Happy Friday! Today I wanted to share how I quickly and easily edit my food photos.
I have Photoshop installed on my computer, but I haven’t had time to learn how to use it yet, especially for editing food photography. My favorite photo editing tool for this is PicMonkey, which is a free photo editor. I actually pay for the “Royale” version, which is $33/year, and opens up more fonts, overlays, and editing tools. I think it was definitely worth it to upgrade. However, you don’t need the royale version for this tutorial!
My editing process takes about 45 seconds for each photo. It’s quick and easy and the outcome is always great! Let’s learn how to edit food photos with picmonkey.
First upload your picture. Make sure it is high quality and large file format. Try to photograph in natural light. I plan on posting a tutorial later of my photo set up– but basically, I use my coffee table in the living room, which is by a large window. I draw the blinds all the way up to let sunlight in. I also use two white foam boards to help get rid of some of the shadows.
Under the first tool “Basic Edits”, click “Exposure”, then “Auto adjust”. 95% of the time this fixes any exposure issues (I take photos with my camera phone). You may need to tweak the brightness or contrast to help the photo look as natural as possible.
Next, click “Colors”, and then “Auto adjust”. About 75% of the time it fixes it perfectly for me, sometimes I will need to adjust the temperature down. When you go down on temperature, the picture gets more of a cool tone that’s associated with naturally lit photos. 
Finally, click the “Effects” tool, and then click “Boost”. This is one of my favorite PicMonkey effects, because it really gives my photos that extra color pop. I usually add 10-20% color boost to my photos. Play around with this until the image looks how you want it.
Ta-da! Finished product, and it only takes about 45 seconds. I love this because I take anywhere from 20-50 photos per session, then I pick out ~10 of my favs, then it only takes 10-15 minutes to edit them.
Do you like PicMonkey?
What are your favorite photo editing tools?
Hi! I’m Emily, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and self-taught intuitive chef. I firmly believe that cooking is the simplest and most important step we can take to improve our minds and bodies and build healthier communities. Join me and let’s bring food back to the kitchen!
I do major editing in ipiccy since it’s free and has every photo editing feature, but then to make graphics and add text, I use PicMonkey!
I haven’t tried ipiccy, will have to go check it out!
I didn’t know about the boost feature! That is cool! I just got photoshop and it is time consuming right now but I’m getting the hang of it and love the extra tweaks I can do. I’m still adding text in PicMonkey though cause I like using it for that better. :)
I just started using picmonkey for the overlays and to add text. Didn’t know there were editing features as well. I use iPhoto for that!
If you photograph in natural light, you really shouldn’t have to edit the colors. If you’re looking for something easier than Photoshop, they also have Lightroom.