Sometimes when we take a photo it doesn’t really come out the way that we want it to. Lighting might obscure the details in a picture or the colors in the photo is just not eye catching enough. This is usually the factor that makes a photo look professional and expensive. All those photos you see in magazines and catalogues are all processed to make them stand out more and catch the viewers attention. To spend a little time on a picture to get it to look more professional doesn’t really have to take that much time if you know where to start and what to enhance.
A simple example could be a really ordinary photo of a person surrounded by grass, sky and some other objects. At first glance at the “raw” footage the image will most likely look boring and weak. This is because the brain and the eye is expecting something more eye catching and informative as far as detail and color. So the obvious thing to do here is to first enhance the green in the grass to make it pop out a little bit more. Then the blue of the sky to give it more depth. The eyes of the person could get a retouch where the white pops out a bit as well as the teeth. These are just some things you can do to make sure the image gets more interesting to look at. The more you work on the details the more the image will interest the viewer and captivate him/her to keep on looking.
I found a little clip that explains the basics of color correction and it might help you on your way to become the professional photographer that you have always wanted to be.
