17/09/2020 - 5 Handy Tips To Creating Better Images For Your Website And Social Media | Website Blog | Purple Creative Studio
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5 Handy Tips To Creating Better Images For Your Website And Social Media

Want to wow your audience with your images with just a few simple editing tips? Check out how some subtle tweaks to your images can give them that eye-catching edge!  

In this blog we look at some of the steps you can take to make sure your social media and website graphics look as striking as possible.

The first thing you have to bear in mind before all else, is that photography is extremely subjective. In the words of Mr Grinch, ‘One man’s toxic sludge is another man’s potpourri’. Where you may love something, someone else could disagree and vice versa. 

We would recommend trusting your gut here, by posting images you love. This way, like minded people are also likely to love them and more often than not, these are the same people you are hoping to attract to your business... so, win win! 

You may be thinking: ‘Well I may not need to hire a photographer but surely I need to spend money on the same quality of equipment?’     

Surprisingly no, technology has advanced so much that even our smartphones are more than capable of producing beautiful images. 

And we’re going to demonstrate how… 

1. Clean your lens.

First things first, we would recommend giving your lens a gentle wipe. It’s amazing how messy our phone’s lens can get from day to day and there’s nothing worse than taking pictures, to later notice that they are cloudy.

2. Be background conscious.

Often when we are taking pictures of something, it is easy to place all your attention on the focus point and forget about the surroundings. But when we want a fantastic picture of our product and there’s a distracting person in the background, it takes away attention from the main focus in the image. Your viewer will stray.

3. Use the rule of thirds.

This rule helps you gain variety with your images, by changing up where your focal point is. It also allows you to take some control over the viewer by creating visual flow. (Please refer to the image below) By placing your product, object or general focal point either horizontally or vertically within the 3x3 grid or where the grid lines intercept, this will achieve an aesthetically pleasing composition and means you have freedom to create images where the focal point is not always simply central. 

4. Tap to focus.

Smartphone cameras try their best to read your mind and assume they know what you want to capture. However, sometimes they need a little guidance and simply by tapping your screen where you would like the camera to focus the camera will then know that that area is your focal point. This is also the method to use if you are taking a picture in bright light. Your live view can look extremely overexposed when in the presence of direct sunlight or other bright light sources. So, by tapping the brightest area, the camera will try its best to adjust and bring down that brightness level so that the light isn’t as harsh.

Top tip: It’s better to try and brighten a slightly dark image than bring the brightness down from an overexposed image

 5. Editing.

A little bit of editing goes a long way. We love to use the App Snapseed to edit our smart device images. It’s simple, quick, and free. 

As you can see, there are a lot of elements you can adjust on here and we would recommend having a good play around on the app, this will help establish what you like and don’t like. 

But we know that not everyone wants to edit their pictures extensively, which leads us to our simple 2-step process to help make your pictures pop, using the ‘Tune Image’ option highlighted in the top left corner. 

Brightness

An image straight from the camera roll can sometimes appear slightly dull. This is again due to the camera attempting to create what it believes to be a happy medium of all the elements that factor into a well exposed image (which is actually extremely impressive). 

The first thing we would do is pump up the brightness,using the brightness gauge in the ‘Tune Image’ function. This will make the whole of the image lighter, overruling the darkness and pulling some life back into the photo. 

There are no rules here necessarily, simply add as much or as little brightness as you’d like, being careful to not overexpose the white areas.   

Contrast 

Secondly, we would recommend adding a little bit of contrast. This can be found directly under the brightness gauge (super simple right?).

Contrast is such a powerful control to have. By adding contrast, we are adding texture, highlight, shadow, colour and clarity into the photo. This ensures that the image has body and it’s details are being flattered and emphasised. 

See for yourself using the slider below, how much a little amount of editing can achieve, and trust us when we say it makes the world of difference when it comes to your audience interacting with your posts and website. People are drawn in by images and if you can even encourage a ‘pause’ moment from a person’s continuous scrolling by displaying a striking image, then you are that bit closer to them reading your content and fingers crossed, receiving their custom or engagement with your business. We really hope this gets you excited and motivated to create your own gorgeous imagery. 

Photo before and after  - Before Photo before and after  - After

If you’d like to know more about how to make your business successful online, visit our digital marketing blogs or contact us, we’re happy to help!    

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