This might sound crazy, but my favourite thing about coming home from an outing is editing the photos I took. I've been posting on Instagram for about 7 to 8 years now and only about 4 of those years consist of properly edited photos (you do not want to look at my early posts).
I received many asks about how I edit my photos, so i've decided to create this post to show you exactly how!
I only use 3 apps for editing, iPhone Photos, VSCO and Snapseed. Photos is used to adjust the general brightness and exposure of the photo, VSCO for the filters and Snapseed for details. If you're an android user, your photo album might come with the basic adjustments for the brightness of an image. If not, don't worry! VSCO and Snapseed both have widgets that allow you to adjust exposure.
APP: PHOTOS
1. Choose a photo
Choose a good photo of yourself that you'd like to edit!
Of course, the way you take the photo matters as well. You can't take a badly lit and angled photo and expect it to turn out amazing from a few edits.
Select the edit button on the top right-hand corner of the screen.
2.Rotate
The first thing I do is adjust the rotation on my photos.
Use the rotate widget to align your photo so that the floor is parallel to the base of your photo and any buildings or background structures are upright.
3. Crop
Crop your photos to position yourself in the centre of the photo. I usually align my eyes with the upper horizontal line of the grid, but since I want to show off the nice background in the pic, I won't be cropping it.
Tip: The grid lines of the crop box indicate the parts of the image that people's eyes are drawn to the most. Place the object of focus in your photo along these guidelines to ensure maximum aesthetic and artistic effect.
4. Lighting
Next, select the dial icon to adjust the lighting of the photo. Drag the lighting panel left and right to (perhaps even to the extremes) see the effects.
Tip: Dragging the panel or dial left or right will help you get a better sense of what the tool does to the photo and help you identify the right brightness for you.
Of course, good natural lighting is important for a photo, it makes the edit look a lot better as editing can only do so much.
If you click on "Light" it shows you more options of lighting.
You may be thinking, "These are just a bunch of synonyms for light!". But Brilliance, Exposure and Highlights do very different things. Try using the left and right dragging motion to test it out for yourself.
Contrast and Black Point help edit the darker areas of the photo.
Colour adjusts the temperature and saturation of the photo.
APP: VSCO
5. Filters
Open your photo in VSCO and select the filters widget.
You'll see a plethora of different filters. Choose the one that complements your photo the best! This is subjective.
Don't worry if the filters seem to bright/colourful/obvious. We'll be adjusting them soon!
Once you know the right filters for you, you can add them to your favourites and come back to choose from them in the future.
For this photo I'm choosing A6 / Analog because it brightens my photo while giving a little colour to it so the main features of the photo stand out.
I suggest bringing the dial to between 7.0 to 8.5, so that the filter leaves and effect while not being too obvious.
6. Minor filter adjustments
Select the dial icon next to the filter icon and you'll find these:
I only use the four boxed up widgets. Again, they all have different effects on the photo so just play around with them until you're comfortable.
This is what the White Balance controls look like.
If you'd like your photo to be warm-toned, increase the temperature, or vice versa for a cool-toned effect.
If you prefer subtle-pinkish tint to your photos, increase the tint. However, if you have plants or green items in your photo, decreasing the tint can make green shades appear more vibrant.
The great thing bout VSCO is that it lets you sort of plan the layout of your feed before posting it.
Stay with me now we're more than halfway through!
App: SNAPSEED
7. Finishing Touches
Open up your saved photo from VSCO and select Tools. I mainly use 3 things off this app:
Brush
The great thing about this is that it lets you edit select areas of the photo. I'll show you a little more about this further down.
Healing
Healing is great for concealing blemishes or hiding unwanted things in the background of your photo.
Details
Structure enhances the vibrance of your photo slightly while Sharpening increases the clarity of details such as fine lines.
You can also experiment with Perspective and Expand to adjust the proportions of your image.
These are the tools under the Brush widget. You can play around with the different effects by adjusting the intensity of the effect and then tapping or brushing over the desired area of your photo.
I usually brighten the foreground of the image slightly using Dodge & Burn so that more attention is drawn to the object of focus.
And then I do a quick sweep of Saturation to intensify the colours.
And that, my friends, is how I edit my photos. Everyone has their own style and preference of editing and hopefully after experimenting with these apps you'll find yours! Ciao, for now.
an lyn xx