Editing photos for your website does not require you to own expensive editing software like Photoshop. If you’re a Mac user you already have a powerful editing tool at your fingertips – Preview.

Yes, that’s right. The same application that lets you view images on your desktop also has a host of quick and easy editing tools that are perfect for beginners and professionals alike.

Editing photos may have a steep learning curve but Preview offers some simple tools that anybody can use to edit and improve photos for your website.

It doesn’t matter if you use your own photography or stock images, the tools in Preview can help you keep the images on your website looking fresh and running smoothly.

Adjusting Colour Levels

Tools > Adjust Color (or CMD + ALT + C)

Adjusting the colour levels of a photo is a quick and easy way to polish up an otherwise dull image. Fixing colour issues might sound complex but Preview offers an easy to use tool which allows you to ‘Auto Level’ the colours.

If you’d like to have a more hands-on approach to your colour correction you can always manually experiment with the colour settings. Preview lets you play with multiple sliders including; contrast, exposure, hue, saturation, shadows, highlights, temperature, and more.

Adjusting the colours of your image is also a great way to alter the mood of your photo if you need to.

Cropping Images

Click on Show Markup Menu Button (Located beside the Search Bar) > Click & Drag to Adjust Crop Box > Click Crop

One of the best ways to edit a photo for your website is using the cropping tool. Photos are an important part of storytelling for your website and they should have a clear subject matter that a visitor can discern easily.

Cropping an image lets you remove unwanted elements from the composition and reframe the appropriate subject within an image. This is obviously helpful when you’re trying to draw more attention to the subject matter.

Writing & Drawing on Images

Show Markup Toolbar > Sketch Tool (or Text Tool)

Sometimes cropping your subject matter in an image isn’t enough. Mac’s Preview app gives you the power to draw and add text to images. This is a great tool to help you further explain photos or call attention to a specific element. It’s also just a really helpful tool for trying to explain things about an image.

Adjust Image Size

Tools > Adjust Size

It’s important to optimize the size of your images depending on their application on your website. Cropping is just one way to adjust the size of an image in Preview. The easiest way to do this is by using the ‘Adjust Size’ tool.

Simply open up the ‘Adjust Size’ menu and you can scale the image proportionately by entering in your desired height or width. You can also adjust the resolution of the image while you’re in the menu, which is a great way to reduce your image file size.

Export Image in Smaller File Size

File > Export

There’s no use having a beautifully cropped image at the perfect pixel width if the file size is going to slow down your website. In Preview you can quickly export your image to a variety of different formats. However, when you export to .jpg you can control the size of the file being exported. This is an incredibly easy way to keep your file sizes small but keep your image the right width and height.

Find Stock Images & Learn Photoshop

Now that you’ve learned how to edit photos, here’s a list of free stock photo websites for you to get started.

And once you’ve mastered editing your images in Preview you may want to move onto the more powerful, and expensive, Adobe Photoshop. Dip your toes into the Adobe world by checking out these fun Photoshop tutorials!

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Filed in // Websites, Apple