The best camera is the one you have on you all the time. And seriously, who goes anywhere without their phone these days!? iPhones are amazing tools for capturing photos and videos when you're on the go, anytime, anywhere. In an age when content is king in the world of social media, your phone is your secret weapon, and we're about to give you some ammo which will up-level your gram game! VSCO - Photo editing app
If you haven't yet downloaded VSCO onto your phone, please stop reading this right now and go and do so. VSCO is the easiest photo editing app, that's free, and allows a lot of editing options. There are millions of photo editing apps out there, and we've tried a bunch, but personally find VSCO is the easiest to navigate (as it's very similar to the Instagram editing layout), whilst being free, and it doesn't crush your image quality like many free photo apps do.
I've popped an example of an image I edited quickly, below. What was already a pretty nice image (since the space was beautiful), was enhanced nicely to make it warmer, more bold, and more luxurious.
ALSO, for the photo pro's out there who want to up their game, you can actually shoot photos and video in RAW mode in VSCO meaning you can play so much more with colour grading!
Portrait mode - a photo function in iPhone 7+, 8, 8+, and X.
What distinguishes professional images from amateur images is often the 'fuzziness' of the background of an image. Professional portraits only focus on the object in the foreground and 'blur' the background of the image which creates a focus point and really crisp image. WELL the magical people at Apple have built in a 'blurring' feature into the latest iphones, and it's called 'Portrait' mode (you can access it by swiping left when you're in your camera function).
Portrait mode basically places a fake blur on the background of an image, highlighting and putting the focus on the object in the foreground. Sounds simple but the results are pretty epic, taking an image from 'meh' to 'BAM'. See the example I've popped below, without the blurred background an clear focal point, this image is a bit messy since there's nothing to really focus the eye on, however when portrait mode was applied (and obviously I moved around the table a touch to the side) suddenly the images in the foreground really pop, and the background simply compliments that, rather than confusing it.
We really love these tools, and find they're super for capturing high quality, interesting social media content. We always encourage all our clients and friends to up-level their content creating abilities, whether it's learning to take better photos for social media, or to create quick social videos. Although we obviously take photos and create videos for clients, it's essential that you're able to create your own content to post so that you compliment the professional images and videos you have created because (1) it saves you money if you can make your own content, (2) you need to be able to create 'real time' content so you can capture relevant events in your business on a daily basis without waiting on a company to produce these for you! Get downloading and playing with some images :) We'd love to see your results, feel free to flick us a message on our Facbeook page or on Instagram to share!