Phone camera & editing tricks

I get asked a lot on how I edit my photos but my responses get buried in the comments so I thought of writing a tutorial of sorts. It's really simple, anyone with a phone camera and Photoshop can do it!

First of all you need to know what kind of pictures your camera can capture. My phone is a Sony Xperia X10 mini pro. I call him Renji. *lol* It has a 5MP camera with autofocus, flash and 4 picture settings (Auto, Twilight, Sports and Macro). I always set it in Macro and no-flash. (When I take photos of hyperactive kids, I use Sports. *haha*)

When I use it indoors (with natural light), it produces a gloomy and slightly grainy look. When I work on them in Photoshop, they almost always come out looking vintage.



Option 1: Brightness & Contrast

1. Open your photo in Photoshop.
2. Go to Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Brightness & Contrast
3. Play with the values until you get your desired look.

Option 2: Blending options - Brighten your photo

1. Duplicate your original photo in a new layer or press CTRL+J
2. Go to Blending options > Screen > set the opacity to 33% (play with the levels)

Option 3: Blending options - Sharpen/Darken your photo

1. Duplicate your original photo in a new layer or press CTRL+J
2. Go to Blending options > Overlay > set the opacity to 25% (play with the levels)

Note: Also don't be afraid to move the layers around. They don't have to be in a specific order. Play with it.

Try using one or more of these 3. Play with the levels. In this photo below I used all 3 because I wanted it to look old, bright, and sharp.



Also don't listen to people saying that's not real photography etc. You put stuff on your blog because they look nice and you like it. Be you and do things that make you happy. :)