We are visual beings drawn to beautiful things and appealing images. Visual assets help us understand, learn and remember things better and quicker. This is why the images you choose to use on your site have a lot to say when it comes to your content’s popularity. A site with high-value visual assets showcasing interesting motives is more appealing and more effective in getting people’s attention compared to a site that focuses on text only or a site that uses poor quality images.
For content distribution Instagram and Pinterest are 100% visual platforms, while Facebook, Twitter and Google+ also place big emphasis on images. Without images you will not reach an audience on these platforms and without highly sharable images you will not get much engagement. Recent studies show that image posts get 53% more likes, 104% more comments and 84% more link clicks when compared to text only posts.
I have experienced similar results. My Stephen King’s writing advice infographic or the checklist for before posting an article did very well thanks to visual assets. I now also brand each post with a nice looking featured image. Like the one in this post. Do you like it? Let’s take a look at how you too can create sharable images for your own content.
1. Image-editing tools to spice up your photos
When possible try to use original images (meaning your own). This will make your site more unique. High quality image does not necessarily mean that you need to invest in a DSLR camera. You just need to find great light and motives. Walk around your city. Take photos when you are on vacation. Find the beauty in small details that might not seem as interesting at first glance. If you don’t have original photos you can look in Flickr for stunning images that you are allowed to use thanks to Creative Commons. I’ve recently published an introduction to using stunning pictures so take a look for more details and other image sources.
In most cases it helps you stand out better if you can do some edits to the original image in order to make your version more unique and more appropriate for your own content. There are many image editing tools that allow you to enhance your photos quickly within the browser and you don’t need much editing experience to work with them. Some of the popular options are Fotor, iPiccy and Pixlr. All of these tools pretty much work the same way. You start by uploading an image from your computer. You can then modify the image by cropping it so it fits the size you need. You can then add different effects, layers and frames. When you are finished, you save the image and it is ready to go.
In my opinion one of the best simple tools for editing pictures online is PicMonkey so this guide focuses on it. It’s (mostly) free and very easy to use – there are some premium features you can subscribe for. I am one of those people who likes to have an easy option that lets me edit my pictures quickly. Photoshop is an amazing tool and allows you to do so much more with your photos, but if you don’t know how to use it, you will spend half of the time googling ”how to apply layer in Photoshop” only to find yourself surrounded by lengthy tutorials on YouTube that are outdated. Web based tools are a good alternative for content publishers who need something quick and easy, but something that still looks great and can help get more shares.
2. Drag & Drop
Follow this simple guide to create an image that will attract the attention of your audience and make your post unique and interesting. Let’s imagine we’re a food blogger, who has taken a decent picture, but wants to make it more appealing and shareable. PicMonkey has made it easy for you to just drag and drop the image you want to work with. You can choose three different options: edit, touch up or collage. Edit and touch up are for single pictures – collage is for several pictures. It doesn’t really matter if you drag and drop your single image at edit or touch up as you can easily move from one section to the next while editing.
3. Identify the problem areas
So far so good. Our image is now in the editor and is ready to be edited. So, what needs to be fixed? Let’s take a look… This image has a nice motive, but it’s simply too dark. It also has a visible wall corner in the back and is slightly tilted to the left.
4. Start editing the color
The first thing I’d like to change about this image is the light. The image seems dark and grey and I want to make it a bit more warm. It is after all a nice, spring breakfast! I therefore head on over to Colors in Basic Edits section. Clicking on the ”Auto adjust” and a tiny edit to the Temperature makes a huge difference already on this image, but if that’s not enough you can play with the saturation. Usually this step does the trick, but not always. Sometimes Exposure section will help you out with this issue as well.
5. Straighten the image
The next step in our image editing is to make the crooked pot straight. Make sure to leave a little room for this when resizing your image, as this step will make your image smaller automatically. So let’s say you need to resize your image to be 800 pixels wide, start by making it 850-900 pixels. It of course also depends on the damage – if you want to straighten something dramatically, you need to leave more room. When you’re done, you can adjust the size to fit your site. That way you will not end up with an image that’s too small!
6. Perfect the background
Now our pot is straight, but what about that wall in the background? We want to remove that corner, don’t we? This is where the monkey all of a sudden appears on your image signalling that this part of PicMonkey is premium. Darn it! I use the tool all the time, so I bought the premium version in order to get the full experience – and remove things like this wall. What I like about being able to remove elements and flaws is the fact that that’s the way to make the image more professional.
The easiest way to remove something is to click on the source bottom to your left and pick a source that you want to replicate on the spot you want to remove. You need to be precise – especially when coming close to objects you want to keep in the image.
And the result looks like this… Now our image has a clean background and the viewer is focusing on the subject rather than the flaws.
7. Add effect to the image
There are many different ready-made effects (some premium, others free) and one of my favorite is Tranquill (free). Tranquill is an effect that adds a warm feel to the images and gives them a bit of charm. You can choose how visible the effect should be and you can set the Fade to your liking. I like it to still look fairly natural, so as you see, the Fade is set to 80%. This however also depends on the image and the color.
You can also frame your image in a fun and creative way. You can even add doodles to your images. There are doodles and overlays for many different occasions like Valentine’s, Celebration, Halloween etc. that make the personalizing easy. If you are editing people you can apply many of the same Photoshop edits like airbrush, blemish-fix, remove red-eye, enhance makeup, make thinner, etc.
8. Create an overlay with a magazine-style headline
Especially the main featured image in your post should have some sort of title – just like the cover of a magazine, or the first page of an interview spread. Be creative and give the first image in the post a magazine-style headline to make your post stand out. This will help you get more clicks in social media as the featured image is the one that shows in Twitter, Facebook and other feeds. There are endless possibilities when it comes to shapes, sizes, colors and fonts.
If you have a great image but it’s too busy or you want to decorate it and make it unique, you can use the Overlays and Text sections to add a translucent layer on which you can place your text. Always use a transparent background for your text, so your image still shines through.
Pick a great looking font. You can also use two to three different types of font some smaller than others. There are many free fonts online – my favorite place to find interesting fonts is Dafont.com. Try using white or other pale colors even on light backgrounds! Makes for a nice and subtle look. You should also consider adding your site URL or your logo – watermark your images in order to make sure they are not ”stolen” if that’s an issue for you.
9. Saving the image
That’s about it. Make sure to click Apply when you are done with each edit. You can always go back and undo the edits using the back button on top of your editor. As the end of the process make sure to save your image in a web friendly format and try and reduce the size in order for it to load faster. Keep all your images the same size as randomly sized images are not appealing to the eye and result in a messy looking post.
Make sure that your images have a solid size so the details are visible – tiny 200×200 pixels images are so 90′s! The optimal image size for a Facebook page wall post is 806×806 pixels while the optimal size for your Twitter post is 806×413 pixels. Always re-name your image, so it has a suitable name instead of for instance DSC_1234. This helps describes the image better and contributes to you ranking better in search engine results.
Here is a look at our before and after image. The finished product is, as you may notice, a much more clear and natural in terms of lighting, making the image more professional. The overlay makes the image stand out and even though you may not see the object, as you would without the overlay, keep in mind that this overlay will only be used in the first image.
Do you spend time on images for your content? And what are some of your best tips when it comes to creating highly sharable visual assets?
Thanks to Milana Saric from The Jottings for her contribution to the creation of this guide.
The post 9 Steps To Spice Up Your Photos And Create Shareable Visual Assets. Tip #8 You Must Do. appeared first on HowToMakeMyBlog.
9 Steps To Spice Up Your Photos And Create Shareable Visual Assets. Tip #8 You Must Do.
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