Some of us (myself included) do not have photoshop. I rely heavily on Pic Monkey. I will never put a photo onto my blog without editing it.
Here are the 5 steps that I take every single time…
1- Adjust the exposure to make it brighter (brighter pictures look better on Pinterest & other social media). You can do this automatically. (see picture below).
2- Adjust the clarity & sharpness. This makes a WORLD of difference!
3- Edit Colors – did you see the post on which pictures are re-pinned the most? Those colors would not have been my first pick. I am more of a blue/green/pink type of girl.
4- Branding: I always add “Your Modern Family” or “Beckyandpaula.com” or our logos to my pictures. (You can see it in purple in the picture above). Paula and I have both seen what happens when we don’t add our names to our images… someone else takes it & makes it their own. Learn from us.
5- I change the size to 600 X 600 or to a pin-worthy image that I will upload directly to Pinterest like 500 X 1000. If the picture won’t fit (like the one above), I would take that picture that I made and put it on top of the 600X600 square and then I would use the extra space to write the caption.
If you have any suggestions, we’d love them, as always! Your comments help other bloggers, too! Thanks!
Since you are working on editing photos, something else you know is important is the photo you start with. If you are a food blogger we highly recommend Tasty Food Photography by Lindsay Ostrum. (affiliate)
This information is right on time! I’m still trying to figure out how best to display pictures (I’m a new blogger) on different social media platforms and now I have a good starting point. Thank you!
I’m glad it was helpful! 🙂
I use PicMonkey and I can never figure out how to add an extra square on your image like the example above to make it longer (like adding the extra square to the baby). I’m trying to do it right now and I can’t figure it out!
Do you mean in overlays? Its a little shape on the sidebar.
email me at yourmodernfamily@gmail.com if you can’t get it & I’ll help. 🙂
Becky,
great and hands-on advice, as always! However I must say I’ve been guilty of overdoing these effects. You know when you realize that increasing the highlights by 25% is simply way too much, leaving you with a screaming white and unnatural colors? Or that all the brushing over the backdrop was a bitsy too intense? Or… I love how you manage to keep all design touches nearly invisible on Your Modern Family. Someone should warn those who are falling in love with Picmonkey – and I think you’d make a great article on that too! (And you can use some of my images as no-go examples if you like, lol)
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