Unfortunately, I am categorized as a Millennial. As much as I wish that we were living during the 60's-70's (my prime period of nostalgia, as I feel that I was definitely reincarnated in the wrong time era) we are living in 2018. For as many reasons as this saddens me, I will admit that us Millennials have something that is very useful to other generations- we are dang good with our iPhones. I consider myself to be somewhat of an expert at iPhoneography, and fascinated with the art of transforming ordinary photos taken with my phone into aesthetically branded content that leverages my business on social media.
I'm a professional photographer by trade, so generally I'm going to take photos with my DSLR camera in RAW and then batch edit and export with Lightroom on my computer. HOWEVER, I have become increasingly comfortable with using my iPhone for day to day content creation, and find that the following 3 free apps have leveled up my social media game FOR SUREEEEE.
I've been using VSCO on my phone for as long as I can remember. I love the old school film look that these filters and presets can give your iPhone photos. I'm a sucker for vintage aesthetic, so naturally I gravitate towards making my digital images look like old film photos. I like using the grain tool as well as the cropping tools in this app. You can easily transform your photos with this app alone, and I recommend downloading this if you're new to editing your phone images outside of what's already available on Instagram.
Before and after- took this from the passenger side of the car while we were moving. Used the perspective tool in VSCO to fix the angles along with brightening the shot.
A Color Story was the answer for so many bloggers and Instagrammers that wanted to break out of the hipster-esque look that VSCO can sometimes give. Not everyone can get down with the grainy/moody look, so the brighter brands in the social media space needed something with a little more of a fresh pop. Enter A Color Story, the perfect app for those who love COLOR (duh!) This app is cool because there are certain social media influencers who have been able to develop their own preset packs available for purchase on the app, so if you have a favorite blogger that you follow, they sometimes have their own filter packs on the app and you can purchase them and edit your photos in the same style as them. This app also has lightleak effects, hue manipulation, and the curves tool which can give you more control over the exposure of your photos.
A Color Story is great for adding a bright pop to your overall shot!
Snapseed is an app owned by Google that can do all kinds of stuff! You have a lot of variables in this app that will help you control more selectively in your photos, which is awesome when you might have something specific to alter in a shot. There are also presets in this app along with text tools and lens blurs. I like to do very little in this app, as I prefer the aesthetic of the filters in VSCO and A Color Story, but it's great when you want to get more selective with brightness/contrast/saturation/etc. You can also work with the the curves tool in this app as well, which is UHMAZING.
Use the Snapseed app to brighten with the curves and saturation tools!
If you're interested in more apps that I use in my everyday life as well as HOW I use them, consider enrolling in my online Mastering iPhoneography course, part of the Do What You Want Workshops! I'll dive way deep into how to transform iPhone photos into branded content for your blog, business, or personal brand, and I go over my editing process step by step.