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!
What do you use to edit your pictures?
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My absolute favourite part of the whole blogging process is taking pictures.
I have found myself getting more and more creative, in my camera settings, in the things and in the way how I arrange the items I want to photograph, and also what I want to use as "space fillers" or "props" in my flatlay. If you ask me, I find there´s noting worse than a picture that just looks kinda empty. I like it when it´s filled, but not too much so it
doesn´t irritate you. At the end it just needs to be aesthetically pleasing, hahaha.
To achieve that kind of effect, I have collected a few things over the last time that you may have seen in my previous pictures, and here they are...
LAYERS
Layers as in scarfs, wooden boards, blankets, notebooks, etc. make such a difference in how the picture looks and simply fills up space that might look naked otherwise and also helps you to guide the attention to certain products you want to show off. I got this baby pink scarf from Reserved some time ago and since it´s too thin for me to actually wear I always use it in my pictures. I find it automatically adds a colour scheme to the picture and since I´m all about pink/rosé gold/copper for my pictures this scarf is just perfect.
I have some examples in these posts: scarf, wooden board, blanket
FLOWERS/PETALS
I´m an absolute sucker for using flowers or petals in pictures. I find it adds that certain girliness and lightness to the images. If you are lucky enough to have fresh flowers in your home most of the times then please do use them! You can definitely see if someone using fresh flowers or plastic ones, and I´m definitely jealous of those who use fresh ones, haha. I have to be honest though and say mine are fake ones, the white flowers are from Depot, and the petals are from the supermarket and were supposed to be used as dinner table decorations.
OTHER MAKEUP PRODUCTS/TOOLS
These are honestly my favourite flatlay props, as I literally have sooooo many of them and I´m able to use them in sooo many ways. I generally always stick to my rosé golden lash curler and kabuki brush, as they fit so well with the pink scarf. Together with them I simply look through my makeup collection and see what I can find. The most popular items are mascaras (especially the Maybelline LashSensational), lipsticks, nail polishes, eyeshadows and false lashes.
HOME DECOR
Right after makeup, home decor is my 2nd favourite thing to purchase. Spending a lot of time strolling through Pinterest has definitely taken it´s toll on me, and if I could I would need hundreds of rooms to really buy every decorations that I have swon over because of Pinterest pictures, haha. So if I want to use home decor in my flatlays I simply look through my flat what we have and collect everything that seems like it might look good.
The best brands to buy these things from are Primark (the rosé golden basked and eyelash curler are from there), H&M & Zara Home, Urban Outfitters, Depot, etc.
What do you like to use in your flatlays? And from where do you get your inspirations for your photography?
Having a blog means always having to change things a bit to keep your readers interested and making their visit as pleasant and easy as possible. There aren´t only visible changes though, over the last couple of month I have done some changes which didn´t affect my readers that much and were more of a "behind the scene" change that had only advantages for me, as writer of this blog.
As you can read from the caption I wanted to use this post to let you all know what has & will be going on on this blog.
So here´s the honest truth about "GetReadyWithLaura"
The images of a blog post are for me the most important things. If they don´t look appealing to me than there isn´t a very high chance that I will read the post. Personally I like my pictures with a white background and really bright! I have to admit I´m probably not the blogger with the prettiest pictures and there is still some points that I could improve in to make my pictures even better. Photoshop is used by most people, but we can´t all afford it or, how it is for me, aren´t experienced enough to actually be able to work properly with it. That´s why I like to use PicMonkey and that´s how I do it
2016 has started, a new year hopefully filled with lots of happiness and great challenges for all of us. I´m kinda feeling like this year will change a lot for me, I´ll finish school, start an apprenticeship afterwards and keep blogging, which I hope I will improve in and give you lots of joy in reading it and exploring interesting topics and maybe even new places with me.
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