how to edit your iPhone photos

Hi guys,

Today we're talking about photo editing on the Cocoa Daisy blog. There are lots of examples of how the other design team girls handle photo editing and printing, so head over there to check it out.

This is how I edit my iPhone photos. This example shows how to change an iPhone photo to black and white and print as a square -- but you could easily leave out the desaturating or cropping steps. This is pretty much what I do to every iPhone photo I take that I want to scrapbook! I also do this before uploading my photos to Instagram but that step is completely separate and optional and your photos don't need to leave your phone to do this.

I use two photo editing apps on my iPhone regularly: VSCO and Picfx.

First, the before and after:

The original isn't too bad... but my crummy pink shirt is distracting and I just didn't like the overall look. The final *is* a tiny bit blown out, especially along the blanket, but I personally have no problem with this and prefer the washed out polka dots and the darker background. 

 1. Load your photo into VSCO by tapping the box and arrow icon, and choose the photo from wherever it is saved on your iPhone, like your camera roll. 

2. Tap the photo you want to edit (the thumbnail looks square but the photo is still full-sized).

3. Tap the single box with the down arrow to bring up the photo editing options.

4. Tap the wrench icon to bring up options like temperature, fill, contrast, exposure, saturation, vignette, etc.

5. My first stop is alway to adjust exposure. Sometimes photos don't need it, but one little bump to the right to increase exposure can often be helpful to brighten dark indoors iPhone photos a bit. If you don't like the change you can reset by tapping cancel. If you're happy, tap done.

6. I like to bump up the contrast a bit, to darken the darks and brighten the brights. Or, if the lighting was too harsh lowering the contrast can help reduce drastic shadows and highlights a bit.

7. Tap on the picture frame icon to go to preset filters.

8. The first three are black and white filters, and then there are a range of different colour filters. I just tap through them until I find one that I like best. Kind of depends on the photo and subject. Tap done when you are finished editing your photo.

9. Back on the VSCO main screen, tap your now-edited photo to select.
10. Now you have to SAVE your photo. Select the box with one arrow down.

I usually save my photos as large file size... this is just fine for printing as a 4x6.

Here is the photo after editing in VSCO. I prefer to use another programme to crop and I sometimes do further filtering, too.

Open Picfx.

11. When Picfx opens it displays your camera roll. The photo you just edited and saved inVSCO will be right at the top. Tap to select.

12. Next you can choose to crop or not crop your photo. I'm totally addicted to square photos, so I always crop mine square. You can use your finger to slid the crop box around to select which part of the image you want to keep. There are handy third lines imposed to help you compose your crop.

13. My favourite presets are under the PFX tab. I like PFX BW even if I desaturate it in VSCO I like to try out the PFX BW filters because they can deepen the blacks and add a dreamy quality that I can't do myself in VSCO. You can combine filters by tapping the stack with the + sign above it.

14. When you are done and want to save, tap the box on the right with the arrow pointing up.

15. Save your photo to your camera roll -- and then upload to Instagram if you like!

For more photos... of kids, cats, coffee cups and scraps...  and daily peeks at my desk and my life... follow me on Instagram.