3 Ways to Get More “Pop” In Your Images

Photographer Tips

Photographers, are you struggling with your images feeling a little flat and lifeless? It’s a common struggle we face, especially in the wintertime when foliage colors are dull and the sun isn’t quite shining the way we hoped it would. If you feel your photos could use a bit more “pop”, try out the quick editing tricks below!

Increase Exposure & Lower Highlights + Blacks

This is my first go-to step in trying to make my images stand out more. I will first increase the exposure quite a bit. How much to increase will depend on your shooting style. I tend to shoot a tad underexposed, and often bring up my exposure around +1 to +1.5 in lightroom. Be on the lookout that you are brightening just under the point of washing out any skintones. Once the image is brightened up, I’ll lower my highlights to bring back any background detail that I might be missing. I usually bring them down around -75. Then I’ll lower blacks to get a nice, crisp look to the image. I usually lower them to around -15 (not too much, a little bit can go a long way).

Add Vibrance

Is your image still not looking the way you hoped? Try adding more vibrance. I tend to add between +10 to +30 depending on how dull the background colors appeared that day of shooting. I lean towards using vibrance over-saturation because I personally feel that it looks more natural. You tend to notice an increase in saturation more quickly when its overdone and it can be distracting to the eye while vibrance is more subtle. If you find that one particular color could really use a boost, then head down to the HSL and try messing with its saturation there versus the overall image saturation.

Add Contrast

My last tip to you if you still feel your image is lacking is to add more contrast. This is essentially another way of doing the first step, but affects more areas of the image than just highlights and blacks. I usually will add around +10 to get the look I’m going for.

I hope this was helpful. Happy shooting!