I don't want you to photoshop yourself. Your landscapes, however...

This blog post is kind of a two for the price of one situation. Essentially, I went to New York last week and want to talk about it (a thousand apologies to my colleagues who have heard about it non-stop for the whole week, I swear this will be the last thing). But I also want to make it work-related, so I’m going to tie it in with my role as a member of our newly formed Social Media Team. Therefore, drum roll please…

Tips and tricks for editing Instagram pictures

For the first time in my life I actually have a decent camera (the Canon G7X mark ii for those who care), so have been making extra effort to improve my photography and editing skills. I'm by no means an expert - I only started teaching myself four days ago - but this is what I’ve learnt so far.

Photoshop tricks

1) TIMES SQUARE, NY. As I've said in the title, I really don't encourage 'photoshopping' yourself in any way. However, I do think that sometimes it's allowed. For example, in the picture below I actually had chocolate on my face *rolls eyes*, but it was a really nice picture other than that, so I figured it was excusable. If you have a similar situation, I suggest the Spot Healing Brush or the Clone Stamp tools on Photoshop - which are really useful for getting pieces of fluff off your clothing or just smartening up chocolately faces. Be warned though - they are both 'blurring' tools, so if you use them over a large surface area, people will be able to tell. 

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2) FINANCIAL DISTRICT, LOWER MANHATTAN, NY. If by accident, like me, you've taken a picture at a really nice time of day - dawn or dusk or during a sunset, for example - it can be nice to enhance that. In the image below a couple of useful techniques have been used. First, to straighten out buildings or other subjects, copy a new layer of your image. Then Ctrl T (Transform) and right click and choose Distort. Then you're free to drag the corners/sides of your image to make them straighter. Image > Adjustments > Shadows/Highlights helps to make any buildings or structures stand out, and Ctrl L will bring up a levels menu that can also brighten or darken any shapes (clouds included!). And lastly, to brighten up skies, you can go to Filter > Camera Raw Filter, which gives you loads of options to bring out different saturations of colours, to make them really stand out! 

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Image editing apps

If you don't have access to Photoshop or just can't be bothered to spend that much time on your pictures, there are some pretty good editing apps available nowadays that can improve your images just as easily. Here are some I've found. 

1) BROOKLYN BRIDGE, LOOKING BACK ON MANHATTAN, NY. I used an app called Photofox to edit this picture, which I've found is great if you want to give the illusion that your pictures have been taken on old-fashioned camera reel (like the Olympus Penn or OM-1). If colour distortion and fade is your thing, then this is the app for you! It's free and has a wide range of light overlays that can give your images that vintage feel. See below!

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2) CENTRAL PARK, NY. This is probably my favourite photo editing app to use at the minute, and it's called VSCO (although ColorStory comes in at a close second, check both out). It's no different to the filters that Instagram supply you with, other than it has a whole lot more editing options beyond that, and more colour gradients. The app is free and so are a selection of filters, but for more advanced options you do have to pay unfortunately! I like to use it to brighten my pictures and for landscapes, to give them a rustic feel.

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So I hope that helps (and simultaneously lets you know what an amazing time I had in the 'big apple'). I use these techniques on my personal Instagram account, but I don't see why I, and the rest of the team, can't start using them on the University Instagram to make our pictures stand out. So get downloading, social team! 

Hope this is useful, and I'd love to see if anyone tries any of these photo editing options in their own work, so please let me know! 

Until next time. Over and out.