Instagram vs. Reality: Photo Editing 101
by: Daniella of @oddknotsandthreads
Salutations Maker Nation! My name is Daniella, I’m a modern knitwear designer, indie dyer and I create handcrafted notions for all your WIPS and makes! I have a background in graphic design and photography and I'm here to help you curate lovely squares for instagram!
So you’re scrolling through the ‘Gram, and you see beautiful, aesthetically pleasing feeds but have no idea where to start. Well, I’m here to knock those gatekeeping secrets WIDE OPEN! In this post, I’ll teach you, tips and tricks for photography, styling, flat lays, and of course how to actually use those photo editing apps!
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First things first, I want you to take a moment and ask yourself, “who am I?” In order to have a carefully curated Instagram presence, you first must figure out who you are as creator, person, or business; what style speaks to you? For example, I’m drawn to dark and moody pictures, my favorite color is black and that reflects on my feed. My style is modern, sleek, and my photos tend to be more editorial. For me it's very important for people to get a good feel of who I am as a person, while also achieving a certain style that sets me apart from other accounts. I want people to automatically know it’s my picture when they’re scrolling through instagram without even looking at the handle.
Photography Tips and Tricks!
My pictures are taken on an Iphone 11 Pro Max camera and edited right on my Iphone as well. Some creators do use big and fancy cameras, which is nice but isn’t necessary, when creating a beautiful picture or feed.
When taking a picture you want to make sure you have a good amount of natural light. Sometimes I’ll even use a foam board to bounce some of that light onto the person or items I’m trying to get a shot of. If you don’t have a foam board, but you do have an Iphone, you can always darken or lighten your camera by pressing down on and holding the “focus square” and sliding your finger up and down.
Always have your grid setting on, this is important to assure you fully capture everything into frame.
Using the Portrait Mode on your Iphone is a great way to showcase the focal point. While using the Portrait Mode straightforward is good and effective, next time try angling and tilting your camera to get a more interesting shot. You may also edit the blurry depth after you've taken a photo in Portrait Mode by tapping “Edit” in the top right hand corner and playing the “f” setting.
Pictured here is three skeins of OOAK. Notice the angle, look how the main character is the yarn, and the background of grey and black props compliments the focal point, without taking away from it.
Styling & Flatlays
When it comes to styling your flatlays, you don't want to fill the frame with a bunch of random stuff, it’s busy and distracting. Instead you want to layer your flatlays, with things that make sense and are cohesive. Again, you don’t want to pull attention from the focus point, you want your props to accent the center piece.
Props don't need to break the bank! I’ve gotten great props, florals, stems, trays and bins etc. at the Bullseye section at my local Target!
Use what you got! I tend to use fabric scraps, various clothing items with interesting texture or patterns, books, blankets, plates, mugs, rugs, candles etc.
*Style a flatlay with me ♡
I begin with laying down a black velvet sweater to give the background an interesting texture. Next, I place a book with a white and black spin (this matches the sweater and marbled setting) on top of the sweater. I continue, spreading out some of the warm colored pages. I then place the center of attention, in this case one of my progress keepers, in the middle of the pages. Finally, I begin to carefully scatter the pressed flowers, while also stuffing them in between the pages around the PK; making sure not to crowd the piece. For this specific flatlay, I chose white and cream colored flowers as it best compliments the bright and colorful progress keeper, the yellowed pages and black and white backdrop. I took this shot on “Portrait Mode'' to get a beautiful blurry background.
When thinking of composition, see what items make sense together, look at your colors, theme, textiles, make sure there's a purpose. A good tip for keeping your grid cohesive, is making sure your current photo opportunity matches the previous photo in some way.
*For example, let's take a look at my current feed. Starting from the bottom right corner notice how every newly posted photo has bits and pieces of the previous photo. In square 1, we’ve got lots of greys, whites and blacks. Right next to it in Square 2, we have the white shirt, black couch, grey wall, and reddish nails that match the WIP in the previous square. So on and so forth, this trick helps me cultivate a flow to create an appealing theme.
Have an ugly wall or busy backdrop? Grab a blanket, fabric, decorative pillow etc. throw it in to avoid the unsightly background. Here's a few examples where I’ve used this tip! Don’t be scared to prop, tape up or pile on textiles for the sake of the shot! Get Creative!
Photography Apps
When it comes to photo editing and Instagram, I have 3 apps that come in clutch, UNUM, Snapseed, and Lightroom. These apps are all available for free, and I use a combination of all three apps to edit every single one of my photos. In addition, to the 3 apps, I also like to use an Apple Pen or Stylus to help edit photos as well. The Pen isn’t a necessity but I find it gives me better control when it comes to editing than my finger.
UNUM- This is an Instagram planning app. You begin with uploading your last 18 photos from Instagram into their space grid. This will allow you to preview what your feed will look like when adding new photos, without actually committing to posting them. I use this app to help me stay on theme, and plan out my days worth of photos in advance.
Snapseed- This is a great beginner friendly app for editing photos. It provides Filters and allows you to Tune Imagine, Crop, Healing, edit- White Balance, Perspective, and Portrait Mode etc.
Looks- After importing your image you will see a tab at the bottom right hand corner that says “LOOKS”. Tap on it to see the flitters Snapseed provides. I personally don't use filters as I like to have a bit more control over the overall picture. But there is no denying filters definitely come in handy and make life easier. For more Filter type options tap on TOOLS and see- HDR Scape, Glamour Glow, Drama, Vintage, Grainy Films, Retrolux, Black and White, Noir, Lens Blur and Vignette.
Tune Imagine- Here you’ll find: Brightness, Contrast, Saturation, Ambiance, Highlights, Shadows, and Warmth. You can drag your finger up and down and left to right to edit any of these.
White Balance- Sometimes you take a picture and your image will come out too “yellow” or too “blue. Get rid of the yellowish or bluish tint by correcting the color balance with this tool. I tend to use a combination of both “Temperature” and “Tint” to give my pictures a cooler tone for a neutral look.
Crop, Perspective & Expand- These tools allow you to cut, stretch, straighten an image or fix composition. The expand tool copies your background edges allowing more of your backdrop to show.
Selection- Drag the magnifying bubble to the area you specifically want to target. Using two fingers determine how much coverage of editing you want in the area. Then edit the Brightness. Contrast, Saturation, and Structure of the specific area.
Brush- This function can be used to make selective edits to your image, this includes: Dodge & Burn, Exposure, Temperature, and Saturation. Just drag your finger over the areas in the photo you want to change. Tap the eye icon and the areas affected will be highlighted in red. To erase simply drag the levels to zero and go over the areas you wish to erase the edits from.
Healing- Use this tool, to get rid of imperfections in your photos, including removing people and undesired objects in your background. Simply tap and drag your finger over your unwanted obstacles, and the tool will clone the space near it covering up the flaw.
Lightroom- This app is a little more advanced than the other two I previously talked about. But once you get the hang of it I promise it’s worth it. You can do all the basic stuff such as, Exposure, Contrast, Shadows, Highlights, Saturation, White Balance etc. I will be going in depth on some of my favorite features this app provides that Snapseed doesn’t.
Color- If you tap on the “Color” option at bottom of your toolbar you can edit the White Balance on your photo. But if you look on the top right corner, you’ll see the color wheel icon that says “Mix” this will allow you to have control over all the colors in your photo. You can change the Hue, Saturation and Luminance of a specific color. Furthermore if you tap on the middle icon that has a target, you can tap anywhere on your photo and this tool will color match the area you are trying to edit, giving you full control of the specific shade of color.
Selective- This is located first on your toolbar. With this tool you can “brush” (this is where your Apple Pen/Stylus comes in handy) areas of the photo you specifically want to edit; Light, Color, Detail and Optics. See the area you’ve selected by tapping on the “square icon”. The areas you’ve brushed over will be highlighted in red. Use the eraser to remove the editing from unwanted areas.
Blacks/Whites- This option can be found under the “Light” option in your toolbar. This gives you control over the blacks and whites in your photos. I use this tool in almost every photo to give my blacks a dark and velvety look.
Copy Settings- If you tap on the circle with three dots on the top right hand corner, you'll see more options. Tap on the “Copy Settings” option. This will allow you to save all or pick and choose your current edits to paste them onto the new photo you're about to edit. I use this tool all time when editing multiple photos from the same shoot. It saves me a ton of time especially on product pictures! Repeat the same steps onto the new photo, except this time tap “Paste Settings” instead of “Copy Settings” to apply the edits from your previous photo
I hope you’ve enjoyed my editing and photography tips. I can’t wait to see all your photos out in the wild! A few last words of advice, remember to have fun with it, practice makes perfect, and don't forget to be unapologetically you!
Catch you on the gram!
With Love,
X
Dani
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I hope you enjoyed this amazing post by the photos queen herself, Daniella of @oddknotsandthreads! Please be sure to show her support on her beautiful Instagram profile and her website. Daniella is a designer, yarn dyer, and notions maker extraordinaire, so there are plenty of ways to support her business. Thank you for reading and supporting the blog!
