The photography part is definitely my absolute favourite part in the progress of creating new content for my blog. Even though it can get quite frustrating sometimes I also find it soo satisfying when the outcome is just as I imagined it to look!
Of course editing the pictures plays a huge part in the whole process and it actually took me quite a while to find a program/app that works well for me and offers all the tool that I need to edit my pictures in the style I want.
The problem in this whole thing was that most bloggers that I follow use Lightroom to edit their pictures and as I was not willing to pay for it, I had to keep searching for a similar one, and I think I have finally found a website that works just perfectly for me!
BeFunky
I´ve tried myself through a whole lot of different free editing programs and the one that I always went back to and been using since easily a year or more now is BeFunky.
I´ve always found it hard to control how much of an effect you want to have on your pictures or it was really hard to keep your pictures looking natural and not overly done. Like for example you want to make your pictures brighter, and some programs just add that very weird looking grey film over it, and stuff like that was soo frustrating to me, haha.
With BeFunky I don´t have any of these problems. It took me a while to find a good selection of tools to make my pictures look the way they do now and I also think that I´ve finally mastered to figure out how much I need of each tool to make my pictures look how I like (actually really adore) them!
The tools that I use are...
Sharpening Tool - Even though I already get quite sharp pictures with my camera alone, I like to add some more sharpness manually to make them like crispy sharp haha. When you click on this tool it automatically adds 20% sharpness which I find is totally enough, sometimes I go up to 30% but never more than thatI´ve always found it hard to control how much of an effect you want to have on your pictures or it was really hard to keep your pictures looking natural and not overly done. Like for example you want to make your pictures brighter, and some programs just add that very weird looking grey film over it, and stuff like that was soo frustrating to me, haha.
With BeFunky I don´t have any of these problems. It took me a while to find a good selection of tools to make my pictures look the way they do now and I also think that I´ve finally mastered to figure out how much I need of each tool to make my pictures look how I like (actually really adore) them!
The tools that I use are...
Color - I´ve only recently discovered this tool and it literally has changed my picture game to the better - like I swear it´s my life saver sometimes. As you can tell by its name, this tool will help you with the colours of your photos. I like to up Saturation to about 7. Saturation will make the colours in your picture more intensive which is just amazing if I have to brighten my pictures up a lot, that way I can kinda even it out a bit. Then I also really like to use Temperature. Before I used it to make my photos look basically white but now I like to use it to add a bit of warmth to it. I vary between 1-3 which works really well for my style.
Exposure - And lastly I add the finishing touches by turning up the Brightness to 10-20 depending on the brightness of my picture. Then add Contrast to 15, not sure of the affect of it but I guess it also makes my pictures a bit more intense. If the brightness has made my pictures not bright enough yet I add a bit of the Highlights - but only really about up to 5 as with this one you can really make your pictures totally unnatural.
Here you can see the before and after of the picture to this post - where I used all of the tools above:
SnapSeed
Now we come to what I use to edit my Instagram picture. I had this app on my phone for ages before actually getting into it and understanding how to use it. Inthefrow´s pictures got me motivated and excited to use this app more frequently and properly - cause let´s be her instagram feed is absolute goals. I love this app to bits as it´s just super easy, has sooooo many tools and options that you can play around with. I recently found myself just uploading random pictures to it and playing around with different editing styles and the results are literally out of this world!
Here you can see what I mean, just look how intense the colours got and how sharp and good the quality is. Just for your information, I took this picture with my phone through a quite dirty window of one of these sightseeing buses. I don´t think you would expect that after I´m done with editing.
I use the following tools...
Tune - It´s the one on the upper left corner on the tool page and there you can adjust things like brightness, contrast, saturation, ambiance, temperature, etc.. How much I use of each of these things always varies on the quality of the picture. I always try around and see how I like it the most.
Details - Here I adjust the Structure to about 20 and the Sharpness to 15, it still looks very natural then but you get a clear and sharp image
Spot Repair - I love this tool! If you have a blemish or you didn´t notice your photo background was dirty you can just paint over it with this tool and it will dissapear perfectly. Again it´s something you have to play around with to get the hang of it, but once you do, you´ll love it!