June 27 - Photography
tutorial + the breakdown of:
how I edit my photos and the apps that I use.
Polarr (app on desktop computers).
Price: free
I use a Windows computer, so sorry if you have an Apple computer (I unfortunately don't know anything about editing on a Mac).
For Polarr, the filters that I use the most are
1) F10 Industrial
2) F2 Fujicolor
3) A6 Wander
If you look at the screenshot above and each step of the several changes that I made to this photo of myself in Wahiawa, I tend to play around with the brightness, contrast, exposure, shadows, and highlights to best fit each picture that I edit. I have no set rule for editing. As long as it looks good with the lighting of the pictures, I'm a happy boy!
Also, I tend to make my own filters by building on the three that I use most frequently for groups of photos with the same lighting conditions. After I save the edit of the first photo of a batch of similar photos I click 'Save edits' and apply it to the other pictures that I want to edit.
VSCO (mobile phone app on the Apple Store and Play Store).
Price: free
VSCO is a beautiful and free editing software on both Apple and Android devices and they have many beautiful filters. If you're willing to invest to up your photo game a little bit higher, I would recommend buying the preset package that includes some of my favorite filters.
I haven't updated the VSCO app recently, but I'm 95% sure that when you click on the top left 'bag icon,' you'll find the filters that are called the 'LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION' if you scroll to the bottom of the page.
This bundle of filters costs approximately $6.99 when I bought it a couple years ago and includes 38 presets.
For VSCO, the filters that I use the most are:
1) K2
2) E5
3) F1
(these three filters are all included in the 'Limited Edition Collection')
For VSCO, the most frequent editing tools that I use are:
Once again, mainly exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows. There is no brightness tool included in VSCO, only exposure (in my version).
In the past year or so with VSCO, the user of the app was only able to increase the filters on a plus +0.0 to +12.0 scale to give the ability to increase, or decrease the strength of the filter chosen by small increments. This did not apply to the tools such as brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, etc.
One great thing about VSCO in the past year is that they have applied this same point scale to all tools, filters, and features while editing photos on their app.
The scale of the tools on VSCO now range from a -5.0 to 0 to +5.0
However, if you want to get a greater capacity of adjusting the tools (brightness, contrast...) there is another app that I use to do this.
That app is called:
Afterlight (mobile phone app on the Apple Store and Play Store).
Price: $0.99
While the interface of Afterlight can be fairly similar to VSCO, there are other advantages that Afterlight has, such as having a greater range of adjusting the tools as previously stated.
Some added features of paying $0.99 for this app include choosing from the selection of 31 'light leaks' that can commonly be found on photos shot on color film. I tend to use these only on certain photos I feel that need that extra "something-something."
by nomwonton
how I edit my photos and the apps that I use.
Polarr (app on desktop computers).
Price: free
I use a Windows computer, so sorry if you have an Apple computer (I unfortunately don't know anything about editing on a Mac).
For Polarr, the filters that I use the most are
1) F10 Industrial
2) F2 Fujicolor
3) A6 Wander
If you look at the screenshot above and each step of the several changes that I made to this photo of myself in Wahiawa, I tend to play around with the brightness, contrast, exposure, shadows, and highlights to best fit each picture that I edit. I have no set rule for editing. As long as it looks good with the lighting of the pictures, I'm a happy boy!
Also, I tend to make my own filters by building on the three that I use most frequently for groups of photos with the same lighting conditions. After I save the edit of the first photo of a batch of similar photos I click 'Save edits' and apply it to the other pictures that I want to edit.
You can get Polarr on the Windows Store!
VSCO (mobile phone app on the Apple Store and Play Store).
Price: free
VSCO is a beautiful and free editing software on both Apple and Android devices and they have many beautiful filters. If you're willing to invest to up your photo game a little bit higher, I would recommend buying the preset package that includes some of my favorite filters.
I haven't updated the VSCO app recently, but I'm 95% sure that when you click on the top left 'bag icon,' you'll find the filters that are called the 'LIMITED EDITION COLLECTION' if you scroll to the bottom of the page.
This bundle of filters costs approximately $6.99 when I bought it a couple years ago and includes 38 presets.
For VSCO, the filters that I use the most are:
1) K2
2) E5
3) F1
(these three filters are all included in the 'Limited Edition Collection')
For VSCO, the most frequent editing tools that I use are:
Once again, mainly exposure, contrast, highlights, and shadows. There is no brightness tool included in VSCO, only exposure (in my version).
In the past year or so with VSCO, the user of the app was only able to increase the filters on a plus +0.0 to +12.0 scale to give the ability to increase, or decrease the strength of the filter chosen by small increments. This did not apply to the tools such as brightness, contrast, highlights, shadows, etc.
One great thing about VSCO in the past year is that they have applied this same point scale to all tools, filters, and features while editing photos on their app.
The scale of the tools on VSCO now range from a -5.0 to 0 to +5.0
However, if you want to get a greater capacity of adjusting the tools (brightness, contrast...) there is another app that I use to do this.
Afterlight (mobile phone app on the Apple Store and Play Store).
Price: $0.99
While the interface of Afterlight can be fairly similar to VSCO, there are other advantages that Afterlight has, such as having a greater range of adjusting the tools as previously stated.
Some added features of paying $0.99 for this app include choosing from the selection of 31 'light leaks' that can commonly be found on photos shot on color film. I tend to use these only on certain photos I feel that need that extra "something-something."
For Afterlight, the filters that I use the most are:
1) Spring
2) Idaho
3) Bright Fire
For Afterlight, the most frequent editing tools that I use besides the ones that I already stated include mid-tone, which I use mainly for adjusting the tint of the subject or person's face/skin color and fade.
Afterlight allows you to control your tools based on a -100 to 0 to +100 point scale. I find this app useful when I'm editing photos that have been shot underexposed and need a drastic change in their brightness and exposure.
To conclude,
Although editing can emphasize what the camera may not be able to capture, I feel as though it's the content of the photo that is what makes it truly, a great one. The story and emotion within a photo are in my opinion much more important than how pretty your edits are.
Although great editing and the right colors within a photo can help create interest within the viewer, spending more time shooting the pictures and carefully planning the composition of each photo rather than editing is what I think is best.
Happy shooting, editing, and making photos. I hope that you found these tips useful and are able to check out my other blog posts!
by nomwonton
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