I’ve received a lot of questions lately about how I edit photos both for my blog and for my instagram. While I own a DSLR, I rarely use it these days for two main reasons. First and foremost, I never have enough hands, time, or energy to use my good camera while I’m parenting these children solo. Second, while Ryan is deployed, I opt for convenience above all else, and the most convenient way to send him photos and keep him in the loop is simply to take those photos with my iPhone.
When I decided to rely primarily on my iPhone for all blog photos, I knew I didn’t want to compromise the quality for convenience, so I did a lot of research. Luckily, iPhone photos in and of themselves are much better these days. They’re clear, crisp, and capture a lot of detail for web-ready files. Composition and lighting, however, are a bit trickier. I don’t really like traditional filters, and I never want to have to upload them to process them online.
Enter Lightroom. The Lightroom app makes it very easy for me to use their photo balancing capabilities right from my handheld device. I chose to take things a step further though, and I purchased a set of Lightroom presets from Chelsea Jean. I’d been following her for some time on instagram, and I was constantly amazed by the quality of her imagery – especially the ones from her phone – so I decided to take a bold step forward in how I edit photos on my phone.
I purchased her original and most popular Mobile Preset Pack, which includes five mobile presets: Travel, Golden Hour, Portrait, Tropical, and Sunset. From there, you simply download the files upon delivery, then you install them into your Lightroom mobile app, which is free, by the way. I also just purchased her new Lifestyle Mobile Pack to further enhance my images. Once the presets are imported to Lightroom, I just import images from my camera roll to the Lightroom gallery, scroll to presets, and apply my desired preset (PS – “Portrait” is my favorite!) Then, I save it back to my camera roll, and voila! Blog-ready images are made.
One of the biggest reasons I waited to purchase any presets is because I figured it would be too tricky to import them to Lightroom for daily use. However, included in your preset purchase, you’ll find instructions that are incredibly easy to follow, and if you have additional questions, they respond promptly and efficiently. Honestly, this process and these presets have revolutionized how I edit photos on my phone.
While I still have goals to get better, take more time to use the DSLR, and really update my photography game in the next calendar year, for now, this has really changed the overall look, feel, and vibe of the images I take and share. I feel they’re more evocative of us and our lives, as well as the overall “lifestyle brand” we share, which is always ideal.
Do you use presets to edit your photos, or have you heard of doing so?
