In the first part of this series, Kyle showed you his process of taking mouth-watering images of food. With a little bit of retouching, we can turn these images into strong content for the social space.

FILE MANAGEMENTEach photo shoot produces more than a thousand raw images, making strong file organization during image editing an important step. Properly naming files and saving to relevant folders makes finding images simple, even years later. I organize into client folders, and separate my working files by RAW, Working, and Final.

EDITINGThe first stage of my actual retouching is done in Camera Raw. This is where I focus on getting the general look of my image where I want it. I start with general edits, focusing on white balance and bringing out detail in highlights and shadows. With food photography, I’ll often add a bit of contrast and clarity, to help the food or drink pop more from the background. This is especially helpful if we have a variety of colors and tones blending in the backgrounds from the restaurant environment.Once my image looks close to what I want in Camera Raw, I’ll export a full resolution PSD and save to my “Working” folder for more detailed edits.

My final editing phase is combing through each image to remove any distractions. Often, there won’t be much left to do, but this last phase nicely rounds out our images as professional content for social. When photographing food, we’ll often have to clean up crumbs and flaws in the table, and clean up excessive condensation on drinks. Our goal is to keep the food looking natural, but presented in a clean and appetizing manner.Once I’m happy with how the image looks, I’m ready to export. We save one for web at 72ppi and another in high resolution in case they ever need to be printed.

CREATIVE FOR SOCIAL POSTSA lot of the photo work we do at Socialtyze is repurposed in multiple social environments. We often pair these images with text for promotions, quote cards, Twitter chats and social covers.It’s important to design for the right social space. For Facebook, keep timeline posts in a square format to avoid content being cropped or shrunk down in newsfeeds. Similarly, design Twitter posts at 1024x512. This will ensure all content is seen, even when users don’t open the image all the way. You can view our sizing guide for all platforms here.Keep social posts simple and clear. Remember that users are scrolling through an endless feed of content, so you’re fighting for their attention. We aim to keep text short and bold to draw this attention. Give it room to breathe in the negative space, and use colors that feel natural to the image.Also remember that many people are viewing your work on mobile phones. Before I send an image off for approval, I check that it’s still clear on my phone.If an image is used for advertising within Facebook, be sure to keep any text under 20%. To be sure, create a 5x5 grid over the image, and make sure all the text fits within 5 of those boxes.At this point, your fans will surely be craving all that mouth-watering food.Want more tips and tricks for how to dominate social this year with Data, Creative and Amplification? Download our 2016 Social Media Survival Guide.