BETA YOURSELF IMAGE EDITING

It turns out photos shot at skew-whiff angles with random blotches in-frame are not necessarily 'arty'. Craig Grannell outlines how to spruce up snaps with a minimum of effort...

- Craig Grannell

THE BASICS

• Play the numbers 

When editing, be mindful of pixels. The more you have, the better: blow up a small crop and the results will be bad. Also consider resolution and formats. Screens can be forgiving you can get away with lower quality and rougher edits for social media than for a photographic print.

• Don't destroy 

Understand how the editors you use affect your files. Ideally, go for non-destructive tools that afford space for experimentation and don't overwrite your original photos. If unsure, duplicate a photo and work on the copy. When trying out complex edits, save 'breakpoints' so you can always revert to an earlier version.

• Learn to focus 

Photos that stick in the mind tend to be those that draw the attention to a subject or focal point. So decide what you want to emphasise-even when you're just posting a snap to Facebook. Crop out distractions. Consider a vignette to make a central subject more prominent. Adjust colours to strengthen what you'd like to highlight.

Shoot first...

Many camera apps have live filters. Some burn in their effects and bin the originals-souse tools like Photoshop Camera and Retrica that let you jazz up existing snaps.

• Beware the bots