Today’s post is all about photo editing. I don’t know about you, but I always take more photos during the holiday season. I think all of the decorations are just so lovely that you can’t help but snap a couple of pictures of everything. It took me several tries to nail down exactly how I wanted to edit my pictures for the blog and Instagram. I knew that I wanted to stay somewhat natural looking and simply enhance photos. I’m also not a huge fan of the Oompa Loompa trend that’s been circulating on the ‘gram. I used VSCO presets for a really long time and loved them. When I had the chance to get Lightroom for free in college, I jumped on it. Now, I use my own presets which you can also buy here.
I’ve recently been getting a ton of questions about how I edit my photography. Many of you have DM’d me on my personal account, @gabbywhiten. I’ve recently changed my editing process from what I wrote about last time, so I figured I should give an update. That post still has some great tips on framing shots and getting inspiration so I would check it out. I also used free VSCO presets for that post and is a great workflow if you don’t want to make the Lightroom investment. Today, I’m taking you through the workflow for my blog and my Instagram feed.
On the Blog
For all of my blog photos, I use the Nashville or Chicago preset. These brighten and enrich the colors in the photos as you’ve probably seen. If you’re using my presets, sometimes the brightness is too high or the temperature is just a tad bit off. You can fix these in the basic panel. I also highly recommend The Fader plugin if you want something less (or more) dramatic for your own pictures.
I also will edit out people in the background with Photoshop. Whitening teeth and fixing spots on the ground are super easy with the clone tool in Lightroom as well. Editing blog photos are super simple once you create presets that make it super easy to click and minimally tweak!
On Instagram
My Instagram feed is a little more work in the editing department. Mostly because I also plan out where on the feed each photo will go using the app UNUM. Right now I’m playing around with different people to ‘flat lay and still’ images I want. The pictures of my outfits and me being a goof always do much better than any of my other pictures. BUT, the architecture here in NYC and when I’m traveling is always so beautiful, not to mention my love for photographing all of my weekend brunch spreads.
My biggest tip is to really study how other people are creating their feeds. Use this for inspiration, but you don’t necessarily need to copycat to have a great feed too. Apparently, your theme doesn’t even matter to a majority of Instagram users. Most people will literally never go back to your feed. So, I 100% think that good editing should always be a priority for each and every photo. Although it may look great when you scroll through your feed, I think it’s equally as important if not more so to make sure that it looks great as a stand-alone product. NO OVEREXPOSURE in this house.
Here’s my current feed with a couple of sneak peek images that I haven’t posted quite yet. You’ll notice that I’m playing with a geometric pattern incorporating both outfit shots, selfies, and flat lay images. I’m loving this combination of images, especially while I have my Instagram wives around the city to take my pictures. I love all of you! My squares follow a 3-2-1-2-3 basic outline. That way I can maximize those outfit pictures that everyone loves while also getting to throw in the pictures that I can snap to show my own skills aka showcasing my undercover dream of being a food photographer.
People never believe me when I tell them that every single photo in this grid is edited with the same preset [raleigh x gwp]. It’s one of the reasons that all the color tones in my photo are pretty similar. I also pretty much only use my Canon G7x or iPhone for all my shots. I think it makes my pictures look more ‘in the moment’ which people also respond more positively too.
My biggest problem in coming up with Instagram content is coming up with new styles of content and new posing! It took me so long to get out of simply get out of a rut of simply standing in front of a pretty background with one foot crossed over the other [my go-to pose – it’s very slimming what can I say!]. The easiest way I’ve found to get out of that habit is to mix up the distances from which you’re taking the photos. Take more selfies [I know, I know] and mix in half body shots with full outfit photos. Mix in some action shots.
As Tyra Banks would tell the contestants on ANTM, practice in the mirror. I know it sounds silly and pretty ridiculous, but that’s basically how I got so many good pictures in the snakeskin dress. I believed that I looked fierce because I knew I didn’t look ridiculous from practicing beforehand. Mrs. Banks was right ladies and gents. Here are some of my favorite poses of the moment. The letting the hand drop picture is legit my new fave.
As one of my favorite photographers, Jessica Whitaker says, “know your angles, know yourself!” It truly is the best advice I think I’ve gotten when it comes to looking less awkward and more hip on camera. The hand on hip is out and natural movements are in. Candids are also always the move.
I was super curious to see how my more intense presets would look in feed form so I created an example of how my Charleston preset could look for someone who really wants to push their creative boundaries by changing up color tones.
I also highly recommend that you follow photographers on Instagram, they are usually experimenting with posing and framing way more than your average lifestyle blogger. These are some accounts that I’m absolutely lovin’ and are conveniently all located in NYC: @jessicawhitaker, @carterfish, @pret.a.photo, and @laurelcreative.
Editing and curating content should be fun above all! If it’s not, you’re not doing it right. I never really stress anymore about content, I just don’t post. Quality over quantity. The mantra I always repeat over and over to myself for anything involved in blogging. Keep snapping and keep sharing with #swirlsocial. I might be sharing a round up of my favorites sometime soon!
keep on keepin’ on,
