Pawfect Dogs Blog

We Do it for the ‘Gram

Have you ever taken a photo for the ‘gram where the setting and pose are exactly what you want but there is just something about the photo that is “off”?

Are you curious to know what apps are available beyond the filters on Instagram that you can use to make your almost perfect shot, PAWfect? Then this blog post is for you! I will be talking you through our process for creating the iconic smolder Instagram worthy shots of my stylish pups, Tobey and Percy!

Photo Editing Apps can work Magic

Finding good content/photos to load to one’s IG gallery can be challenging at times. For me, it is even more of a struggle with a full-time job, school aged children, a household to manage, and of course Tobey and Percy. Often, by the time I get home, I don’t have enough daylight to take that well-lit shot of Tobey and Percy.

Without fancy studio lights in the house, I often find that even though the photos looks instagram-worthy, the lighting and hue is just too dark in the images.

But you don’t need to delete those almost perfect photos. All you need is a couple of trusty photo editing apps to work their magic, and I’ll guide you through the steps to harness their power.

The Before

Here is a recent photo I took of Tobey with my iPhone Xs (photo 1).

As you can see, although his pose and what he’s wearing is absolutely adorable (if I do say so myself), the lighting in the photo is darker than I’d like and the white backdrop and faux fur blanket Tobey is sitting on isn’t white. So what can be done to remedy this? As the saying goes, “there’s an app for that” and in this case, that app is Lightroom by Adobe.

Let There Be Light

I often like to start editing with Lightroom. Not only is it a free photo editing app, but I love that it gives the user more control over the various settings (e.g. exposure, white/black levels, highlights/shadows, tint, vibrance and saturation of colors) versus simply choosing a preset filter where one isn’t able to make detailed adjustments generally.

First of all, I want to preface this by saying that there is no real order to my editing other than to say that I adjust levels to what is most aesthetically pleasing to my own eyes with the hope that it’s equally pleasing to everyone else. After-all, YOU should enjoy looking at your own creations!

In this photo of Tobey, using Lightroom, I begin by choosing the Light menu located in the bottom tray and then increasing the Exposure setting to help brighten it up (photo 2). That simple step already makes the photo better. Then to help soften up the darker parts of Tobey’s fur, I turn down the Contrast (photo 3). Next, I dial up the levels of Highlights and Shadows to bring out more of the golden glow from Tobey’s fur making him look brighter overall (photo 4). As the black in his pajamas look a bit faded, I turn down the Blacks setting which darkens the black in his pjs (photo 5).

In Need of a Color Adjustment

I then move on to the Color menu from the bottom tray. Typically, if my photo is too yellow (warm) or too blue (cold), I would use the Temp setting to adjust as needed. Likewise, if my photo is too green or too pink, I would adjust the Tint. However, for this particular photo, I leave those settings alone and move on to Vibrance and Saturation (photo 6).  I increase the Saturation level to add that extra “pop” to the colors in the photo and dial up Vibrance to add boldness to the more muted colors while leaving the already bold colors alone.

Finished with all my desired adjustments, I click the check mark at the top right of my screen to save the changes. The edited photo is then added to the Lightroom’s photo gallery. To save the edited photo to my phone’s camera roll, I choose the edited photo from Lightroom’s gallery to open it again and then click the export icon on the top right of my screen. A menu pops up giving me options to share/save (photo 7). Once I choose “Save to Camera Roll” the Image Size menu pops up (photo 8). I usually choose “Maximum available” as I want my photo to be saved in the highest resolution as possible. Here is the edited photo after Lightroom (photo 9).

Although I could end editing here, as the blanket and background are still not fully white, I need something to help correct that. In comes FaceTune (the original version).

It’s FaceTune for the Finish!

FaceTune is a paid app but in my opinion it is well worth the one time fee of $3.99. It is my go-to app to add the finishing touches to all my photos. In this case, I want to whiten up the backdrop and blanket. To do this, I choose Whiten from the bottom tray (photo 10) and then using my finger, I swipe away any area that I want to lighten up (photo 11). Once done with whitening, I click the check mark on the top right of my screen. To save my photo to my camera roll, I choose the export icon at the top right and then choose “Save to Camera Roll”.

The After

And voila! My finished photo is finally ready for the ‘gram. (photo 12). Comparing the before and after shots, you can clearly see what a difference an app (or two) truly makes (photo 13)!

Coming up

In the next installment of this series, I will be editing a photo of Percy and will introduce you to a couple of other beloved photo editing tools.

Do you have almost perfect photos that can benefit from the steps above? I bet you do! Give it a try and let us know how it goes! Have more questions about photo editing, leave them in the comments below. Also tag us @pawfectdogsblog and @tobeyandpercy on Instagram so we can see all of your PAWfect photos of your pups!