Have you ever wondered how I make my photo edits more vibrant and full of life, especially for flower and insect photos?
In this post, I’m sharing the exact techniques I rely on to make my images and edits pop. I’ve also included links to tutorials I’ve created for each topic so you can try them too. These are the creative choices and techniques I rely on most, both when photographing and editing. Some are simple habits I’ve developed over time, and others are integral to my editing workflow, helping me bring out the full potential of each image.
These are the steps to make your photos look vibrant and eye-catching:
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Start With Colorful Subjects
Look for colorful flowers. When photographing insects, try to catch them on flowers instead of leaves. That instantly adds more color and contrast to the photo (and makes the insect pop against the vibrant background).
You can still get great results with greens, but it’s harder to create contrast unless the light or tones are just right. And the photo won’t be as stop-scrolling as a vibrant photo with contrasting insect.
Use Color Contrast in Composition
Once you’ve found a beautiful flower, think about what’s behind it. If the background is too similar in color or brightness, the subject might blend in and lose its visual impact. This can cause the viewer not to stop scrolling when seeing your photo, and scroll past it.
A red flower in a field of other red flowers won’t stand out as much as a red flower against a dark green or yellow background. That contrast helps draw the eye straight to your subject and makes the entire photo feel more vibrant.
I often look for contrasting backgrounds, a patch of flowers, grass, or trees that can frame the flower or insect and make it pop. Sometimes, just changing your angle slightly is enough to introduce more contrast into the scene.
🎯 Tap here to read 21 tips on how to achieve the best-looking photos out of the camera!
Edit Your Photos for Vibrant Results
Editing is where the vibrance really comes to life. I never post a photo straight out of the camera. Every single image goes through Lightroom and usually Photoshop too.
I use my Floral Dreams presets (as well as Creative Mood, Summer, and other packs) as a starting point to get the tones and colors in a direction I like. From there, I adjust things like brightness, saturation, and white balance to fit the mood of the photo.
Even if you’re just doing light edits, those small changes can make a huge difference in how vibrant and eye-catching your photo feels. This is one of the most impactful ways to make photo edits more vibrant.
Here are some of my favorite changes with my new presets:
🎨 Click here to explore my Lightroom presets
You can get the best deal on the presets by becoming a subscriber of one of my Patreon tiers (if you haven’t already). You’ll unlock not only monthly downloads of my presets, but also all of my tutorials!
Use Light to Your Advantage
Natural light can completely change the feel of your photo and create that unique touch to make it stand out. When photographing flowers or insects, look for soft light like early morning or golden hour, or take advantage of direct sunlight and choose the best angle.
It’s important to pay attention to how light interacts with your subject and adjust your position accordingly.
One of my favorite lights to use is golden hour light. You can use it as a spotlight or to simply add warm-colored accents in the background.
This is just one of many tips I have looked at on a deeper level in my RAW photography tips series.
📸 Tap here to view the post where I shared this tip
Adjust Greens to Make Colors Pop
Green is one of the most common colors in nature, especially in macro and flower photography. But greens can often look dull or overwhelming if not edited carefully.
One of my favorite techniques is shifting green tones slightly toward teal. This makes the greens feel more creative and dreamy, and helps other colors, especially warm tones like red, pink, and orange, stand out even more.
You can do this with various tools, such as the Color Mixer in Lightroom. In fact, I’ve listed ALL tools I use that can achieve this color scheme!
If you want to learn how to make photo edits more vibrant, start with how you treat your greens.
Use Masking for Vibrant, Eye-Catching Edits
Masking is one of the best tools for making your subject stand out. It lets you darken, brighten, or add clarity to specific areas without affecting the entire image.
In Lightroom, I often use subject masks or radial and linear gradients to bring focus to the main subject.
In Photoshop, I’ll sometimes mask in sharp details from one layer or selectively apply an effect only to part of the photo.
I also use other techniques to make the subject stand out more and add depth.
Have a look at How-to posts where I explain these techniques step by step:
🖌️ How to Accentuate the Subject in Lightroom? Steal My Editing Tips!
🖌️ Accentuate depth in a photo with Lightroom – Video
🖌️ Learn to add Dreamy Light with Lightroom
🖌️ Learn to create a Dreamy Look by Adding Light to a Photo with Photoshop
🖌️ Discover how to add depth & accent the subject through dodging and burning
Creative Color Changes for Vibrant Photo Edits
If the colors in your photo aren’t working together, you don’t have to keep them exactly as they appeared. You can shift flower tones slightly, brighten up a dull petal, or darken distracting patches in the background to help the subject shine.
Unless you’re going for a true-to-life look, a little creative color tweaking is a great way to make your photos feel more polished and vibrant. Just be intentional with your changes and embrace the look.
Color shifts like these are great examples of how to make photo edits more vibrant without over-editing.
A photo is just a canvas. Your edit is the final artwork. I love the quote “RAW is reality, edit is emotion”. It’s a perfect reminder that we’re not just documenting, we’re creating.
We’re all artists in our own way, and editing is where your personal style comes to life. Find a style that feels true to you and stick with it. That’s how your work becomes recognizable and stands out.
If you’re not sure where to start or want to build on what you already know, I’ve shared dozens of editing tutorials – for both Lightroom and Photoshop.
From beginner-friendly posts to more advanced techniques, many of them walk you through each step with photos and explanations, allowing you to follow along easily at your own pace.
🖥️ Tap here to view my full collection of editing tutorials and learn how I turn my RAWs into vibrant, dreamy artworks.
Be Creative and Try New Ideas
Sometimes the most vibrant edits come from trying something unexpected, like adding overlays, mixing cool and warm tones, or adjusting colors in unusual ways.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Save versions of your edits as you go, so you can compare and find the direction you love most. The more creative you allow yourself to be, the more personal and eye-catching your work will become.
Want to see these creative edits in action?
Take a look at my Before & After posts, where I share the full transformation from RAW to final result. You’ll unlock not just the comparison, but also the exact steps I used to achieve the final look – from Lightroom adjustments to Photoshop finishing touches.
📸 Tap here to explore my Before & After editing reveals
📸 Tap here to view my step-by-step editing breakdowns
Quick Recap: How to Make Your Photos Look More Vibrant
How to Edit Photos to Look Vibrant and Eye-Catching
Steps:
- Start with Colorful Subjects
Choose flowers or insects on vibrant flowers to add natural color contrast.
- Use Color Contrast in Composition
Place the subject against a background that’s different in color or tone.
- Edit Your Photos in Lightroom and Photoshop
Use presets as a base and tweak tones, brightness, contrast, and color.
- Adjust the Greens Creatively
Shift green tones toward teal to balance out warm colors and create harmony.
- Use Masking to Direct Attention
Highlight the subject by adjusting sharpness, light, or clarity selectively.
- Don’t Be Afraid of Creative Color Tweaks
Shift colors or enhance them to bring out the mood and emotion.
- Develop Your Signature Style
Let your editing choices reflect your vision. This is what makes your work unique.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use presets as a base, then tweak colors and separate the subject from the background. Mask parts of the photo to highlight the subject.
The Floral Dreams preset pack works great to create a dreamy and vibrant edit base.
Want to try these presets? Explore my Lightroom presets here or get them via my Patreon tiers with editing tutorials included.
Use color contrast, good lighting, look for colorful flowers and mask while editing to draw attention to your main subject.
You can do a lot in Lightroom, but Photoshop allows for even more control over altering selected parts of the photo and isolating your subject.
💡 Want more in-depth guides, behind-the-scenes edits, and early access to all of my tools and presets? Join me on Patreon
Final Words
💬 Which of these tips do you already use? Which one would you like to try next? Let me know in the comments!
If you’ve been wondering how to make photo edits more vibrant, try one or two of these tips in your next edit and see the difference.
If you want to explore the tutorials for these topics, all the links above lead directly to full posts, collections, or step-by-step explanations and videos where I show you how I do it.