It turns out you can also fix a lot of framing problems using the cropping and rotation features in photo editing apps. While I generally think it’s a better idea to get the best photo you can before editing, sometimes, we have to work with what we have.
There are tricks you can do before snapping your photo to improve the lighting of your picture. If you’ve got a photo that is still just not quite right, photo editing apps can make a big difference. I use the brightening function in Lightroom on pretty much every photo I take. It’s hard to get a photo that is bright enough without washing out the details, so I tend to shoot them dark and then brighten when I’m editing. Try playing around with the brightening function in your app.
Controlling the contrast in your photo is it really important way to make sure you don’t lose details as you edit your knitting photos. It’s also a great way to make sure your shadows aren’t too dark and the highlights aren’t too bright. Take a look at the two photos below. The photo on the right has the contrast unchanged, and the photo on the left has the contrast increased. You can see the difference in intensity between each photo. When I first started using Instagram, I used to turn down the contrast on all my photos. Now, I tend to increase it just a little bit. I find that slightly higher contrast helps make the detail in my knits a little clearer.
Different photo apps call this feature by different names. In Snapseed and Instagram, look for the structure function. In Lightroom, though, you’ll want to look for the setting called Effects. When you improve the clarity and structure of a picture, it makes the fibers in the yarn pop so people can actually see the stitches, the halo, the plies, etc.
Depending on what the starting image looks like, a preset might not brighten the image enough, or it might brighten it too much. You can’t use presets uncritically. Consider the results - are they consistent? Cohesive? If not, you’re still going to need to make some manual changes. I’ve created a couple subtle presets that I think might be helpful for those who are getting started with photo editing and need a little boost before they’re ready to fly on their own. On the left: the unedited, original photo. On the right: the Warm Summer preset.
This is a function that I think is only available in the Lightroom app, but I use it extensively. I really don’t like the way a lot of greens look after they’ve been brightened and clarified (they’re, uh, aggressively vibrant), so I go in and selectively desaturate them. If the greens are skewing yellow, I also desaturate the yellows in the image.