How to edit photos in Photoshop CS6!

It took me years to get it right and actually really like the way my photos come out. I will be very honest your camera makes a HUGE difference. I have a Sony a6000 and I LOVE, LOVE it!!!!

Ok, once you are ready to start editing your photos, open Adobe Photoshop CS6 and go to File>Open and open your photo.

Next, I always go to Image and click on Auto Contrast. Sometimes there’s not much of a change so I’ll go to File>Undo and try Image>Auto Color. In this next photo I went with Auto Contrast.

Then if you look to the right of the photo I pressed Adjustments which opened the little window to the left. If you hover over the first icon, a little sun, it’s says Brightness and Contrast. If you click that it will open the window under and you can control the Brightness and Contrast of your photo.

You can see in this next photo the difference in the brightness and contrast and you can also see how much of the little lever I have adjusted the two. Then, you are going to take the selection tool in the narrow tool box, the second tool at the top. We want to crop the image. I wanted my Copics in the background and I made sure I had roughly the same amount of area all around the card. Drag the crop tool across the photo, once you are happy with the area you’ve selected go to Image>Crop.

Next, I opened my watermark, or any photo or logo with a transparent background or .PNG file. If you look to the left and in that same narrow tool bar, the first tool,  you will find the ‘move tool’ click it and you will be able to drag the logo from the window it’s currently in to your photo.

Sometimes, depending on the colors of your logo or watermark it will sort of blend into the photo. So, I always add a little depth perception and go under Layer>Layer Style>Drop Shadow. This will ‘lift’ the watermark off the page a little adding a shadow under the watermark.

Some people like to leave the watermark bold and sometime people like to soften it fading it onto the photo. The way to do this is in the opacity so in your layers panel make sure you have the logo/watermark layer highlighted. You will then be able to change the percentage of the opacity lightening it to your liking.

If you want to adjust the size or location simple go back to that ‘move tool’ and relocate your watermark, then go to File and Save As!

Don’t forget to save your photo with a name that will help you SEO, for example the photos for this tutorial are named “Editing Photos in Photoshop Tutorial”! This will help you pull in traffic with search engines.

Here’s the finished photo!

Thanks for stopping by today I hope you enjoyed my tutorial, how to Edit Photos in Photoshop CS6. I’ll be back Wednesday with a fun project to share!

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