How I Edit My Pictures

Lifestyle

17 Dec

Written By

Guys!! I am SO sorry it's taken me this long to put up this blog post! I wanted to make sure that I cover everything and go through all the details needed to clear up all your questions! I've been receiving so many questions on how I edit my pictures, and I only want this post to be helpful to you guys, so bear with me - we have quite a bit to get through!

A little *disclaimer* before I start - I wanted to highlight that the editing technique I use work specifically for my pictures only, and that I do not sell presets, so please take anything I say in this post with a grain of salt! I cannot guarantee that your photos will look exactly like mine, but that's the beauty of editing! :) No two pictures look the same, and this post gives you the chance to experiment with different editing tools and lets you find your own style :)

Also, just in case you guys are only here to know the apps & filters I use to edit my pictures, here they are:

VSCO - A6 filter on FULL
Lightroom - mostly tweak highlights and shadows, play around with the color mixer (usually the red, orange and yellow) as well as temperature. Then enhance clarity and sharpen the image
Pixlr - brighten brush and darken brush to adjust pictures
Retouch - Blemish brush to remove tiny flaws in pictures (eg. spots, stains, etc)

Now, onto the full tutorial!

Here is a snapshot of what my feed looks like at the moment:

As you can see, most of my pictures have a mix of orange, brown and yellow tones. These colors are what help achieve my warm and cozy aesthetic, and I try my best to include as little blue and purple in my photos.

The apps I use to edit my photos are VSCO, Lightroom, Pixlr and Retouch. I use VSCO and Lightroom EVERY TIME I edit, whereas Pixlr and Retouch are mostly used to edit out minor details in pictures. All apps are free except for Retouch, however each app does have its own pro version (which of course you need to pay for). VSCO's free version does not include the filter that I use for my pictures (which is A6), but I think VSCO's yearly membership is absolutely worth it for all the filters and additional tools you get. If you're new to editing, VSCO is a great app to start with! If you don't want to spend on a yearly membership (which is $28.99 AUD), you can opt for a monthly membership (which is $6.99 AUD) and even start a 7-day trial before making any commitments. :)

Lightroom on the other hand does ALL of the magical editing :') and I would HIGHLY recommend getting the paid version of Lightroom (which is about $14.99 AUD a month). Paying $14.99 AUD a month is not cheap, but if you're serious about building up your Instagram, Lightroom is the best investment you can make to doing that. I use the free version of Pixlr because I only use very specific features on the app, and you'll see which ones later in this post! As for Retouch, you pay $2.99 AUD for the app and it's yours for good. I use Retouch quite a bit, so the price is definitely worth it for me!

Okay okay, that's all I have to say for the apps! Now I will be sharing three different scenarios in which I take and edit my pictures. Each tutorial will be based on the pictures that you would normally see on my feed (white sheets, tables, cafes).

Examples

Here is the raw/unedited picture. I took this picture by a table that had a window with natural lighting pouring in, but it's still a little "cold" and dark.

Before I go into Lightroom, I always, always upload my pictures to VSCO and use the A6 filter. Here is how it looks once I've applied it. It has a sort of 'bloom' effect where everything looks much cleaner and softer.

And here's the final product! See how there's more yellow and brown and a less blueish tinge?

Following the same formula, here are a few more examples:

Raw/unedited

A6 filter

A6 filter + Lightroom

Raw/unedited

A6 filter

A6 filter + Lightroom

Raw/unedited

A6 filter

A6 filter + Lightroom

Most of my pictures are, as you may have noticed, taken indoors. I have this sort of woody, warm orange-y tone that I would like to think depicts a cozy theme :) Naturally, to achieve any theme, you should start with a raw picture that has its base color (eg. neutral tones = beige/brown/white, soft tones = pastel colors, etc). Almost all my pictures have a splash of orange, yellow, red and brown, and you will recognise a pattern in the way I edit my pictures in Lightroom (eg. my most used tools, different enhancements, color balances, etc).

PICTURE EDIT #1 - Indoor White Sheet

Before

After

<------------------- Editing Process ------------------->

Unedited picture

Raw/unedited
Shot in natural lighting (next to a large window)
Tones present: Brown, yellow

Here's an example of an unedited flatlay that I recently posted on my feed. This picture was shot on an Iphone 6.

VSCO filter applied

Warmer tones
Brown and yellow color generally stands out more!

I uploaded the unedited picture onto the app VSCO and used the A6 filter at its highest level. You can see that the picture is much brighter and the colors look more enhanced.

Lightroom edits

Darker & clearer journal pages
More pronounced yellow & brown tones
Has a more "cozy" look
Sharper image

I imported the picture from VSCO onto Lightroom, which is where things get complicated (and fun!!). Basically I wanted to make sure that the brown and yellow matches the tone of my feed (which takes a bit of trial and error). You may also notice that one post-it looks a little brighter than the other, which I will try to fix after this step! But first, I have a little video tutorial on the whole Lightroom editing process to show to you guys, which will hopefully make it easier for you to see how each tool can be used to enhance a picture.

Using Lightroom (Video)

For anyone of you who has not used Lightroom before, this can look quite complicated. My number one tip is to obviously try it out for yourself if you can and play around with the tools and features of Lightroom :) As I mentioned, it is a paid app and, yes, it is a little pricey, but personally Lightroom is worth every penny for its versatility and performance. I can always rely on it and I cannot see myself using any other app to edit my photos to "perfection" apart from Lightroom! It's available on mobile & on your desktop so it syncs and makes your lives so much easier when editing!

I always get asked if I use/sell presets, and the answer is yes, I do make my own presets, but no, I do not sell them. The presets I use would most probably only work on my photos only, and I do not want to sell something to someone if there is a chance that it may not work the same way for them. I probably have more than 20 presets saved in Lightroom, however it can still take me up to an hour to edit a picture because even with the use of presets, a picture still requires numerous tweaks in order to look the way I want it to look AND match the feed of my page. But sometimes these presets do work wonders, and using the right one can save you SO much time. :) I just need to get a hang of it and maybe then I can share my presets with you guys!

https://videopress.com/v/3U9gZCqd?resizeToParent=true&cover=true

Lightroom Formula

If the video is a little hard to follow, here's a screenshot of each Lightroom tool I used and how much of it I applied in the edit.

Often my pictures are way too overexposed after the A6 filter is applied, so I like to reduce the highlights and whites. Shadows brightens a picture and reduces any dark patches that may be present (eg. shadows of objects). This command, along with Blacks, reduces the contrast of an image while enhancing the colors of the picture.

Here I'm applying Temp to add just the tiniest bit of orange-yellow tinge to the picture to make it look warmer!

The color mixer is probably my worst enemy and my best friend. I rely on this tool SO much because I have to constantly adjust my 'base' colors to match my feed. I often play around with the red, orange and yellow colors, and I almost always set the red hue to a really high level. This makes any red color in a picture look more orange. luminance brightens any red in a picture and saturation intensifies the color.

There was minimal red in the image to start with, so I went ahead and adjusted the brown tones in the picture so it looked brighter and more orange.

Yellow is just as important for me because I also have a lot of white in my pictures. I always try to decrease the yellow tinge in my journal pages, white sheets, book pages, walls, etc to create a much more minimal look. Low yellow saturation levels also balances the warm tones in my picture, especially since I already applied a little bit of Temp in my picture. I often go back and forth between Temp and this yellow color mixer :)

Dealing with white sheets mean lots of light glares, so I try to adjust any intense lighting by toning down the blues in my pictures. To do this, I reduce its saturation to give it a more grey color (rather than a jarring white).

Lastly, clarity and sharpening. I ALWAYS use this effect in all my pictures. Always. It just enhances the overall quality and brings out the texture in an image. Sharpening does the same, but it isn't as intense as clarity.

Additional tweaking

Journal pages and post-its now have the same brightness level
Balanced color coordination and lighting
Completes the picture

You can see now that both journal pages have (roughly) the same brightness, and that is all thanks to the app Pixlr! I use Pixlr for their "brighten" and "darken" brushes, which is a similar tool to Lightroom's "selective" tool, but is much simpler to use! Having the same color tones really help complete the picture and makes it look more put together.

Using Pixlr (Video)

Here is a quick video tutorial on how I use the brushes! I love how you can change the intensity of each brush, and it's super easy to use too!

https://videopress.com/v/CcweOuSD?resizeToParent=true&cover=true&preloadContent=metadata

I'm hoping this first picture editing example is detailed enough! :') My next couple of picture editing examples tutorials will be much shorter because I don't want to repeat myself too much (unless I have an app/tip to mention). So let's just jump in to my next example!