Alright, so you snapped a pretty good photo on your phone, but you want to touch it up a little bit and make it a little extra special.
You’re definitely correct in thinking that using an editing app is a good thing. But which one do you use? There are many – some good, some bad and some worse.
Well, may I recommend what the pros use? You’re going to download the Lightroom Mobile App – and it’s going to make your photos look great.
Now, you can feel free to throw an AI generated filter on there – go for it, by all means. However, if you’re more interested in having more control over the fine details in the colours and textures of the photo, then here’s a little overview of how to get the most out of the editing software.
By the way, I’m all for using AI in certain instances to make life easier. If you can use something that gives you some time back then that’s a big Hell yeah from me! But… Sometimes the robots get it wrong, and it looks like shit. Just sayin’.
Anyways.
You’ll need to import the photo you want into the app and then open it up. Select the photo and hit edit along the bottom.
Once edit has been selected, you’ll be given a bunch of options along the bottom of the screen. Your best bet is to simply work your way from left to right.
The way you make adjustments to the photos are with these little horizontal sliders. You’ll want to use your thumb and slide them back and forth, one at a time. Slide them until they land on something that looks good to your eye.
Start with light. You’re going to work your way down these settings from top to bottom. The exposure makes the whole image lighter or darker, while contrast makes the darks darker and the lights lighter the more you dial it up.
The highlights just effect the brightest parts of the photo and the shadows affect the darker parts of the image. Whites and blacks are a way to obtain custom contrast.
After you’re all done here, you’re going to move onto colour. Once it’s selected, start with the temperature. This will move around your oranges and blues – making the image appear warmer or cooler.
After that looks good, move onto the tint which will affect the global greens and magentas in the photo. Apply just a touch of vibrance and a little bit of saturation, and you’re good to go.
You can skip right on over to detail and use these tools to polish off the photograph nicely. Add some sharpening, which will make the photo a little more crisp, and then under the subheading noise, add some noise reduction.
And that’ll about do it for you! At any time in the process, you can hold your thumb on the photo to see a before and after of the edit. You can go a lot more in depth with moving colours around, but this intro to the basic tools of the app will do you nicely to start.
If you’re a little more advanced and you’re feeling bold, click around on the grading and the colour mix sections of the colour tab. To push it even more, choose the curve section in the light tab and mess around with those settings.
When you get into colour grading and moving things around, there really are no rules – and no real concrete way to explain to you exactly what to do. So have fun with it, and make it look good to your eye.
Don’t forget to crop the photo if you need to. When you’re all done, look along the top of the screen and click the rectangle with the arrow in it to export the photo to your phone’s gallery.
That’s about it! If you want to take your photos to the next level on your phone, then I’d highly recommend grabbing the Lightroom app because it really is the best photo editing software you can get on your phone.
If that all sounds like too much, then feel free to reach out any time. four32 MEDIA specializes in photography and videography solutions for small businesses, and we’re always here to help.
To Your Success,
Jay Ashcroft
four32 MEDIA