How To Edit Photos To Look Professional In 10 Easy Steps

Creating a strong first impression begins with a high-quality photograph of yourself that captures your professionalism and personality.

This means editing photos to ensure you’re reflected in the best possible light, incorporating great composition with balanced tones and lighting.

To help you edit photos professionally, we’ve created this guide that breaks down the process for editing pictures that pop off the screen.

How To Edit Photos To Look Professional: Step-By-Step

Whether you’re looking for more freelancing gigs online or applying for a corporate role, you’ll need a high-quality photo of yourself to share.

We’ve covered everything from choosing a photo editor to mastering basic adjustments and advanced techniques to deliver professional photo editing results.

So, let’s dive straight into the full process of editing photos to look like a professional in 2024:

Step 1. Use The Best Possible Camera

Before you can get to work with the photo editing process, it stands to reason you’ll need to get your hands on a camera to take the actual photograph.

Whether you’re updating your virtual assistant profile or creating a new online presence, you should aim to use the best possible camera for the task.

Ideally, this would mean using a professional mirrorless or DSLR camera with interchangeable lenses, which gives you the most freedom when shooting.

These cameras also have the ability to shoot in RAW format, which will give you a great deal of leeway when it comes to using editing software.

That said, smartphone cameras have advanced rapidly in recent years and are suitable for everything from astrophotography to portrait work.

Apple’s iPhone and other high-end smartphones can deliver superb results when it comes to capturing portrait photographs in high resolution and vibrant colors.

If you don’t have access to a mirrorless or DSLR camera, you can still get great results from smartphones and start editing them through software.

You can also improve your images by paying attention to lighting and using lamps and overhead lights if you don’t have LED lights dedicated to photography.

Lastly, make sure you take multiple photographs. This will give you more options to consider when editing the photos.

Step 2. Choose Photo Editing Software

Once you’ve taken a series of portrait photos for your professional profile, it’s time to select the best photo editing software to use to edit pictures.

There are excellent options available, with many of the best tools for freelancers offering powerful tools for impressive photo editing.

Here are a few of the most popular photo editing software options covering free-to-use and paid programs:

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for designers and photography professionals. It is packed with photo editing tools and AI-powered features.

While it may be overkill for basic portrait editing, its AI background removal tool and intuitive interface will help you save time editing photos.

Adobe Lightroom Classic

Like Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Lightroom leads the industry for professional photographers and is first in class for RAW format image editing.

If you’re shooting on a professional camera, Lightroom will allow you to edit your photos with greater control and create your own style.

Affinity Photo

A popular alternative to Photoshop with a growing user base, Affinity Photo offers many of its competitors’ tools without the ongoing subscription model.

You can purchase it as a one-time investment and use it to adjust everything from white balance and skin tones to contrast and exposure.

Rawtherapee

If you’d prefer to avoid paying for photo editing software such as Adobe Lightroom, Rawtherapee is an open-source alternative for RAW image editing.

While its user interface takes some time to master, it delivers professional editing tools and exceptionally powerful color grading options.

Luminar Neo

Luminar Neo is a great choice for those who don’t want to spend time playing around with parameters and just want a quick solution.

The program uses AI to instantly make adjustments and clean up images, saving time to spend on client acquisition and job hunting.

Snapseed

If you’d prefer to handle all your photo editing requirements on your smartphone, installing Snapseed to edit pictures is a great option.

It’s available on iPhone and Android devices and delivers all the powerful tools needed to crop, enhance, and finalize your professional photos.

With so many photo editing programs to choose from, it pays to experiment with different ones to see what works best for you.

You can try many of the premium editing suites for free using their trial versions to see if they deliver the quality results you’re hoping to achieve.

It’s also worthwhile researching the available plugins, as many powerful plugins are dedicated to skin tones and other portrait adjustments.

Step 3. Crop & Straighten

Once you’ve taken your portrait photographs, you’re now ready to start editing photos to fix any issues and enhance the overall composition.

This begins with the basics of cropping, resizing, and straightening the image to ensure it’s correctly composed and nicely framed.

You can start this process by going to the crop tool, which allows you to adjust the overall frame and composition.

Cropping allows you to bring the edges of the frame closer to the subject and remove any unwanted details in the background and surrounding area.

You can also use the straighten tool to tweak the horizon line in the event that it isn’t straight, which will result in a more aesthetically composed image.

These tools are simple to use, so you don’t need to be a side hustle photographer or professional to get quick but impressive results.

Pay attention to the image’s symmetry and avoid using dead space on either side of the subject within the frame.

Most crop tools also include guidelines for the rule of thirds, so make sure you reference these to enhance your photo’s composition further.

Step 4. Adjust Basic Parameters

Once you’re happy with the composition of your image, you’re ready to start editing it, using a set of basic parameters to refine the elements.

Several photo editing tools are common across all software, so we’ll break down each one and explain how it can be applied to portrait photography.

These photo editing techniques will apply whether you’re setting up a consulting website or a personal profile on Upwork or Fiverr.

Exposure

Exposure refers to the amount of light the camera allows onto the sensor when the photograph is taken, and it can be adjusted post-processing.

By increasing or decreasing exposure levels, images can be lightened or darkened while preserving details in highlights and shadows.

Brightness & Contrast

A self-explanatory tool, brightness adjustments can correct images shot in poor lighting conditions and will be applied to the image globally.

Contrast, on the other hand, represents the difference between light and dark areas of the image and how vividly details are presented to the viewer.

Increasing contrast will create a dramatic style, and if you’d prefer a subdued photo with a film stock feel, you can reduce contrast to achieve this effect.

White Balance

White balance relates to the light conditions in which an image was shot and the color temperature of the light used to illuminate the scene.

Experimenting with white balance to change the warmth of the light during the shooting process can drastically alter the mood and tone of your photos.

Color Balance & Saturation

While the white balance settings can impact the overall lighting tone, photo editing tools are also available for fine-tuning color balance and saturation.

Saturation adjustments can increase or decrease the vibrancy of colors throughout the image, while the color balance can change specific colors.

Step 5. Play Around With Effects

Depending on your software of choice, you’ll have a wealth of effects and other tools you can use to take your photo to the next level.

Software such as Photoshop includes many effects that can be used to create a more stylized result by affecting colors and lighting.

If you’re struggling for inspiration, it’s worth checking out some of the best artist websites to see how professional artists use effects.

While using a full-blown watercolor effect might be overkill, they can nevertheless be applied with moderation to improve your portrait photo.

You can also use effects to add lighting filters, enhance directional light, and bring your best facial features to the foreground.

Additional effects that can be used to enhance your photo editing process can be used to replicate the aesthetics of old film stock.

It certainly pays to apply such effects with a degree of restraint, but they can also be used with masks to affect specific areas of the image.

Step 6. Use Local Adjustments

We’ve briefly discussed using masks to make local adjustments to your image, so let’s explore this concept in more detail.

Understanding how to use masks is one of the first technical hurdles to overcome when approaching portrait photography editing.

Put simply, masks are used to select specific areas of an image, allowing you to edit photos in local areas rather than making a global adjustment.

For example, you may want to increase the luster of your hair or enhance the saturation on your shirt to make it more vibrant and powerful.

Applying a mask to a given area allows you to alter all the aforementioned parameters, such as contrast, saturation, brightness, and color balance.

You can also use dedicated local adjustment tools to apply edits to other areas of your image, such as altering highlights and shadows.

If you’re struggling to use these controls correctly, plenty of great online tutorials help you edit your photos and achieve professional results.

You should also spend some time researching photos other professionals have used on their personal websites to see how they handle these processes.

Step 7. Denoise & Sharpen

Modern cameras are great for delivering sharp and vibrant images that lack noise or grain and present your portrait photo in the best light.

However, sometimes your photos might incorporate elements of grain and noise that reduce the impact of an otherwise impressive photo.

Fortunately, there are tools you can use to address these issues, remove unwanted noise from the image, and sharpen the end result.

You can start by using the standard denoise tool found in most photo editing programs, which will allow you to refine noise using a slider control.

There are also dedicated noise reduction software alternatives you can turn to if your photo editing program isn’t producing the best results.

Likewise, when it comes to adjusting your image’s sharpness, basic editing programs will allow you to do this using a slider to control the effect.

The sharpness is sometimes referred to as Structure, Clarity, or Detail tools, so if you’re struggling to locate it, look out for these terms.

This tool will bring more detail to the textures of your photo, removing unwanted softness and making it pop off the screen.

As with other photo editing techniques, avoid being heavy-handed when applying the sharpness tool, as this can make it look unnatural.

Check out other social media portfolio examples to see how professionals use these tools on their photos and what works best.

Step 8. Experiment With Filters & Presets

Most photo editing programs offer an extensive selection of filters and presets that can be used to improve your portrait photography.

These powerful tools can be used to help with everything from smoothing out skin tones to enhancing lighting for a more dramatic overall look.

Anyone who has considered starting a beauty blog will understand how professional fashion photographers use filters and presets.

Software such as Adobe Lightroom comes with a wealth of impressive presets dedicated to portrait photography, affecting a range of parameters.

While some presets are dedicated to basic contrast and saturation adjustments, others are designed to produce more creatively impressive results.

You can use them to desaturate images for black-and-white photography, which is suitable for corporate professionals looking for a classy photo.

Other presets can enhance the impression of natural sunlight through white balance adjustments or heighten a sense of contrast.

In addition to the filters and presets that come with the software, additional plugins can be used to refine your image.

For example, the Retouch4me set of plugins offers dedicated tools for portrait photo editing, using artificial intelligence to deliver outstanding results.

You can use these to accurately remove blemishes from skin textures, smooth out backgrounds, and enhance the color and vibrancy of clothing.

Step 9. Remove Unwanted Elements

We’ve touched on the importance of removing unwanted elements from your images using the crop tool and applying filters to the image’s elements.

While these processes can often achieve great results, there are situations where the image may still contain details you want to remove.

Fortunately, photo editing tools have improved dramatically in recent years, eliminating the need for painstaking manual removal of unwanted objects.

Thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, programs such as Adobe Photoshop can be used to remove background elements in seconds.

Whereas photo editors were previously expected to perform this task using the Clone tool, AI now makes it easy for those with no experience.

You simply have to highlight the unwanted element in your image and instruct the software to remove it and replace it with something else.

If you’d prefer to remove the entire background, this will give you the option to replace it with a completely different background and context.

Those who don’t have access to Photoshop can use various other tools, such as the Magic Wand and Quick Selection tool, to select and remove areas.

Step 10. Find A Personal Style

Creating a professional online presence is as much about finding a personal style as it is about using the best tools for your public profile.

This ranges from choosing the best website builder for your site to the visual assets and photos you upload and share with potential clients.

When it comes to a great photo, it should strive to capture your professional area of expertise and your unique personality.

From a professional perspective, this means dressing in a way that matches your industry and, if relevant, incorporates other elements in the shot.

Creative professionals might choose to include their artist materials in the shot, while a novelist might go for a photo that includes a typewriter.

Conversely, corporate professionals tend to aim for a more formal style that represents themselves as serious and hard-working.

You can use photography skills such as lighting, camera angles, and the methods you choose to edit photos to discover your style.

Summary

Giving a strong first impression can make the difference between landing your dream clients and struggling to find work in a competitive landscape.

By following the advice in this article, you can start off on the right foot with a powerful profile photo that shows you in the best possible light.

Review and update your photo over time so it accurately reflects who you are and how you’ve evolved on your professional journey.