4 Quick Fixes to Make Your Photos Look Clean and Professional

Want professional photos at amateur prices? Do your own editing and be blown away by the results. It never ceases to amaze me how great of an effect a quick editing job can have on improving the look of digital photos.

Whether you're using a basic program like Picasa or Microsoft Office Picture Manager, or you're using a more advanced program like GIMP or Adobe Photoshop, you can pull off these quick fixes in no time to achieve the results you want.

1. Crop

One of the quickest giveaways that our pictures weren't taken by professionals is the fact that they are off centered. And even when our pictures are centered, often times are home snapshots encompass background objects that aren't quite the keepsakes we want to immortalize. Who hasn't taken a great shot of the kids only later to realize that Dad is making a non-picture-pose in the background? Cropping pictures is one of the easiest steps we can take in making our personal photographs worth scrapbooking.

Some people are afraid to crop pictures because they won't be able to print them in the usual 4 by 6-inch size anymore. However, most digital cameras these days take high enough quality pictures that slightly increasing the overall picture size in order to be able to crop out unwanted borders will still produce printable results. Even if you do sacrifice a bit of quality in order to eliminate Grandma making an unintentional growling face at the children, it still might be a good trade-off.

2. Red Eye Removal

Red eyes are a dead giveaway for unprofessional pictures taken in improper lighting. As an amateur photographer, I don't know what sure-fire tips to give you. But as a digital editor, I can tell you that there's still hope for photos plagued with red eyes. Most editing programs have embedded tools to correct red eyes. These generally work well for smaller problems.

For serious red eye, some basic red eye tools only enhance the problems, in which case you'll want to go ahead and open up GIMP or Photoshop to take care of the problems. With red eyes under control, your photos will instantly improve.

3. Brightness Contrast

Was your photo not taken in quite the right light and now everything is just too dark to see? Sometimes the solution is as easy as adjusting the brightness and contrast settings of a picture. Play around with the settings and see if your picture isn't salvageable after all. You might be surprised to how many pictures can be saved my merely increasing the midtone levels or decreasing the brightness.

4. Color Saturation

People are suckers for saturated photos and for good reason: they're gorgeous! With the right photograph, an average shot can instantly be transformed into pure genius with the simple touch of a saturation button. Most editing programs will at least let you saturate a photo into black-and-white or sepia, but even basics like Microsoft Office Picture Manager will let you choose hues from the full rainbow. Play around with the color options your program has to find what suits you and your pictures best.

And there you have it: four easy but valuable steps to improve the look of your digital photographs.