This is a question I often pondered.
Since I have been blogging for a little over a year now, I have been working on my photography skills and have been trying to make my photos look better, lighter and more vibrant. I wouldn’t say my photos are perfect, but I think I have come a long way since last year.
Today, I wanted to talk about some of the iPhone apps I downloaded to help me improve the photos I post on Instagram. If you are wanting to make your photos look a little bit better, keep reading!
Unfortunately, the default Instagram filters aren’t going to get you very far if you are wanting a great photo. It can help in certain scenarios, but most of the photos that do really well on Instagram don’t use those filters at all. I used to put a filter on EVERY photo I posted, but now I try to avoid it. #NoFilter
So, if you aren’t going to use a filter, how do you make your photos really pop? The secret is to download the apps I list below and spend some time learning how to use them.
99% of what you are seeing on Instagram is edited. Very rarely are these photos un-edited. Sure, there are probably a few photos out there that have zero edits, but most of the photos you are seeing are edited in some fashion. Basically, what I am trying to get at it is this: Don’t freak out or feel like you suck at taking pictures just because the photo you snapped doesn’t look perfect right now. You can do a lot of editing to get it to where it needs to be.
So, without further ado, here are my favorite apps for editing on your phone.
Photo Editing Apps:
- Camera+
- I probably use this app then most right now. I like to use the “Scenes” feature – this helps me to brighten my photos. I mostly use Flash, Backlit, Night, and Shade. All of those scenes really help my photos get lighter.
- Handy Photo
- I use this app the most for re-touching. Whether I have a zit on my face or something just isn’t quite right, I can go in here and re-touch the photo quickly. It is kind of like a mini-photoshop – they also have a clone stamp feature, so you could try to use that to remove objects/people from your background.
- Snapseed
- I don’t use this one as much as I should, but it has a ton of features. Everything from adjusting brightness to re-touching and adding a vignette filter. They even have a “face enhance” feature where the app is smart enough to find your face and brighten it in all the right areas. You can change how much light is in our face and you can control the specific parts of your face where the light is focused. It is pretty neat!
- ColorStory
- Again, this is another one that I do not use as much as I should. You can add some really cool effects to your photos like a light flare or color fog. This app also has all of the usual brightness and contrast capabilities as well. Several of the special effects and features do cost and additional $1-2, but it might be worth the cost depending on what you are trying to achieve.
There are more than 4 photography apps on the iTunes App Store, but these are the ones I have found to be most helpful.
Another thing to note is that I don’t always use my iPhone 6S to take photos. I actually end up using Alex’s Galaxy to take several photos since his phone has a wayyyyyyy better camera. We also try to use my Canon Rebel T6i DSLR camera when we can. I don’t like to haul it around to certain places, but it is worth it for the photos sometimes! We typically use the 1.4 fixed lens if we are taking pictures with the Canon (that is what we used for the photos in this post).
I do have several more photography tips, but I might save all of that for another post! Again, I am no photography expert, but I do think that Alex and I have both learned a lot in the past year.
What are some of your favorite photo editing apps on your phone? Are there any others that I should download? Leave a comment below with your tips and tricks!
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