A camera is considered an essential tool that you need to have with you when you travel. Some take the time to pack a high-end camera that will allow them to capture a picturesque view, while others simply leverage the camera feature of their smartphone. Regardless of the gadget that you take with you, the important thing is that you capture stills that will serve as a valuable remembrance of your travel experience.

Fortunately, there are already several photo editing tools that you can use to enhance your travel photos and make them more visually appealing. This article tackles how you can edit your travel photos like a pro.

Filters and Presets

One of the primary things that you need to do if you intend to enhance your travel photos like a pro is to incorporate filters and presets to make them more dramatic, depending on the particular one that you choose. If you are using Adobe Lightroom to edit your photos, you can download free Lightroom presets from various online sources. Some of the presets that you will be able to find include summer and vintage filters, as well as pastel and matter presets. All these can instantly enhance your images significantly.

Shadows and Highlights

Another way to edit your travel photo like a pro is by enhancing its shadows and highlights. The dark areas of your shots are often referred to as its shadows while the lighter ones are considered as its highlights.

However, there are instances wherein the aspect that you want to highlight is captured as a shadow because of the lighting condition when you took the shot or you can try sharpening the image for a sharper appearance. Fortunately, you can already adjust this accordingly using the Pixelied photo editing tool.

Crop

You can also change the size of your image or its aspect ratio by leveraging the crop tool of the photo editing software that you are using. This proves to be beneficial in case you want to publish your travel photos on platforms using different formats and aspect ratios. Through cropping, you will be able to take out dark edges or recompose your images using the rule of thirds to highlight the main focus of your shot.

Level

When you travel, you may come across an incredible horizon view that is worth capturing in an image. However, there are instances wherein you may find that the horizon is not leveled in your photos. In this case, all you have to do is to use a photo editing tool to level and clearly define the horizon line in your stills. In some photo editing apps, the level feature is also part of the cropping functionality. More often than not, the result of leveling your photos is a more visually appealing image.

Vignetting

Some people compare vignetting to enhancing the shadows and lighting of an image. This is because vignetting also involves making parts of your image lighter or darker, but the primary purpose of this process is to make the subject of your shot clearer. However, some tools may restrict you to vignette to the corners of your images. Fortunately, post-processing tools such as Lightroom and Snapseed don’t restrict you from doing so. Just keep in mind that vignetting proves to be more beneficial for portraits, making the subject of your image clearer.

Contrast

Most photo editing tools also feature a functionality where you will be able to change the contrast of your images. This can dramatically improve the visual impact of your travel photo because it enhances the boundaries between the light and dark areas of your image. This proves to be advantageous when you want to emphasize silhouettes, making the dark areas stand out against the bright areas even more.

Colors

Finally, you can also enhance the colors of your travel photos to make them more visually appealing. Depending on your color adjustment, you can generate a photo that exudes warmth. You will be able to accomplish this by using the saturation feature of your photo editing tool.

To edit your travel photos like a pro, you need to leverage a reliable photo editing tool that supports various features, allowing you to add filters and presets or enhance your photo’s shadows and highlights. At the very least, the tool should also allow you to crop and level your images, as well as perform vignetting. You should also be able to adjust the contrast and the colors of your photos accordingly using the tool. All these are geared towards ensuring that you come up with an enhanced travel photo fit to your liking.