharing options.
Private or public? Protect your photos with a watermark or allow others to download them as you wish. Creating multiple or special links for different clients? All possible.
Want to treasure your memories? Order photo products
Before jumping to the export dialogue, you may want to check out the Create module and peruse all of the creative options you have to turn your photos into hands-on products. Create a collage, discover the video editor or order printed photo products.
In the college section, you can place photos manually or by picking templates with specific layouts. Cut and edit short video clips or timelapse slideshows with the video editor. And last but not least, you can design your own photo products like a canvas print, photobooks, or calendar directly in the program.
Priced at 49 USD per year, the subscription is a really affordable option, even for the enthusiast or amateur photographer who is not editing photos every day. Download the 30-day trial and take it for a spin, free. ZPS X even provides free preset packs every now and then, usually with a seasonal theme which is a nice bonus.
For more tips and tricks you can rely on the articles at the learn.zoner.com portal or subscribe to their Youtube channel.