How to Guide To Awesome Photos And Editing Them - All For Free
I think everyone wants to have amazing images on their social media and website but it might not be the easier thing to have. By that I mean not everyone can afford to buy a DSLR camera and a lense that would capture their product or service how they’d like to or pay for a professional photographer.
If you read my post the other day on my Insta page you know that I said you can easily take great photos with your iPhone or smartphone but there’s 3 things to keep in mind
Don’t take photos at night time - this one might be a no brainer but i see a lot photos taken where flash has been used or it’s in the darkest environment. So no flash and no night time photography with your phone.
If you need to take a photo then always, I mean ALWAYS, take the photo in a natural light. I’d rather not take the photo at all then have it in a shitty light just to have one. And I mean it.
I know not everyone has that sense of style, even I struggle with it, but a good image comes with good colour combo. You do need to play around and practice to get those great photos on a great background. Just look around what other people are doing. It’s not copying, it’s getting inspiration.
Those are the main things to get the photo and practising and seeing what backgrounds work etc. and if you’ve found your way you should stick to it, don’t have to change things around all the time.
The fun part, at least in my opinion, is the editing. Not always the funnest but if you have a photo that looks good but needs a little bit more light or vibrance I suggest to download this editing tool.
Lightroom CC - it is free to download and most of the features are free to use and it works a treat.
Here’s the photo I took with my iPhone. I didn’t use any filters from the phone, just took it near some natural light which was in the morning. So if you really look at it it’s pretty good for an mobile photo and I could've upload it like that. But as I’m going for a certain feel and look on my business Instagram I wanted to bring in more light, make the wood less dark and to make the items pop out a little more.
Once you have downloaded the Lightroom app you’ll need to subscribe (like a login) and then you can start straight away editing images. You can do that by clicking on the right bottom corner on the icon where it shows picture and a +.
From there you can choose which photo you’d like to change and it takes you straight away to editing.
You can see the editing strip on the bottom of the image. The first options Selective is payable but you won’t need it. What you will be using is the 3 options Light, Colour and Effect.
Light is where you can bring more light in (haha) and that is really what you could be using but it’s good to know about the other 2 options.
From the lighting 2 main options: Exposure where you can with your finger move the little ball on the line left(if you need less light) or right (if you need more light).
Contrast is to give contrast (I’m so funny I know) but that’s what it’s for and to make things a little bit darker and bring them out in the photo.
The next thing I usually jump to is Effects and I only use Clarity to make things more clear. If you move the little ball left and right you see what I mean. It makes the writing on the items more readable etc.
And the final thing I would use is the Colour option and would go straight to Saturation (my fave) and Vibrance. Vibrance is good when you have bright colour like red or yellow etc. in your image because it will bring them out more. Saturation though can make the image more yellow, especially for this one because of the wood, but for some other more light or vibrant pictures it accentuates the items more. And if you use the saturation ball more to the left it will make the photo temperature more ‘cold’ and that might be what you are looking for in that image.
Here's the final image I produced.
Then when you are ready and happy with what you have produced you need to tap on the top right button that is box with an arrow facing up and it will bring up the options where you want to save it or open it straight in Insta or drop it to your Dropbox etc. I usually just click Save to Camera Roll and save image size maximum available.
Play around with the other options because you might find something that suits your photos and style more.
There you have it!!!! Detailed step by step instructions how to use the app and get an awesome photo. I'm sure there's plenty of other editing apps available but I have stuck to this one and it works. This app is actually part of the Adobe family and there is Lightroom Classic CC available to download on your laptop (I believe it's only for Apple products, not hundred % sure though) and it gives you a bigger range to edit but this is really if you have take photos with a DSLR camera. If you are interested in doing that though the cost is about $15 dollars a month.
Keep in mind the natural light (morning or afternoon), colour combos and also your background. If you do happen to take a picture in a not so delightful light you can get away with it sometimes with the app by brining in more exposure to it.
Let me know how you go, would love some feedback.
Happy editing!
Laura