Okay, so recently I’ve gotten a lot of messages about how I take my photos, and particularly how I get the whites so crisp. So I’ve decided to do a simple tutorial showing you exactly what I do.
First of all, all of my photos are shot in bright, natural lighting. Usually morning light. I get this perfect lighting in my bedroom between 8am and noon which is why so many of my photos are in that room. We have a huge east facing window and a lot of white decor in the room so it works really well. I also shoot almost everything on my phone (the One Plus 2) which I bought specifically for the amazing HD camera. While I do occasionally use my DSLR, I find my favourite shots tend to be the candid ones I’m able to snap quickly on my phone.
I edit everything on my phone using Snapseed. ( You can download it for Android here . Or for Apple here . ) I know everybody loves VSCO but I’m personally not a fan. It’s great for a quick edit but I prefer the options Snapseed offers.
How I edit my photos using Snapseed:
Step 1 – Select the “Tune Image” option. From here you can swipe up and down to choose different adjustments. Swipe right and left to increase or decrease the effect. I like to increase brightness and contrast, and decrease warmth as I prefer cooler tones. If you’re brightening a lot you might want to increase the ambience as well.
Step 2 – Use the “Selective” tool
The Selective tool is my FAVOURITE! It really lets you manipulate the lighting in your photo.
Select the area you want to focus on then use two fingers to pinch the screen to adjust the size of your selected area. Then swipe up and down for options, right and left to increase or decrease the effect. To give a really crisp white look I increase brightness, and decrease saturation. Depending on the surface and the effect I’m going for I play with the contrast as well. For example, to get rid of wrinkles in the background you would decrease contrast. Whereas, when I’m shooting on a fur rug, I want the fur to stand out, so I increase the contrast.
I use the selective tool on all the white background areas, then on her face as well to really brighten and sharpen it to make it the main focus point.
This selective tool can also be used to really brighten the light coming in a window.
Also, if you want any black to stand out and contrast the rest of the image, you can select the area and decrease brightness.
After I finish using the Selective tool in multiple spots, I usually go back to the Tune Image option, brighten the overall photo and increase the contrast just a bit more since I like a high contrast look.
And voila! The finished product…
Rachel Drader 