Fine Tuning Smartphone Photography

 So you've spent the time taking marvelous photos on your phone using our tips and tricks from our previous blog. Now it's time to jump into post-processing and luckily we can still do all of this from our phones! Sure it's easier on the computer, but this blog series is on the continuation of being as mobile as possible during your photography adventures. Let us teach you the ways of the best editing apps and techniques so you can transform your images into captivating masterpieces! 

 Mobile Editing Apps & Techniques

  Moving into the second portion of our Smartphone Photography Series you'll be discovering some of the best apps and techniques for editing right from the same device you captured your incredible moments from. It's time to enhance and refine your images so you can turn them into visually captivating works of art for your audience! 

 TheLifeWeCapture's Favorite Apps

Now, you have your incredible photos and you're all cozied up in the local coffee shop ready to edit, but what are the best apps to use? We'll go into details on a few of our favorites and then recommend you experiment with each of them and pick one that suits your needs the best!

 Adobe Lightroom Mobile: A well known brand and resource for photographers. Arguably offers the most robust features such as advanced color grading, selective editing, and seamless integration with the desktop version if you ended up needing to put some final touches on your edits. One of our favorite features is the ability to create custom presets so you can quickly adjust any photo to your particular style. This makes for a tremendous on the go editing process and let's you get photos to your social media feeds promptly! 

 Snapseed: This one is a Google based app for all of our none iPhone users. It's a very versatile and user friendly experience. There's a wide range of editing tools and even a large amount of usable filters. With the intuitive controls you'll be able to create precise adjustments, add your own creative filters, and choose from their selective editing brushes. Guaranteed resource to enhance any of your photos on the go.

 VSCO: Another well known app for photographers because of it's massive collection of filters and presets. VSCO is more than just an editing app. It's a community for photographers to share their work in portfolio form and a place to connect and learn from one another. 10/10 recommend jumping in and experimenting with their incredible platform. 

 There are many more apps out there, but if you're just starting out give these ones a go first and see how useful they are to you. You'll likely find some important tools that will help you perfect your post processing needs. All of them will certainly give you the ability to perform your basic adjustments for each photo.

 Basic Adjustments

  During the start of editing you'll want to go through a list of basic adjustments for each photo to clean it up and get it ready for posting. We've always found it good to have a routine set in place for our editing so we're sure to not miss a step. We'll list some of the things we focus on right at the beginning.

 Brightness & Exposure: Our first step is to begin adjusting brightness and exposure to correct any underexposed or overexposed areas in our compositions. It's important to balance the overall lighting and shadows in order to create a well tuned photo which creates the essence of the scene you're trying to capture.

 Contrast Enhancements: This tool is helpful to create a dramatic feel and add dynamic range to any of your photos. It becomes part of the artistic aspect of generating a mood or sense of emotion into your photos. You'll want to be sure to maintain a natural and balance look, but experiment with your medium and find the story you'd like to convey.

 Saturation & Vibrance: We all want our colors to pop in the same way we experienced them in the real moment. Sometimes a camera lens isn't able to capture the essence of raw color so this tool is incredibly useful to bring those colors back to life in our compositions. Our only waning is to not overdo it, unless you want to go for a more dreamy and unrealistic creation. You'll also want to pay attention to white balance correction. Doing so will allow you to bring out your desired colors instead of having them be washed out. 

 Sharpening & Clarity: Just as saturation and vibrance, this tool will help you bring out the desired details and textures in your images. Be careful to avoid over sharpening your images because it'll create a grainy look and take away from the beauty you've previously captured. Using these tools properly will allow you to maintain a crisp and professional appearance.

 Noise Reduction: After the above steps are completed you can move into smoothing out the image. Noise reduction is particularly useful in low light or high ISO images. You'll want to be selective on its use in order to preserve details while creating a polished and clean result.

 Cropping & Straightening: Lastly it's time to frame the image to your liking. Doing this will allow you to frame the image details you want and let's you remove unnecessary distractions from your composition. Cropping allows you to emphasize your subject and ensures you convey your intended message with your viewers.

 Go through this list while editing and overtime you'll be able to create preset filters to speed up the process. It's always good to save a before photo so you can snap back and forth with the edited version. This technique helps you identify if you've stayed in the parameters you set for yourself in the beginning. If you see a glaring issue, you'll be able to easily go back and tune it. 

 Creative Filters & Presets 

 We've been mentioning throughout this post about creative filters and presets. What are they and why do they make your life easier? First let's talk about the difference between the two.

 Filters: A predefined set of adjustments to your photos which will instantly transform the appearance with a specific style or effect. Some examples are vintage effect which emulates the look of classic film photography, black & white for a timeless appeal, and there's also color grading filters that infuse your photos with vibrant or muted color palettes. Filters are a quick and convenient way of editing because they allow you to achieve specific looks with a single tap. It's a straightforward approach to experiment with different styles and effects, making them ideal for enhancing the mood of your photos or adding a creative touch without extensive manual adjustments. 

 Presets: A collection of customizable settings tailored for specific styles, aesthetics, or visual scenarios. You'll learn to make these for yourself with the above basic adjustment process and then your saved preset will become your starting point for editing. Presets are designed to be flexible and adaptable as they allow you to adjust individual settings such as the exposure, contrast, and saturation. Using presets will allow you to create a consistent editing style across all your photos, and it'll give still give you the freedom of adapting each image freely to their unique needs. You'll be able to label them yourself too for ease of access .For example; "Moody Landscapes" to enhance shadows and dramatic tones, "Bright and Airy" for vibrant and uplifting portraits, or "Cinematic" for a dramatic and stylized look inspired by film aesthetics. 

 Differentiating the two and utilizing both is a great way to speed up your post processing time. It'll help you develop your own style and let you begin creating a portfolio your audience can expect and remain in love with. Play around with different styles and don't be afraid to push your creative limits! Photography should be a way to express yourself as well as the moments you capture. 

 From taking photos on our phones to editing them from the same device is truly an amazing ability. Photography has come along way and the cameras on our devices are only improving. It's beautiful almost everyone is able to capture their favorite moments in time with ease. We hope this portion of the blog was helpful in teaching you to have your photos stand out amongst the many others flooding the media outlets daily. 

 We're going to be diving into a specific niche of photography with the next part of this series, Low Light Photography, and give some insight and details to master it from your phones. For now, share this blog with another photographer or friend who's interested in fine tuning their smartphone photography and drop a comment below because we'd love to hear from you! 

Until next time, happy clicking!