Great Photos on a Budget
It’s that time of year again. Love is in the air.
When my husband and I got engaged we wanted to be able to show the world how much we loved each other and how excited we were to be venturing on this journey together. That meant photos. Lots and lots and lots of photos.
We wanted something magical, but something that represented us. Nothing is worse than taking photos that don’t represent the real you. My husband’s childhood friend posted on Facebook that she was starting a photography business and wanted to practice her skills with anyone that was available. After talking with her, we booked a time to come down to the Newport Beach area and do our engagement photos. It was the middle of August at the time, and we were both dying in the heat. I was tired, sweating, and quickly getting annoyed at the stares we were getting. Yes! We were crazy enough to take engagement photos in 100-degree heat and probably looked like hell in them. We finished up, and my husband’s friend gave us a zip drive with all the photos she took. We looked them over and found only a few that were great. The rest, well…...we looked hot, miserable, and exhausted from being in the heat. We were not upset in the least. In fact, we laughed! We laughed so hard because of the memories we made in the process. We had a few great photos, and that was all we needed. What we regretted later was not researching ahead of time and looking for examples of poses that we loved. Here are the few we really liked:
When we began the process of adopting our kids, I told my husband I wanted to do lots of photo sessions with them. We both wanted the normal holiday type, but also wanted to incorporate different themes. In all honesty, we wanted to have every type of photo and theme that we could. But with that comes a very expensive price tag. As often as we take photos, we knew that shelling out at least $200-$300 each session was something we could not afford to do a couple of times a month. Then we had to consider that there may be times our kids were not in the mood to take photos. It would be a waste to have them sitting and scowling in a family photograph simply because they weren't in the mood. And we're not the kind of parents to force that upon them.
I had over 8 boards on Pinterest that were of different themes of photo sessions I was interested in doing. They were a mix of family, just the kids, and couples poses that we both loved. I had recently purchases a Canon Rebel T5 camera and was quickly trying to learn how to use it so that I could start taking some of these pictures that I had pinned. There were so many things to factor in like weather, temperature, my kids moods, locations, etc. that I knew I wouldn’t always be able to get the kind of photos I wanted.
While looking up information on Pinterest for my blog, I came across an app that said it helped to enhance photos you take on your phone and make them look professional for your blog. So I went to the app store on my iPhone and checked it out. The app is called VSCO and is $20 a year to use. I figured $20 isn't that much to lose out on if the app completely sucks. I went ahead and purchased it. The following weekend, we took our son to the park and took almost a hundred photos. Then I used the app to do the editing. By the end of my first photo, I could tell I had made an excellent choice in purchasing this app.
The app itself is incredibly easy to use. You don’t have to be an expert in order to make your photos look amazing. The first step to using it is to upload the photo you want to work on. After that, it will give you the option of using a filter if you want. There are probably close to a hundred filters to choose from. I only use the filters if I am not happy with the look in my photo. For the most part, I don’t use a filter and stick with what I have to begin with. Then the app will give you the next step, which takes you through exposure, contrast, cropping, straightening, x-skew, y-skew, sharpen, clarity, etc. and allows you to adjust the photo on the scale that you want. Again, you don’t need to be an expert to look at the photo and decide how you want to change it. If you don’t like the way it looks, you can simply undo it all and start over.
The best part of this is that can take and create professional looking photos and not spend more than $20 for the year to do so. If money is tight, consider doing this for your engagement session. Look up the poses you want to do for your photos and then ask a friend to come with you. They can take as many pictures as you want, then you just have to sit down and edit them yourself. For $20, I call that a win! I've included some examples of photos I took and used the app with. I really like how the colors come through.
HERE is the link to the app if you want to check it out. They offer a free 7-day trial period. Happy shooting!