Blogging Advice: How I Edit My Photos

Happy Tuesday pretty friends! This post is long overdue but I am so excited to finally share with you how I edit my photos. I honestly get asked this questions a few times per week so I figured it was time to provide you with an insightful blog post. I truly hope it helps!

Photography and Editing Tips

1. No Filter– Every time I get a message about my photos I get asked what filter I use. I never, ever, ever use a filter. I know that you can buy or create some pretty awesome filters via Lightroom/Photoshop but I haven’t gotten into that yet. I just edit my photos the same way (using these tips!) every time and that has created uniformity in my feed.
2. Natural Light– I never take photos in the dark or with a flash. I only use natural light- never in direct sunlight because that casts ugly shadows. Try to find a shaded place outside or in a bright room.
3. White Backgrounds– This is by far the most difficult part of capturing the perfect photo. I am very limited to where I can take photos because of this but it’s worth the hassle! I love white backgrounds because they make editing easier and they make pictures looks so clean and beautiful. I always go for the clean, airy look in my feeds! When I do add color I try to make it soft pastels with a lot of natural light.
4. Using a Camera– When possible I try to take photos with my camera and then transfer them to my phone to upload to Instagram. If I can’t use my camera (which most photos on my Instagram are usually my phone) I always use the camera on my phone instead of in an app. That way I can edit them properly before loaded them to social media platforms. For anyone curious to what camera I shoot with, it’s the Nikon D610 with a 35 mm lens. If you are going to invest in ONE good lens this is the one! I never use any other lens (not even my nice 50 mm) anymore.
5. Editing Apps– I’ve tried many different picture editing apps but my absolute favorite is Afterlight. It’s very easy to use and helps me be consistent with my photos. Here is a step by step tutorial on exactly how I edit my photos.

This might be an obvious step but I wanted to give you every single step of my editing process! As you can see by this photo there is natural light behind it. I took this photo inside but there were plenty of windows and a white background.

Once you download Afterlight, you have the option of adding it to your editing dock on every photo. I like  doing it this way instead of opening up the app because it’s faster. If you click on the circle with the 3 dots you’ll get the option to add Afterlight.

Once you add Afterlight to this editing dock, you will always have the option to use it by clicking on the circle with 3 dots.

Now that you opened the app in your editing dock, you will have many options. I go straight to those 3 lines to be able to edit the photo manually.

The first step in my editing is brightness. This will truly determine if it will be a photo I will post or throw away.

This step will vary depending on how bright you want your photo. For this specific photo I did this step twice. So I did 100% brightness then hit the check mark. Then I went back and did it again!

See the huge difference all the light did? This is a perfect example of why I love shooting with white backgrounds. The next step is to play with the color (saturation). Sometimes when I add too much light it can take away from the color. That’s where manually adjusting saturation is so helpful.

Be careful with saturation- it can add too much color quickly. For this specific photo I wanted to make the dragonfruit smoothie pink really pop so I went up to 25. I then hit the check mark.

Once I get the color I want I move to shadows. This will make the photo look more crisp and clean up any obvious shadows.

This is probably the one I play around with the most. I don’t have a specific direction I prefer, it just depends on the photo. But once I get the right amount of shadows in or out of the photo, I save it. All done!

Here is the finished photo:

I hope that this little tutorial helps you creat some beautiful photos! I would love to see your photos after  you edit them this way! If you have any further questions, please feel free to leave a comment on this post and I will respond. Happy editing pretty friends!

Xo,