Handled With Care: An Edited Bouquet iPhoneography by Jann Alexander © 2015
Follow these steps to edit your photos like a pro.
Whether you’re astounded by the simple beauty of a bouquet, or stunned by the complexity of showy wildflowers bursting with color in a field, and the only camera you have with you is on your iPhone (thus, the best camera to use), you can get spectacular results. Handle your flowers carefully by just following these simple shooting and editing steps:
Before you shoot, tap the area of interest on your iPhone screen, to get an auto-adjustment for the proper exposure and focus.
Shoot several pictures. You can keep pressing the shoot button to get a series of them (handy if your target is blowing in the breeze). What have you got to lose?
To determine the best image before you edit, wait to examine your photos indoors on a larger screen, like your iPad or computer.
Pro Tip: Don’t edit on your iPhone, unless you must. Bigger is better.
Edit with apps like Google Snapseed (free) or Photo fx Ultra on your iPad, or on your computer with Adobe Lightroom or other full-scale editing software.
Start your edit by select your best image(s).
Crop and straighten the selected photo. Pay attention to horizon lines to straighten your image; nothing is more distracting than a crooked photo.
Adjust the exposure, the brightness, the contrast as needed; notice what happens to shadows and highlights as you make the edits.
Increase or decrease the color saturation and watch how details disappear or pop.
Enlarge your image to see how much photo sharpening it can handle. Aim for a crisper, cleaner look—a little bit goes a long way.
Finally, apply filters, like the vignette I applied (above) to blur and soften the outer edges, bringing the focus smack into the unique center of the bouquet.
Below, the bouquet, before straightening, cropping and applying filters:
The Bouquet, Before: Crooked and Lacking Focus iPhoneography by Jann Alexander © 2015
Editing doesn’t have to take long. Or it can. It all depends on what your image looks like when you start, and how much you enjoy the process. But even a minute amount of editing will improve your final image.
Give some thought to your photo’s final destination before you select, and edit. That will determine how you apply many of your edits.
Once you’ve done a few edits, you’ll discover some new tricks to use. Pretty soon, your images will look like they’ve been handled with care, and the entire process will become care-free. ♣
What iPhone editing tips can you share?
There are plenty more iPhoneography tips and tricks HERE. For a comparison of how the iPhone 6s camera shoots versus the iPhone 5s camera, see Four Things I Learned About Change From The iPhone 6s.
Click Here to get your free monthly digest of Popular Pairings.
Comments