How to Take Better Instagram Photos

Instagram is by far one of my top favorite social medias- it's appealing to the eye, interesting, people are actually active, its used by celebrities and I actually have a decent amount of followers. You can go follow me @savannahbby_14, I have a pretty good looking theme right now.... I actually went back and deleted photos because they didn't match my theme #instaqueenproblems hahahhahahhaha.

1. Lighting

Lighting is everything. No harsh lighting, nah, this has to be soft and indirect. Direct lighting will cast dark, weird shadows and won't make it look good. The best places are by windows and under soft lamps, but nothing too direct, like sunlight or really bright lamps.

2. Uniform photos

For a photo to go on Instagram, it has to be square. But you do not want to crop that landscape photo because oh my good lord it is perfect and looks like a professional took it when you actually took it on your iPhone. There's a simple fix- Whitagram. It automatically adds a white frame to make your photo a square, and it looks super nice, so when all of the photos in your profile have it, your theme will be on point.

3. The right editing

It's not hard to turn something bland and boring into a cute photo worthy of all of your social medias. a couple of tweaks will create the ultimate glow-up; all you need to do is increase the saturation, a little more fade, adjust the contrast, more brightness, etc. There are bunches of YouTube videos and Pinterest tutorials to help you ultimately achieve this, which brings me to my next tip....

4. The VSCO trick

This one is awesome, and when I heard about it on YouTube I was just amazed. All you need for this is the VSCO Cam app and Pinterest. Basically, just go on Pinterest and search "vsco" and a bunch of pictures will pop up, and they're basically templates for your Instagram theme! Just follow what it says on VSCO and all of your pictures will look uniform and beautiful.

5. Landscape it

Did you know that landscape photos are more appealing to the eye? Think about it. This doesn't mean you should only post landscapes and quit the profile shot, no no no no no, I'm just saying that those are more appealing to the eye and people are more likely to like it and tag their friends.

OTHER TIPS //

-Think of a cute caption. Witty ones that include puns always get good feedback, or go for something more deep- and if you can't think of anything, just add a couple of emojis!

-Don't forget the hashtags! This makes it more likely for people to find your photo when they're searching for a certain tag.

-This one's a big one; tell them to tag their friends! If they do, more people end up seeing and liking your photo, and then they'll tag people, and so on! So many people will end up seeing your photo.

If you follow these, it's a full proof plan to get more followers who like your content and enjoy what you post. Just remember to post frequently and don't ever spam your followers (too much)!

xo Savannah

8 Tumblr Tropical Vacation Photography Ideas

Summer is just around the corner, which means vacations (for some people, not me though), and with vacations come tonnnsssss of photos on both your phone and computer, because you can never forget that moment that you saw a real live puffer fish (unfortunately, I have no pictures from my experience seeing one). Here are some ideas if you're looking to get creative with it~









This is just inspiration for any future trips, and right now I know that I'm craving tropical beaches and a getaway to Costa Rica~

xo Savannah

How I Edit My Instagram Photos

There are countless blog posts + YouTube videos out there about how people edit their Instagram photos- because everyone wants to have the perfect account, with everything matching. Let's face it, Alisha Marie's Instagram is more put together than most of our lives... So what do I use? 

APPS I USE

I'm kind of picky when it comes to my photo editing apps, so these should all be both free on the app store (not sure about Google Play store) and definitely very useful: 

-VSCO, basically what all the Insta-queens use; it was free for a limited time (and might still be) because of the Apps for Earth thingamabob. 

-Whitagram, this has everything that you might need with the exception of fabulous filters; you can leave that up to Instagram itself and VSCO. 

-Fontcandy is what I use for making inspirational quotes and masked text, VERY easy to use and also has a few filters that I've grown to liking. 10/10 would recommend. 

-Retrica is a great live-filter option if you're looking to brighten up your photos and are looking for a quick fix when you don't have time to sit through an editing session. Awesome for selfies, I might add ;)

-Layout is an app made by Instagram, and it's just for making collages with your photos, though I don't use it a lot it's really useful when I do use it.

FILTERS I USE

So, what filters am I into? Here they are, organized by app~

VSCO: I'm a strong C1 girl myself, and love using F2 from time to time- but really, who can't resist a good P5??

WHITAGRAM: Let's be honest, these filters are tacky and absolutely terrible (unless they're toned down and used lightly), but if I had to choose, Dean and Keylime are great, as long as they'e toned down a lot. 

FONTCANDY: So, when you're in editing mode, there's a toolbar at the bottom and you can find "Image" at the far right. This will give you a couple of filters, and the second one right after original is really cute and is awesome for just a little touch up. 

RETRICA: The filter I use primarily on Retrica is called Shine, it's super bright and cute and perfect for just a little Tumblr-vibe touch up in your photos. 

EXTRA TOUCHES

-Don't you hate it when you're picture isn't perfectly square so you have to crop it in order to put it on Instagram, but you really don't want to crop it? Whitagram adds a little white frame so that your photo is always the perfect size. 

-On Whitagram, I always like to bring up the fade because it gives it such a Tumblr vibe and it'll just really improve your photo a lot. 

-Also, I usually increase the brightness, contrast, warmth/coldness, saturation, highlights + shadows because it really makes the photo look so much better. 

I hope this helped you out at least a little bit, because I'm always wondering what appsother people use and what filters they use, especially the Insta-queens (which I'm not... YET)

xo Savannah

5 Cool iPhone Photography Tips for Spring 2016

I had the idea that from now on, every season (3 months or so) I'll post five photography tips for that time of year, because I used to write a lot about taking pictures & such but I've noticed that I don't do that as much anymore. Also, I noticed that after this post, we're only 17 posts away from the big 1000 posts! It's a small milestone compared to some bloggers who have 5000 or even 10,000, but it'll be big for us because I've only been blogging for less than two years, so I can't wait to plan an awesome 1000 posts surprise. But for now, today's post~

-When you're taking landscape pictures, use the rule of thirds. The rule of thirds is where you use the subject as one third of the photo, and some blank space as the other two thirds. In this case, you would use the sky as two thirds of the photo. To access the grid (this is only on iPhone, sorry Android users), go into Settings > Camera & Photos > Turn the 'Grid' option on. This will drastically improve your photos, and you'll have fun trying to take pictures with the horizon lining up with the grid. 


-To give your photos a Tumblr-y vibe when editing them, simply turn up the brightness & fade a little bit. This is gonna make them look super boho and Tumblr, and they'll be reblogged thousands of times with a simple edit like this. If you want to know what I use to edit my Instagram photos, I use whitagram- it's my favorite editing app ever. 

-Shoot in the first hour of sunlight and the last- the lighting will be absolutely perfect and warm and golden, which is why they call this the "Golden Hour". Also, if you're going to be shooting a landmark of some sort that is particularly busy (like the Eiffel tower, for instance) then go in the first hour of sunlight in the morning. It probably won't be too busy, and you'll get an amazing shot of this gorgeous structure with the sun rising behind it. 

-Use the burst on your iPhone to get the ultimate picture of a subject in motion. It captures 10 frames per second, so if someone is jumping in the air for example, you can get a photo of them right at the perfect moment. To take a burst, hold down the camera button when you're taking a picture, then later pick out your favorite from the bunch. 

-When taking pictures of the sunset, consider placing your subject (if there is one) in front of the sun for a more dramatic photo. Doing this will result in a sunburst, where the rays of the sun are coming out behind them, and it will look super Tumblr. 

I hope you liked these photography tips for Spring 2016, but if taking pictures isn't your thing, then you can use Pexels for some stock photos you'll fall in love with. 

xo Savannah

6 Photography Tips for Autumn + Winter 2015

Hey guys, still on break! I'm super excited for Thanksgiving, which is now only 3 days away, and I'm also really pumped because it's supposed to "snow" (you know, that weird cold white stuff that falls from the sky?) tonight, but I don't believe it'll even hit the ground because it hasn't actually snowed down here at this level in a few years.. so that's pretty sad. But on Sunday I got to go ice skating a couple of hours from here, and that was fun! I'm just hoping it'll snow in the mountains so that my family can go sledding. 

1. Not a lot of people know this, but Autumn and Winter are actually some of the best times of the year for photographers because it's usually cloudy without any actual direct light (at least where I live most of the time), which creates a really beautiful soft glow, allowing for amazing photos! See? 

2. Rain photography is actually really fun, because you can throw on a black and white filter and it'll look really gloomy and stuff, but you can also add in a pop of color in photoshop if you have something in the photo worthy of color (for example an umbrella- make the whole photo b&w, then go into photoshop and make it whatever color you like so that it stands out). 


3. Taking pictures of the water can be really cool, too! Reflections on a lake, river, ocean etc. can be turned around to your advantage, allowing for awesome photos of mountains or maybe sunsets reflecting- double the awesome. 

4. Christmas is the time for string lights, and string lights can be manipulated and made into awesome BOKEH PHOTOS! If you don't know what bokeh is (I don't even know how to pronounce it, haha), it's the shape of the lights in your photo that are out of focus. They can be just plain circles, or maybe hearts, or even stars- the possibilities are endless! Use the second photo as inspiration this holiday season and make something amazing. 

5. Use limited light to your advantage! When the sun sets, no matter where you are, it usually creates a really nice ombre effect, resulting in colorful photos. Maybe take a picture of the sky straight up, displaying all of the nice colors, with something in the center such as a bird or perhaps some tree tops? 

6. Last but definitely not least- sunglasses. No, you don't wear them while taking pictures... well, maybe you do. But that's not the point; you can make amazing ombre pictures with them by taking the photo through the lens of some ombre sunglasses that you are guaranteed to have on hand (and if you don't, pick up a cheap drug store pair, nothing fancy). I have yet to try this one out, but I'm super excited to!

Were these helpful to you in any way? I sure hope so, because these are custom to the Autumn & Winter seasons for the remainder of 2015 and beginning of 2016, and then I have a whole new set of photography trips planned out for Spring & Summer 2016. I can't wait!

xx Savannah

How to Save Hours of Time with Stock Photos

Do you know what, like, the hardest thing about blogging is (besides SEO, for that matter)? Photos. You know what takes up a lot of time? Getting out your fancy camera and CLEANING just to take a photo people might not even pay too much attention to. So, that's what stock photos are for! There are thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of stock photo sites on the interwebs for you to browse through and find images that fit your needs. But there's more to it than that~

For starters, you might ask what stock photos are. Basically, they're photos taken for the sole use of you using them without getting arrested by the interweb police because they're copyrighted. These are NOT copyrighted and you can totally use them for personal or commercial use!! Isn't that great? Yeah, it kind of is. Bloggers (like meeee!) drool over stock photos and are constantly saving them to our libraries for future use. But, what sites should you use? Now you're asking the real questions. 

There are lots of great sites, and these are NOT (trust me) the ones that you must always use no matter what and don't go looking for any others because these are the ultimate ones. But this IS a personal list of resources for you to bookmark and maybe possibly check out sometime. 

1. Unsplash
 
2. SplitShire

3. Startup Stock Photos

4. Picography

5. Free Refe

7. Gratisography

So, those are just a few select sites, and don't worry about paying for a Premium membership or anything like that because these sites are all completely free to use. 

Now, once you've downloaded your stock photos, you can take them on over to Picmonkey and edit them to create a Pin-friendly image. So, are stock photos your new best friend yet? Do you know of any other awesome stock photo sites? I'd love to hear your feedback, so tell me about those sites in the comments below. Thanks for reading!

xx Savannah

8 Ways to Use Light in Your Photography

Photography and simply taking pictures is growing to be one of my favorite things to do. Day after day, I find myself uploading a photo according to the Fat Mum Slim Photo a Day prompt on Facebook, and then getting excited for the next day to come so that I can take another picture or two. And one of the funnest things to play with in photography is- you guessed it, probably because of the title- LIGHT! It's one of the best parts of photography, and I bet there are way more than 8 ways to use it in your photos, but I'm gonna list the 8 ways that I am most familiar with. After this, you'll probably be out and about trying to capture all forms of light and then filling up your friend's Facebook pages with your awesome photos; oh, they'll be so jelly of your mad skills. 

1. Backlighting: This is just as it sounds, lighting up your photo from the back. 

2. Sunflare: Everyone loves it, and it's easy to do. It just creates such a stunning effect, and you usually see it in professional photo albums. 

3. Sunsets: the mix of all your favorite colors- how can this photo go wrong?

4. Sunrises: just like sunsets, but it's even more worth it to get up early (which I do anyway). 

5. Black and white filters: these make the photo just a little bit more dramatic, especially with sunsets, and it just makes it look- what's the word?- VINTAGE AND FABULOUS.

6. Artificial light: basically anything that emits light that is not the sun, such as lamps and such. I have yet to experiment with this, but it looks interesting. 

7. Bokeh: not very many people know what this is, but it's the shape of the lights in your photos. Sooo fun to play around with and customize!

8. Light painting: use a lighter or a sparkler (this is a fun project for the 4th of July!) to write words or draw shapes in the air with light. 

So, which one is your favorite? Are you going to try these out this weekend? If you don't know how to use any of these in your photos, there are tons of tutorials all over the internet and I recommend you Google one. Have fun taking pictures, and thanks for reading!

xx Savannah

Another Great Photo Editing App

I recently discovered (okay, someone told me about it) a new app that is just PERFECT for taking a selfie because you haven't posted one on Facebook in so long that people have forgotten what you look like. You know what I mean? (I hope so) 

Though this apps marketing isn't directed straight at selfies, it's great for taking them because of the awesome live filters. I just now realized that I'm droning on and on about this great picture0taking app that I haven't even told you the name of it- it's called Retrica. Yeah, I spelled that right- Retrica. Retrica is free for iOS and Android (I have it on Android, for my Samsung tab 3) and so far, I haven't noticed any major bugs- or any bugs, for that matter. I highly recommend it, and just to prove how awesome it is, I've uploaded a photo of myself taken with Retrica.

How to Add a Text Mask to Your Photos via Picmonkey

Text masks have been called a lot of different things over the internet, including:

-Image as font
-Make an image come through text
-Clipping mask with text
-Place an image inside of text
-Make an image in the shape of letters

It's been called so many different things, but we'll just call it a text mask. A text mask is just what all those images sound like- making an image come through the text, just like in the photo to the right. (I made that, by the way). 

This is surprisingly easy to do- just grab a photo off the internet, open design, and fiddle around with it for a minute or so and you've got it. Just pay extra attention to the key elements and details, or you might have a hard time, but other than that, it was uber easy for me to do (and I'm pretty lazy at this sort of thing). Here is the link, it's on the Picmonkey blog and you can check out their other tutorials here. Oh, and it's FREE.

I hope you have fun with this, it's a really cool trick to know. Maybe you could even print it out and frame it as a Mother's Day gift....??

xx Savannah

How to Add a Watermark to Your Photos via Picmonkey

As you may know, Picmonkey is my favorite way to edit and design photos for the blog. Also, having a watermark is a good thing to have if you're trying to develop your brand, and it's the first thing that you see on a photo that pretty much says "Back off!!! MY PHOTO."- which is a good thing if you don't really want anyone else using that particular photo on their blog. Also, if someone sees your watermark multiple times while browsing Google Images, and they like what they see, they will probably head on over to your blog. 

Anyway, I just took a tour through this tutorial on the Picmonkey Blog and I am now concluding that it is extremely helpful and well written. If you need to learn how to add a watermark or may just need to find a different way to add one to your photos, click on over to this tutorial and read through it. This could really help build your brand!

(photo below is by Picmonkey, by the way)

Amazing Photograph

I don't really know about this one, it is so strange and mystical, I found it on Pinterest and it is only labeled "bunnyland". 

Amazing Photograph

For more amazing photos, visit my "Photos I Wish I Took //" board here. 

30 Day Photography Challenge

In the past, I've done 30 day blogging challenges, and since a friend recently asked for a link to my 30 Day Drawing Challenge, I decided to do a photography challenge because most people simply love taking pictures. As always, you can start any day, and you don't need a fancy camera or anything- a simple iPhone will work just great. I hope you have fun!


Day 1: The sunrise. 

Day 2: The sunset. 

Day 3: Your morning cup of coffee/tea.

Day 4: Something blooming. 

Day 5: A piece of art. 

Day 6: Journaling.

Day 7: What you're currently reading. 

Day 8: Baking.

Day 9: Cooking. 

Day 10: Your bed.

Day 11: The woods. 

Day 12: Dancing.

Day 13: Music. 

Day 14: Your pet.

Day 15: Sleepy...

Day 16: The sky.

Day 17: Something cold. 

Day 18: Writing. 

Day 19: Cozy. 

Day 20: Something magical. 

Day 21: A view. 

Day 22: Jewelry. 

Day 23: Treasures. 

Day 24: Time.

Day 25: Stripes. 

Day 26: Spots. 

Day 27: Shapes. 

Day 28: In my hand. 

Day 29: Your favorite part of the day. 

Day 30: A picture of yourself. 

I hope you had fun!!

xoxo 

 

Photos by Max Wanger

Photo I Wish I Took

Find more photos on my Pinterest board; Photos I Wish I Took.