I am of the mind that a photo isn’t finished until it’s been edited.

Now, I’m not talking about slapping filters onto your image to give it a really interesting look, only to come back to the image a year or two later and realize that it looks a little cartoonish. I’m talking about editing an image so that it looks closer to the real life moment. Our cameras – yes, even our smartphone cameras – have sensors that the human eye doesn’t. They can pick up so much more information than we can, thus our photos end up looking slightly different than the memories we have of those moments. Editing is the tool I use to get my photos to look like my memory of the moment.

We’ve come to our final installment of this series, friends. Let’s talk about editing….

I approach editing the way I approach makeup: with a gentle hand. Generally speaking, we want our makeup to enhance our natural features, we don’t want to look like a totally different person. The same principle applies to editing my photos. I never want to make an image look like an unnatural, computer-generated file. Oftentimes, filters and presets* can be distracting – they steal the attention of the viewer, when you really want that attention on your subject, not your editing style. Just like makeup, the edit should enhance the subject, it shouldn’t be the main attraction. 

*A preset is what you would call a “filter” in photo-editing apps like Lightroom or VSCO. The edit is essentially “pre-set” and can be placed on any image you import.

Here are my best tips when it comes to editing your smartphone photos.

1. Good Editing Starts With Good Lighting

We get to use a gentle hand in editing when we abide by our lighting principles. When we take photos in poor lighting, we are required to use a heavy hand when it comes to editing because otherwise, our subject can suffer. When we use our lighting principles we have an excellent foundation to begin with. Sticking with the makeup metaphor, if we go to bed with a face full of makeup on and in the morning only have time to “fix” it, we’ll wind up looking like a hot, cakey mess. But, if we wash our face at night and in the morning, only have time for a few touch ups, we’ll look a lot more refreshed, and our skin will look a lot more like skin, than if we have to double down on our concealer to get rid of the mascara under our eyes. In both cases, less is more, so let’s set ourselves up for success by starting with a good base. 

2. Try to Edit Every Photo The Same Way

Do you ever wonder how some people’s images just look so cohesive? Like they’re one tile in a larger pile, all telling the same story, and being laid in the same mosaic? Like they all just go together? That’s consistent editing. Many people use presets and filters to achieve the cohesive look, and I think that’s great – though, again, can sometimes steal the show. But if you don’t have access to a preset or a filter, it can be tricky to try to achieve the same look every time, especially if you take photos in various lighting scenarios. I don’t use a preset, and I don’t use filters, but the reason I can keep my photos look like tiles in the same mosaic is because my north star for editing is keeping things as true to life as possible. That is my goal and I use certain editing techniques to achieve the same look every time.

3. Choose The Best Editing Tools For You

There are so many different apps you can use to edit your smart phone images. To name a few, there’s Lightroom, VSCO, and Snapseed. I have used all of these apps and I love them, but what’s great about trying to make your photos look true-to-life, is that you likely don’t even have to use a separate app to achieve that look. Most of the time, you can edit them right in your photo library. I will speak for iPhones since that is the phone I use, but android phones likely also have some built-in photo editing software that you can use free of charge. 

How To Edit Your Photos:

Now that we’ve covered the basics, I’m going to walk you through an edit using only my iPhone’s photo library tools. Full disclosure: I actually use Lightroom to edit all my photos (iPhone and DSLR) because it has a higher capacity for editing and I like to be able to edit the colors in my photos. However, you don’t NEED an extra app to be able to create images you love and will want to frame. So, here is how I would edit my photos using only what my smart phone offers:

Et Voila!

Do you see how there’s not that much of a difference between the “before” image and the “after?” For the most part, the after image really just looks like a more vibrant version of the first. It looks polished, without looking too edited. And we’ve done it! Using only my iPhone I now have a picture of me and my sister that looks and feels “finished.”

I’ll tell you, I don’t normally edit in the Photos app on my iPhone. So, when I began writing this post, I started editing this image the way I normally do in Lightroom, but it wasn’t really coming out the way I wanted it to. I was surprised when I clicked “auto” that it had done much of the foundational editing work for me and needed only slight adjustments. I thought that might be easier for you to replicate and so, this is how I decided to edit my iPhone image using only what Apple had to offer in my Camera Roll app.

If I wanted to achieve a consistent look across all images, this is how I would approach editing each and every photo, no matter where it was taken. When you edit the same, you get a consistent look that feels like it’s telling the same story — your story. It is worth your while to find a style that you like and stick to it. When you look back on the memories you have stored your iPhone, I hope it feels like the story of you.

And that’s a wrap, folks!

I hope throughout this 4-week journey, you’re learned a lot about taking better photos using only your smartphone and I hope that you’re seeing the proof in the pudding! I hope you feel empowered to capture your own family memories and that you will use these tools to fill up your photo books and picture frames with images you love. I can’t wait to see all the beautiful photos you take of your loved ones all over your Instagrams and hopefully, framed in your living rooms and in the hallways of your houses. Feel free to drop a comment if you have questions or need further clarification, or if you just want to say that you found this helpful! I’m here for all of it, sis. 

Until next time!

xo,

Jess