iPhone Snaps

I absolutely LOVE my iPhone.  Duh.  That's no secret if you're a regular around here.  However, what I've been trying to do lately is really challenge myself to take GOOD pictures with my iPhone.  Now, yes, not every.single.picture. I take (and post!) is what I'd deem a "good" iPhone snap--some are out of focus or grainy or what not--however, I'm trying to be more cognizant of what I'm snapping and the pic outcome I want to achieve.  Obviously when I've got my big camera out I'm always aware of this; however, I tend to slip into the haphazard whatevs mode when I'm using my iPhone to snap away.  BUT, I'm challenging myself to change this and really try and take good pics ALWAYS with my iPhone.

I recently posted about how my students are working on an iPhoneography project (which they finish very soon and I cannot wait to see the snaps they produced!), and it's challenged me to really try and use my iPhone as an art tool in capturing pictures rather than just random snappings.  I've taken my own advice from my guide and am trying to put it into practice!

I wanted to share some recent snaps (the before and afters!) with you all and what I've done to them to get them "posting worthy" and ready to be shared...cause, who knows, maybe you'll can take away some of these tips too for your own snaps!


This was Ro looking all excited at her cousin Cole's birthday party.  I love this pic, but didn't love Mike's weird face in the background, and the light was kinda dim inside the restaurant so if you look realllll close it's a bit grainy.  However, I wanted to share it, so my go-to for low-light grainy lookin' pics is to black and white them.  I've been obsessed with black and white pics lately (my 366 black and white project is still going strong over on Instagram!) and it really is a great go-to for snaps that you want to add a little something to.  I also cropped Mike's face out (and the other gals in the pic too) and voila!  Here ya go:

edited with PicTapGo! iPhone app




I took this snap when the kiddos and Mike came up to have lunch with me and my students at school.  I love the determined nature of Rosie this.close. to crawling, and Patrick looking like he's going to yank his pizza away from her.  I love that they're not centered (rule of thirds!), but HATED that their name stickers were on the floor.  I felt like this was distracting to the viewer, so I removed them (using the clone too in the Pics Art iPhone app).  I then went to my go-to black and white filter and colorized it that way.

edited with Pics Art and PicTapGo! iPhone apps




I absolutely LOVE this pic of Ro swinging.  She is just in her pure joy swinging heaven and I love the subtle sun flare popping through the trees.  She's not centered (rule of thirds again!) but you can clearly see her excitement (even in her little hand!) in the picture.  However, I wanted to brighten up the pic a bit and add a more dramatic sun flare to the one that was in the pic.  So I brightened the picture, made the colors pop, and added a sun flare that I thought matched well to the sun that was already there.

edited with PicTapGo! and Lens Distortion apps




Patrick absolutely LOVES to walk Scoots, and seemingly always has!  Recently on our walks to the playground he demands to walk Scooter (and usually stays in front of us), so it gives me prime opportunities to snap some cute pics of them.  This particular snap was taken in the late afternoon (so you get that little sun flare) and was just so cute of the two of them.  Again, going back to my go-to, I wanted it to be black and white (since the colors were really dull anyways, I hate you winter).  I was able to use the leading lines of two trees' shadows to snap this pic and Patrick and Scoots fell perfectly in between them.  I also added a bit more dramatic sun flare as well.

edited with PicTapGo! and Lens Distortion apps




I snapped this earllllllly in the morning when I took Scoots out to go pee.  We have a really great street for sunrise and sunset pics, and Scooter is always such a gentleman to pose so nicely for me.  I love how he was looking off into the distance for this, and I had my iPhone literally in the wet grass (ekkk) for this snap.  I focused on Scoots, so he was darker, but also to capture the color of the sunrise.  Scooter's body was directly in front of the rising sun, so that added a cool orange glow around him.  I did a little more tweaking and editing than I normally do in pics, but I love the dramatic colors it brought out.  I also cropped the image a smidgen to get rid of my neighbor's house on the left as well and center Scoots some more.

edited with Snapseed app



Anyways, those are a few recent iPhone snaps I've taken!  I know some people feel like it's 'cheating' to edit a picture after you've taken it and before you post it--well, if that's the case then I spend 99% of my picture-taking and posting cheating then :) BUT!  I'm happy to do it, because, to me, the results are stunning and far superior than the original snap.  All good photographers edit and enhance their images the take with their big cameras, so I feel like doing it with your "mobile" camera (iPhone) is okay too.

Do you have any awesome iPhoneography tips you'd like to share?!  I'd love to hear them!  Seriously, I'm always looking for new tips to make taking pictures with my iPhone that much better...so please!  Share them with me!  I'm all ears!!

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