A few people have asked me recently how I edit my photo's for Instagram and KatieLewLa. So today I'm going to share with you my favourite apps for editing my photos. I really enjoy reading other bloggers posts like this and it's not something that I've done before. However, I do have quite a specific routine for editing my photos with these particular apps so I can sort of see a series of 'How To' posts coming up. How does that tickle your fancy?

There are four editing apps that I would recommend for editing photo's on your iPhone. I cannot recommend them enough for people who like to edit there photos quickly and easily. I literally use them every time I take a photo for Instagram and I have developed my own style which I've been sticking to for a few months now. First off, here are a few tips to bear in mind when taking your photographs. There is no use spending countless minutes attempting to edit a photo which has been poorly taken to begin with.

Lighting

Lighting is probably thee single most important aspect of taking a photo. You can have the best camera in the world, but if the lighting is low quality it doesn't matter whether you are using a standard iPhone camera or a top notch DSLR, the photo isn't going to look great. Taking photos outdoors is the best way to use natural light to its advantage and you can really experiment with angles and shadows etc. If like me you take most of your photos inside, I recommend choosing a room in the house with the most natural light coming into it to get the best photos. You won't believe the difference in quality when you have good lighting. 

Background

Another important part of your photos is the background. If the background of your photo is too busy then the photo can look messy and the main focus of your photo might be lost. Experiment with props, materials and angles to get the focus of your photo's just right. If I'm taking photo's of beauty products I usually use a white foam board to take my photo's on. These can be bought for about £4 from the Range and leave your background looking clean and uncluttered. Using a foam board makes it easy to arrange your items as you please to get the best effect. I have been known to take a selfie with my foam board rested behind me to get the perfect photo.

Consistency

The Instagram feeds that I find the most eye catching and am therefore likely to follow, are the ones with consistency. What I mean by this is that they follow a certain routine with their photography and feeds. Whether that be the same background for every photo, the same editing process, the same palette of colours, it just makes the feed look a lot more appealing than a chaotic, unorganised display of photos. What I'm trying to say is, find a style that you like and don't stray too far from it, you'll feel much more satisfaction looking at your feed and I'm sure others will feel the same.

Now onto the Apps.

Photoshop Express

I think the +PhotoshopExpress app is overlooked quite a lot by Bloggers and Photography Enthusiasts and I can't really understand it. After all, isn't photoshop the greatest computer software for editing photos? Why wouldn't you be tempted to try the mobile app. In this app you can alter general settings such as Clarity, Exposure, Temperature and all the usual suspects, but one thing photoshop express is great for is editing selfies. Why? I hear you say. Because you can use this magical little adjustment called 'Reduce Noise'. Reducing the noise in a photo - especially in selfies - gives the appearance of smoother skin and a dewy effect. Very similar to the beauty shot mode used on some digital cameras which is why it's a win win for editing selfies. As well as the usual adjustments you can also add some free filters to your photo's in the Photoshop Express app and if they're not up to scratch then there are premium filters you can use for free just by signing up for premium. If you like creating your own filters, then low and behold, you can do that to. Is there anything you can't do in this app? All the way through your editing process you can tap a button to view a before and after of your photo to see the differences you've made, and you can easily undo an action if you decide against it. Once your editing is complete, you can share your photo straight to twitter, Facebook, Instagram and more from within the app, or you can save them to your camera roll for later.

Snapseed

+Snapseed is another free app brought to you by google with endless editing possibilities. You can fine tune your image using all the usual tricks such as adjusting brightness, saturation, sharpness etc. There are also a few standard non mind blowing filters that you can add to your photos. For me the most impressive feature of this app is it's ability to selectively edit specific parts of your photo. For example, you can choose one area of your photo that needs brightening and make adjustments without affecting other areas that don't need editing. This is perfect if you have numerous objects within your photo that need different tweaks to one another and it works brilliantly for brightening white backgrounds, as it can pick out white areas in contrast to others. Snapseed is probably the app I use least out of the four but don't let that discourage you from trying it for yourself. I have simply found a routine that suits my editing needs that doesn't always require the use of Snapseed. That being said, it's stand out features are like no other, meaning this might be the perfect editing app for your needs.

AirBrush

Airbrush is my favourite app for editing selfies, and guess what, it's freeeee! You must have heard of FaceTune, well this is it's free sister. We all love free apps, and you can do so much magic on here it's quite unbelievable. This app is definitely aimed more towards portraits and selfies than flat-lays or objects, and it certainly gets the job done. Now let me just say, within this app I think you could quite literally turn yourself into a goddess. The adjustments you can make can drastically change your appearance. For me, that's not what this app is about. I use it to 'enhance my natural beauty' (who am I kidding). Seriously though, I use it to enhance the way I already am, not to completely transform myself. You can add simple filters to your photos within this app such as to subtly change your skin tone, make your appearance more vibrant and much more. But the focal point of AirBrush for me is it's tuning features which are all beauty related. You can smooth the appearance of your skin, remove blemishes, whiten teeth, brighten eyes, conceal darkness under your eyes and get this... reshape things. Yes, you heard. You can shrink that oversized nose you hate so much, stretch your hair out to make it appear more volumised and pull in stray hairs. Honestly, the possibilities are endless and quite ridiculous to some extent. I only use these features subtly and I absolutely do not alter my appearance in any way - I'm not so vain that I don't use subtle adjustments but I also don't feel that insecure about my appearance that I need to make drastic alterations. Another feature I love about this app is it's ability to blur or defocus the background to give focus to a particular feature within your photo. Overall this app is absolutely amazing for editing selfies, just don't get too carried away.

VSCO

My absolute go to editing app is +VSCO - just as it is for many others in the blogosphere - and that's because you can practically do everything in one place.  The layout of VSCO can be a little confusing at first, but once you get used to it you'll realise just how great it is. It stores all your photo's in a grid so that you can see them together and visualise what they will look like in your Instagram feed. The greatest feature of VSCO for me is the ability to copy and paste edits on to your photos. We've all been guilty of taking many shots of the same things because we can't decide which is best. There is no need to edit each photo individually, oh no. You can simply edit one of the photos and then copy and paste the edits onto all similar photos, meaning you can edit 20+ photos in the space of about two minutes. Now isn't that pretty special? There's a reason VSCO is so popular and that's because they have the best filters out there. Don't be fooled into thinking there aren't many filters to choose from. Visit the VSCO store and you'll find plenty more free filters to download as well as paid ones. As well as adding filters, you can do all of your fine tuning in this app by adjusting exposure, contrast, temperature, even skin tone and many more. In fact I think the only thing missing from this app is beauty adjustments, for example removing blemishes or red eyes (which is why for selfies, I use this app in conjunction with others). Overall if you're editing photo's of scenery, objects or beauty products then everything you need is in this app.

I'd be so pleased if you'd follow me on Instagram

I hope you've enjoyed reading this post as much as I've enjoyed writing it. I think I'll definitely be doing more posts like this as it seems I have quite a passion for it.

Please let me know if there is anything specifically relating to photo editing that you would like to read here on KatieLewLa. 

My next post will be focused on How I edit my Instagram Photos using VSCO (my favourite).