04/21/2018
As a blogger, there are few things I love more than taking and editing photographs. Over the years I have taught myself many tricks of the trade, the biggest learning curve being editing. For the first half of this blog I was working off a tiny Dell laptop that had next to no storage space and died after 2 years. I edited all of my photos on my phone, even after I purchased my first digital camera. For many the pressure to upgrade to Adobe level software feels imminent. But in reality there are so many quality apps available that yield excellent results at a fraction of the cost.
In this post I will be discussing my personal editing process, as well as the pros and cons of the apps I use to bring my photos to life. So before you hop on the Lightroom train, consider these free apps to take your photography to the next level.
01. Snapseed
One app I simply cannot live without is Snapseed. This was the first photo editing app I downloaded and the first place I bring all of my photos. The app boasts an impressive number of editing tools within its application, making it the universal easy-to-use editing app. I use Snapseed primarily for lighting edits. My first step is always to brighten the image, increase the contrast, and boost the saturation. Afterwards I will make any cropping or perspective changes I feel necessary. From there I get into the more specialized tools to finish adjusting my lighting.
My favorite tools in Snapseed are the Brush Tool, Healing Tool, and Selective Tool. The Brush Tool allows you to increase or decrease exposure, temperature, and saturation within specific areas of the image. This is particularly useful if I want to edit a sky or a person in a picture without impacting the color or lighting in the rest of the photograph.
The Healing Tool is great for fixing any minor imperfections on an image, like a scuff on a wall or crack in pavement. It uses the area surrounding the point you’re editing to blend out the image and effectively erase any unwanted selections. This isn’t as fool proof as the Photoshop tools, but it’s great for those small details. I use this tool a lot in my food photography in particular.
Last is the Selective Tool, which allows you to increase or decrease the brightness, contrast, saturation, or structure in a specific area of a photo. Similar to the Brush Tool, the Selective Tool lets you really dig into an image and fix any color issues that might appear. I particularly like this tool for brightening up the darker areas of my images without increasing the overall brightness. You can select as big or little of an area to edit, and adjust on a scale of 0-100 to get your desired lighting. This is extremely useful in landscape or cityscape photography.
VSCO
Arguably one of the most popular editing tools for iPhone and Android users, VSCO is one of the most popular editing softwares on the market. And for good reason! They boast many beautiful and unique filters that you can download for free or purchase from within the app itself. VSCO is also a social network! Your edits can be published to your own personal page. There users can follow your account, share, and favorite any of your edits.
For years VSCO has been my primary editing software for applying filters to my Instagram and blog content. After I finish making lighting edits and changes in Snapseed, I bring my photo over to VSCO and apply a filter. With the launch of VSCO X, users have access to all of the apps filters for $19.99 per year. The app also sells filter packages which range from $.99 to $4.99. These are a steal when compared to the cost of Lightroom filters.
For a long time I had been editing my photos with the A6 filter. Generally speaking my formula looked like this:
Keeping my edits consistent with filters helped to give my Instagram feed and blog a more cohesive and professional look! This is something to consider if you’re looking to take your editing to the next level.
Some Examples of VSCO edits
A Color Story
At the moment, my favorite photo editing app is A Color Story. After having such success with VSCO I didn’t necessarily feel like I needed to look into another editing software, but I am glad that I did! I have always gravitated towards images with a slight pink hue to them and struggled to get my edits just right. I saw a pin on Pinterest that had been edited with A Color Story and it led me straight down a rabbit hole. Eventually I downloaded the app and began playing around with the tools before purchasing the “Flashes of Delight” presets. They have become my absolute FAVORITES, and I am so happy with my edits since using these filters.
Similarly to VSCO, A Color Story allows you to purchase groups of presets individually or all of their presets in one lump sum. I ended up purchasing the “Flashes of Delight”, “Picnic”, and “On The Road” presets. At the moment I am using the “Flashes of Delight” package the most, specifically the “Cassidy” preset. After I apply the filter I will adjust the curves and increase the contrast, saturation, temperature and tint. Lastly I will sharpen the image one last time before clicking save.
The nice thing about A Color Story is the Grid feature. Here you can link your Instagram account to the app and curate your future posts alongside your previous posts. The app also has the option to schedule posts, which is great if you’re looking to monetize and improve your efficiency on Instagram. Overall this is a great app and definitely gives VSCO a run for their money.
Some Examples of A Color Story Edits
Whether you are just starting out or have been blogging for some time, I believe everyone should have at last one of these apps in their back pocket (pun intended). They make editing on the fly so easy and are a cost effective option for anyone interested in photography.
As always be sure to leave me a comment with any questions and let me know which of these apps and edits are your favorites!
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