An easy guide to make your pictures taken from your phone look professional.

Hello everyone I am Divi, from the blog, where I post about lifestyle, photography and all those little things happening inside my head. This post is the part of the collab that I and Shivakshi am doing, you can find Shivakshi’s post about photography and aesthetics on my blog Here

You ever see on Instagram or Pinterest and feel like- How’d they click that photo?! It might be master photography but I’m about to burst your bubble- it’s all in the editing. So how in the world do you do that?! Do you need a fancy camera or technical skills in editing? Absolutely not! I am self-taught and though it took me a while, I’ve learnt quite a lot. In my opinion, there are like 5 golden rules for photography.

1. Editing is fixing the imperfections, not changing the story.

I know many people who’d apply filters and say it is edited, but it’s not. It’s like faking the picture. Editing is something else. I always regret that my phone cannot capture the beauty of my object in the most beautiful sense. The picture you have in mind, unfortunately, cannot be the picture on your camera. Once you set the physical factors right, such as the angle of capturing the object, work on editing it, to bring it to the picture in your mind.

2. Editing is powerful but know when your editing is necessary.

The above pictures were one when I went to the park while jogging. I am quite surprised because this is probably one of the best pictures I have ever taken. I like how natural it is and the delicate feel it has to it. But if I were to edit it…

It’ll look like this.

See it’s not disappointing, but somewhere, it lacks the delicate look of a flower. But, the editing is uplifting, isn’t it? That’s the power editing can have, but sometimes, editing isn’t necessary, but if you do apply a filter or something of that sort, it could spoil your picture altogether.

So here is a piece of advice, don’t apply filters to flower pictures, trust me, I’ve learnt it the hard way. Just let the flowers be.

3. Too bright or too dark. Know how to edit.

So here’s basic tools:

• Brightness: Forgetting dark to brighter images.
• Saturation: For uplifting the colour.
• Tint: Forgetting a colour shade over the entire picture
• Contrast: For making pictures less bright and contrasting colours.
• Warmth: For more orange pictures.
• Highlights: Making the nooks and crannies of your picture liven up.
• Shadows: For adding depth and making the nooks and crannies darker.

There’s a noticeable difference, the previous picture was dark, but after adjusting the saturation, brightness and tint, it looks dreamy and warm. This is how you can make a tad bit of a difference just by editing.

4. Pick your theme

It’s almost like deciding your aesthetics. Is it bright and colourful? Is it monotone or is it dreamy? I spend a lot of time on Pinterest scrolling through the pictures and I realized, “there is a vibe to these pictures”. And that surely is true. Decide the vibe you want your pictures to be giving0 off.

5. Recommended apps\software

This is the juicy technical part some of you are waiting for. If you take look at my pictures on the blog, you’d be interested in knowing what kind of software I use. If you are a beginner who just wants good pictures for personal use, try CANVA. Yes, it’s not only graphic designing you can upload pictures and edit them too! I love the variety of filters that aren’t too over the top, you should definitely try it. On a professional level, I suggest using fotor. That can easily make a mediocre picture look outstanding. Adobe’s lightroom also works very well. I use free versions of these apps\websites, but a paid subscription could help you if you’re serious about photography and editing.

6. Editing could make or break your pictures.

Last of all, your judgement matters. You really don’t want to destroy the viewer’s eyes with all that extra saturation and brightness. Know where you need to stop. And since you’re reading this, you seem quite sensible. I trust your judgement.

That is all I have to share with you in this post! I really hope you enjoyed reading this, and if you did, thanks to the wonderful Shivakshi for inviting me to write on her blog today!

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