Photoshop Tips for Blog Photos: Simple, Practical Steps
Photoshop is our primary tool for editing the photos you see on the blog, so we’re often asked to share our process. Below are the practical, repeatable steps we use most often to make photos look closer to what the eye sees—without getting into advanced retouching or dramatic compositing.
1. We’re not Photoshop experts: Between the two of us we learned a few basics in school and picked up the rest by experimenting. Our approach is mainly practical: try a button, see what it does, and keep the steps that reliably improve images. These tips are meant to be approachable for hobbyists and bloggers, not professional retouchers.
2. We’re not professional photographers either: We’ve taken a few classes, but most of our photography is self-taught. Photoshop helps bridge the gap between what a camera captures and how a scene looked to our eyes. Until cameras can perfectly mimic human vision, editing is a useful tool to present accurate colors, contrast, and tones.
3. Photoshop isn’t the only option: We use Adobe Photoshop because it’s comprehensive, but it’s not the only choice. There are lighter Adobe options like Photoshop Elements and other tools such as iPhoto or Picasa, and free programs like GIMP. We use iPhoto for basic organization and simple edits; the steps below assume Photoshop but the concepts translate to other editors.
Now for the basic editing adjustments we apply to nearly every photo. These are small, practical tweaks—resizing, saturation, contrast, curves, color balance—that make images match how we remember the scene.
First, open the image in Photoshop. It’s common for camera files to be very large, so the first step is resizing for the web.
Resize for web: Choose Image > Image Size and set the resolution to 72 dpi and the width to your site’s standard—350 px for vertical images and 500 px for horizontal images are what we use. Keep “Constrain Proportions” checked to avoid distortion.
Increase color saturation slightly: Use Image > Adjustments > Hue/Saturation to boost saturation a bit so colors look closer to real life. A subtle increase (around +10) is usually enough; higher amounts can look unnatural.
Adjust contrast: Image > Adjustments > Brightness/Contrast helps prevent washed-out images after resizing. Small increases in contrast (again, around +10) typically add clarity without losing detail.
These two steps—saturation and contrast—compensate for color and detail loss when saving compressed web images. To speed things up, create a Photoshop Action that resizes, increases saturation, and boosts contrast in one click.
Make a custom action: Open the Actions panel (Window > Actions), click New Action, name it, and hit Record. Then perform the resize and adjustment steps. Stop recording when finished. Play the action on future photos to apply the same edits quickly.
For images that need more tuning, we use two common tools:
Curves for exposure: Image > Adjustments > Curves lets you raise the midtones without washing out highlights or losing shadow detail. Click the center of the curve and lift it slightly to brighten subtly while retaining depth.
Color balance: If an image looks too warm or too cool, use Image > Adjustments > Color Balance to nudge colors toward cyan/blue or magenta/yellow until whites look neutral and skin tones are natural. Camera white balance helps, but small Photoshop tweaks are often needed.
Below is a subtle before-and-after that shows how these steps improve whites, make colors more vibrant, and add richness to hair and textures.
Save for web: Use File > Save for Web & Devices to export a compressed JPEG optimized for page speed. Compression can reduce perceived contrast, which is why the earlier adjustments help maintain vibrancy after saving.
Those basic tweaks cover most of our images. If you prefer a different look—warmer vintage tones or very high contrast—adjust the values to match your style. Experimentation is key.
Beyond everyday edits, Photoshop is also helpful for visualizing design decisions. For example, if you’re considering a new headboard, you can select the area and test colors or patterns.
Selections and tools: Use the Polygonal Lasso for straight-edged shapes, the Magnetic Lasso for edges that Photoshop can detect, or the Magic Wand to select contiguous areas of similar color. Hold Shift to add to a selection if needed.
With a selection active you can change hue/saturation for a quick color test, or create a new layer and fill it with color using the Paint Bucket tool for a solid-color mockup.
To apply a pattern, place the pattern on a new layer above your image, then create a Layer Mask while the selection is active. The mask confines the pattern to the selected area. Unlink the mask from the layer to transform the pattern independently, and try different layer blending modes (Multiply often blends textures more naturally).
There’s a lot more you can do in Photoshop, but these steps form a practical foundation for blog photo editing: resize, correct color and contrast, use curves for exposure, fine-tune color balance, and export optimized JPEGs. If you have specific questions or want a deeper tutorial on any of these tools, let us know and we’ll consider a follow-up with examples.