Baby Rabies
  • Start Here
    • About Baby Rabies
    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
  • The Book
  • Pregnancy
    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
  • Parenthood
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • School Age Kids
    • Parenting LOLZ
  • Photography
    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

      Reviews

      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

      Reviews

      If Your Kid Loves Dump Trucks & Garbage…

      August 13, 2018

      Reviews

      Nobody Tell My Kids ABC Mouse Is Part…

      September 4, 2017

  • Subscribe

Baby Rabies

pregnancy & parenting

  • Start Here
    • About Baby Rabies
    • Baby Registry Top Picks
    • Favorite Pregnancy Apps
  • The Book
  • Pregnancy
    • Birth Stories
    • Perinatal Mood Disorders
  • Parenthood
    • Babies
    • Toddlers
    • School Age Kids
    • Parenting LOLZ
  • Photography
    • Photography

      6 Stunning Photos You Would Never Guess Were…

      February 11, 2019

      Photography

      Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your…

      December 13, 2018

      Photography

      I Wrote A Photography eBook And This Is…

      December 6, 2018

      Photography

      Creative Lighting Ideas To Help You Take Great…

      November 27, 2018

      Photography

      Learn How To Take And Edit Photos On…

      November 19, 2018

  • Reviews
    • Reviews

      The Answer To Last Minute Holiday Gifting For…

      December 19, 2018

      Reviews

      I Was Never A Barbie Girl Until Now

      October 1, 2018

      Reviews

      Finally! Jeans For My Jean-Averse Kids!

      August 22, 2018

      Reviews

      If Your Kid Loves Dump Trucks & Garbage…

      August 13, 2018

      Reviews

      Nobody Tell My Kids ABC Mouse Is Part…

      September 4, 2017

  • Subscribe

a color story

Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your Phone
Photography

Simple Tips For Editing Snow Photos On Your Phone

by Jill December 13, 2018
written by Jill

We got caught in a big snow storm in Virginia this week, and while it was kind of a nightmare to get the RV out of, our kids had such a fun time playing in the GIANT snowflakes. (I’ve never seen them so big and fluffy!)

I remember the first time I took photos of my son in the snow years ago, I was so disappointed that they didn’t look as bright and crisp as I was seeing with my own eyes. But I had no idea how, nor the tools to fix that so they just remained gray and dim. 

Now, I know exactly how to use my favorite apps to make our snow photos look bright and happy, and I’m going to show you how I edited this one, and how you can use these same steps on your own snow photos.

First, I opened the photo in Snapseed and pulled up the Curves tool.

Snapseed is a free app available in the App Store and Google Play.

I pulled my midtones and light tones up, and then dropped only the very darkest tones at the bottom of the curve. This brightened my whites, kept the boys’ skin tones natural, and added depth by darkening the darkest colors.

Confused by curves? I have a whole chapter dedicated to understanding this powerful editing tool in my eBook Picture Play!

When editing your snow photos, try a similar approach of pulling that top 1/3 of the line up just a bit to brighten and whiten the snow. 

Next I opened the Details tool and selected Structure.

I increased Structure by 29 which made the snowflakes stand out more and brought out detail and contrast in their hats and the building behind them.

Structure is a really fun tool to play with to add a little extra magic to your photos!

Next, I wanted to create a bit of a light and airy feel so I opened the Vignette tool.

But instead of creating a dark vignette around my subjects, I created a reverse/bright vignette- meaning I made the outside of the circle brighter than the inside. This draws attention to my subjects, who are still properly exposed- their skin tones look great, they aren’t too washed out or too shadowy. The area outside the vignette is just a little brighter. 

Try this when your subject is mostly surrounded by bright whites and lighter colors!

The white balance looks pretty good to me, but sometimes snow photos can look really blue or cold. So head to the White Balance tool.

I clicked the eye-dropper tool and put my crosshairs over my white snow. It suggests I make it 3 degrees cooler, and I think that looks good.

When you’re using the eye-dropper tool, just be sure to put those crosshairs over anything white or neutral gray in your photo. See how it automatically adjusts for you. If it looks off, try moving it around to another white or gray spot on your photo to see if you can find a better match.

After that, I saved a copy of my photo from Snapseed and headed to A Color Story for a quick filter. There are two in the free Essentials pack that I think will work well with this and many other snow photos. 

A Color Story is a free app with some free features and some in app purchases. It’s available in the App Store and Google Play.

The first is appropriately named Ice Ice. I applied it at about 65%.

Ice Ice is more muted, cool and less saturated than Pop, which is applied below at about 50%. You can really tell the difference between the two when you look at the red in the bricks.

Both are great for clean, crisp edits with bright whites that will play nice with your subject’s skin. (No turning anyone orange!) 

Again, here is the before:

Here are the finals:

Pop

Ice Ice

RECAP: Tips For Editing Photos Of Snow on Your Phone

  • Use your curves tool (both Snapseed and A Color Story have these) to bring up your light tones and midtones by pulling up the top right side of the curves line-  whitening your whites and brightening your subjects’ skin.
  • Play with the Details->Structure tool in Snapseed to increase or decrease detail, contrast, saturation, and clarity.
  • Try a revere vignette in Snapseed by placing the Vignette tool circle over your subject and increasing the outside of the vignette (dragging the slider to the right) and making it brighter instead of darker. 
  • Check your photo’s color temperature with Snapseed’s White Balance tool. Use the eye dropper and select a part of your photo that is or should be white (like your snow) or neutral gray.
  • Try filters in A Color Story-> Essentials pack. These come free with ACS. Two of my favorites for snow are Ice Ice and Pop. Personally, I rarely ever apply filters at 100%. Try pulling it down to 50-60% to see how that works for you.

If you liked this and would like to learn more about how to take and edit photos you will LOVE with only your phone and free/cheap apps, purchase my eBook Picture Play! 
It’s 161 pages of tutorials, examples, and some of my favorite tips for making my own photos pop. It’s a digital download that you will receive immediately. AND IT MAKES A GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT! There is a digital gift card option at checkout. 

December 13, 2018 1 comment
0 FacebookPinterestWhatsappEmail
How I Edited This Pic On My Phone
BabiesPhotography

How I Edited This Pic On My Phone

by Jill March 17, 2017
written by Jill

I’ve been doing a bit of this lately over on Instagram now that they’ve introduced “albums.” I take a fully edited pic and break down the steps and apps I used to get from straight out of (phone) camera to the final image.

I thought I’d do one here today, showing you how I documented Wallace’s newest milestone- the airplane baby phase, since quite a few people asked how I got this shot.

To start, I had to rest the phone on my boobs, and set the timer. It took a few test shots to figure out proper placement…

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

And I had to switch from the 3-second timer to the 10-second timer because I needed more time to get Wallace’s attention.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Once I got a shot I was happy with (after about 4 tries), I took it into a new app I just downloaded called TouchRetouch (also available in Google Play) because I wanted to get rid of that ugly vent.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I selected “Object Removal” in the bottom left corner, then I used the brush, painted over the vent, and pressed “go.”

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Voila! Bye bye, vent.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Next, I opened A Color Story app (also in Google Play), and used my very favorite tool- curves, to pull up the shadows a bit and brighten up his face.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I decided to turn this black and white, so I went into the B&W set of filters, and chose Audrey. This is my go-to B&W filter for this app because it brightens the skin tone up, and gives a good amount of contrast and clarity. I kept this at full strength.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

So then I took it over to Instagram. Now, technically, IG only has a few true B&W filters, but if your image is already B&W to begin with, all the filters play into that.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

I liked what Ludwig had going on here, but took it down to about half strength.

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

And that’s how I took this picture from eh, pretty cool…

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

To OMG best picture of a 2.5 month old!

Mobile Phone Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Mobile Phone Edit Picture Play | BabyRabies.com

Like I mentioned, I’ve shared a few other photo editing tutorials on my @BabyRabies Instagram account. You can find them with the #BabyRabiesPicturePlay hashtag. Here are a couple! Be sure to click through to see all the steps.

Time for another picture play! This time with only #acolorstory app. This pic I took of the @magnolia silos today wasn’t bad, but I gave it a pop and some sun flare for extra sparkle. ? I started with the Deep filter “true” not quite at 100. ? Then I went to the Curves tool and pulled the shadows up brightened by pulling the top dot down and left and the bottom dot straight up just a bit. ? Added a little warmth with the white balance tool. ? Went to the flares effects, and chose #7. ? Moved the flare up to the top right corner (where there was already a natural bright spot) and decreased the effect a bit. ? That’s it! #babyrabiespictureplay

A post shared by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Mar 8, 2017 at 9:18pm PST

I didn’t have time to share one of my fav mobile photo editing tricks in my FB live #babyrabiesplaygroup today so I’m sharing here now. ? How to remove blemishes? Wallace is always scratching his face (no matter how much I cut his nails) in his unending quest to suck his thumb. ??Snapseed is a free app that has a “healing tool” Once you select it the tool, zoom in a bit on the area you want to heal. This takes some practice. Sometimes it will just heal a big streak instead of zooming in. Reverse it and try again. ??Heal blemishes by simply tapping on them. A red dot will appear, and then it will clone out that spot. Sometimes it will put something weird in its place like a nostril hole. Don’t fret. Reverse. Try again. Maybe zoom in a bit more and retry. (This also works for healing your own zits. Take my word for it.) ??Now that everything is healed, I’ll take you through the rest of my edits. First, I open in A Color Story app. ?? I go to tools, then curves. Then I pull the middle of the curve up just a bit to brighten the skin. ?? My go-to filter here is “Everyday” under Essentials. Note that I’m not using it at 100. ?? Once I take it to IG, I like to use the Clarendon filter but scaled wayyyy back, to maybe 20ish. I just like the little bit of cool and blue it adds. ???????????? I loved talking about mobile phone photography and editing today! If you missed it, the episode will stay up on my FB pg- Facebook.com/babyrabiesblog Catch me tomorrow over on @bebeaulait! I’m doing an IG takeover for them. #babyrabiespictureplay

A post shared by Jill Krause (@babyrabies) on Feb 28, 2017 at 11:07am PST

March 17, 2017 0 comment
0 FacebookPinterestWhatsappEmail

@babyrabies

Instagram did not return a 200.

Buy Jill’s Book

50 Things to Do Before You Deliver: The First Time Moms Pregnancy Guide

Up Your Phone Photography

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest

©2019 | BabyRabies.com


Back To Top