Even with an excellent camera it is extremely difficult to take a perfect image. Lighting and other outliers out of your control can affect the quality of the image. Luckily there are many tools in Photoshop that can help you make your images ready to publish.
If people are the subject of your photo there are some tools in photoshop that can help you fix any flaws or distracting elements of the portrait. One very simple tool is the spot healing brush. Just click over any blemish or imperfection on the subject and Photoshop samples from around the spot and replaces any pixels that have a drastic change in color or texture. Another tool that can accomplish the same goal but gives you more control is the clone stamp. With this tool you are actually required to select a sample which will then be placed on top of the blemish. It is important when using this tool to select a sample that is very close to the spot you are covering or else there may be a discrepancy in color or texture. Another simple fix is the healing brush. With this tool you just paint around the area you want to smooth out to give it a more airbrushed look. It is important with this tool to not go overboard and even test out lowering the transparency of the layer so the subject doesn’t look too fake.
If the subject of your photo is an object that you are trying to highlight you have the ability in photoshop to make that object the focus, even if it has a busy background. One of the most valuable tools when editing photos in photoshop is the curves adjustment tool. This allows you to make adjustments to your photo all in one tool. It can increase or decrease contrast as well as make light colors brighter and dark colors darker. This tool can make the object of your photo stand out and have great contrast even if it wasn’t a very well taken photo. If you want your object to stand out from a busy background there are subtle changes you can make to do so. One thing to do is to select just the background and lower the contrast and saturation. You can also mimic what a fancy camera lens could do by sharpening the subject and using the blur tool in the background or creating a layer mask and with a low opacity paintbrush painting over certain areas to decrease the opacity.
These are just some basic tips for editing photos that can really make an impact in your image. Even if the original picture is terrible there are ways in photoshop to make it look like a halfway decent shot.