{"id":80662,"date":"2022-02-22T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-02-22T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/?p=80662"},"modified":"2022-02-18T15:54:31","modified_gmt":"2022-02-18T21:54:31","slug":"create-a-compelling-social-media-profile-picture-in-mac-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eshop.macsales.com\/blog\/80662-create-a-compelling-social-media-profile-picture-in-mac-photos\/","title":{"rendered":"Create a Compelling Social Media Profile Picture in Mac Photos"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Every social media network has a way to show others what you look like. The profile picture<\/strong> is generally a square photo you upload to social media during setup, displaying your smiling face. It can also feature text labels, icons, logos, or other objects that define your identity. Why settle for a plain photo when you can show friends and followers your best face? Today we’ll show you how to create a compelling social media profile picture in the Mac Photos<\/strong><\/a> app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are other apps that might provide more features for creating your social media profile picture (like Adobe Photoshop<\/a>, for example). Those features include removing or replacing backgrounds, advanced facial retouching tools, and the ability to bring out or hide details with masking. For the purpose of this article, we’re using the free and easy-to-use Photos app. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Start with a good photo<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Although there is a lot you can do to make a so-so photo into a better profile photo, it helps if you start with a decent picture of yourself. To make your search easier, launch Photos<\/strong> and select People<\/strong> from the sidebar on the left side of the window. If you’ve been using People for a while and have kept up with matching names to faces (which Photos then continues to do using machine learning), there should be an album with your name on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"People
The People album for some old guy with a beard…<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In this example, there are hundreds of photos of this person (me) from age two to my current grizzled state. That’s a good start for finding an image that works as a good social media profile photo. Another good place to look for images is in the Selfies<\/strong> album, also located in the sidebar under Albums<\/strong> > Media Types<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a perfect world, your image would be well lit, show facial features perfectly, and have you centered in front of a non-distracting background. The world is not<\/em> perfect, so your photo is going to require some work to look its best on social media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Crop the image<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first step is to crop<\/strong> the image. Cropping means that you take an image that is most likely in a 4×3 (landscape), 16×9 (landscape), or 3×4 (portrait) format, then convert it to a square (1×1) image. Why do you want a square image? Because it’s the best format for social media images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of the photos you see in the People album screenshot above have me to one side or another in the frame. It’s going to work better if my head is directly in the center of the image. I decided to use a selfie in which I wasn’t smiling because I’m in a grumpy mood today. This selfie was shot in portrait mode.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To crop the photo, I double-click it in the Photos Library, then click the Edit button in the upper-right corner of the Photos window. This editing window appears:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Photos
The Edit window in Photos<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are several things to notice in this screenshot. First, if at any time you wish to go back to the original format and unedited state of the photo, click Revert to Original<\/strong> in the upper left of this window. That removes all edits made to the image. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, pay attention to the fact that Adjust<\/strong> is selected in the toolbar at the top of the screen. When Adjust is selected, all of the adjustments sliders for light, color, retouching, red-eye reduction, and more are visible in the right sidebar. This becomes useful later in this example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cropping<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Also, notice the Crop<\/strong> tab in the top toolbar. We’ll click that next, and select Square<\/strong> from the list of aspect ratios in the right sidebar. Photos automatically applied a square (1×1) aspect ratio to the image. I had to drag the image down a bit to center my face in the image, but here’s the result:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Cropping\"
The image cropped to a square aspect ratio<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

That’s a good start, but I want to improve the portrait a bit. Click on the Adjust tab, and there are a few things I can do quickly. See that “magic wand” button to the left of the yellow Done button? Clicking it applies some automatic tools that Photos thinks will improve the image. For example, it brightened the entire photo and got rid of some shadows under the hat. While that’s helpful, it’s not what I really wanted. Another click on the magic wand removes the automatic changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are a lot of useful tools in the Adjust tab. If you’ve never used them before, be sure to give them a try to see what each adjustment does. Don’t like the result? You can either select Edit > Undo<\/strong> from the menu bar or press Command (\u2318) + Z. Undo can be used any number of times to erase changes you’ve made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While I won’t go through all of the changes I made step-by-step, here’s a synopsis:<\/p>\n\n\n\n