A Guide to Editing Photos on Your Phone

The controls you have vary based on the tool you’re using, but adjusting the Exposure is often first on the list in a photo app’s editing options. Changing the exposure lets you make the image lighter or darker. Be careful not to go too far and wash out the white areas.

Adjust the White Point to change the brightest part of the photo. Adjust the Black Point to change the darkest part. Move the Highlights slider to adjust the brightness in the lightest areas of the photo. Adjust the Shadows to likewise change the image’s darkest areas.

Change the Contrast to increase or decrease the difference in tone between the picture’s highlights and shadows.

The highlights get brighter (and the shadows darker) when you increase the contrast. Low-contrast images can look flat or soft.

In addition to controlling light, you can fiddle with color in your photo. Saturation increases or decreases the intensity of the colors. Warmth lets you move colors to the “warm” orange and yellow range or to “cool” blues. Tint shifts the overall color hue in the image.

These are a few of the basic adjustments you can make if you want to venture beyond the automatic presets, filters and special effects in your photos app.

The support site for your preferred photo-editing app should have more precise details and guidelines on using these tools and others, but here are a few parting tips: