Table Of Contents: iCloud Photo Sharing

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What Is iCloud Photo Sharing?
1. How To Set Up iCloud Photo Sharing On Your iPhone Or iPad
2. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On Your iPhone Or iPad
2.1 Create A Shared Album
2.2 Invite People To Your Shared Album
2.3 Add Photos To A Shared Album
2.4 Subscribe To A Shared Album
2.5 Like & Comment On Photos
2.6 Save Photos From A Shared Album
2.7 Delete Photos From A Shared Album
2.8 Remove A Subscriber From A Shared Album
2.9 Delete A Shared Album
3. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On A Mac Computer
4. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On A Windows Computer
5. Shared Album Storage Limits

What Is iCloud Photo Sharing?

iCloud Photo Sharing is a free service offered with Apple’s iCloud service. It’s a great way to share your photos and videos with family, friends, and colleagues.

iCloud Photo Sharing uses Wi-Fi. So you don’t need cables, USB, Bluetooth, or email to share your photos.

With iCloud Photo Sharing, you create a shared photo album for the images you want to share.

You can then choose who you want to share it with (up to 100 people).

Subscribers can view, like, and comment on photos in a shared album. They can also add photos and videos of their own.

iCloud Photo Sharing lets you share photos and videos from your iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Mac, or Windows computer. You can even share photos with people who don’t have iCloud Photo Sharing set up on their device.

Unlike Instagram or Facebook, shared iCloud albums only let people you’ve invited see photos. This offers greater privacy of your images as it keeps them out of sight of the public.

Shared photos and videos are stored in iCloud. But they don’t count against your iCloud storage limit. You’re free to share up to 5,000 photos without having to pay for more storage.

1. How To Set Up iCloud Photo Sharing On iPhone Or iPad

Before you begin sharing photos, you’ll need to set up iCloud Photo Sharing on your iPhone. You can also use these instructions to set up iCloud Photo Sharing on your iPad.

For the best experience, it’s advisable to update your iPhone or iPad to the latest iOS.

You can do this by opening the Settings app from the home screen of your iPhone. Then go to General > Software Update. If there’s an update available, follow the on-screen instructions to download and install it:

iCloud Photo Sharing is an Apple iCloud service. So you’ll need to sign in to iCloud with your Apple ID on your iPhone.

Go to Settings, then find the iCloud option and sign in with your Apple ID and password.

Once you’ve signed in to iCloud, go to Settings > [your name] > iCloud > Photos. Switch on the Shared Albums option at the bottom of the screen:

2. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On Your iPhone Or iPad

In this section, you’ll discover how to use iCloud Photo Sharing to share your photos with others.

iCloud Photo Sharing works in exactly the same way on both iPhone and iPad. So you can use these instructions to share your photos from either device.

2.1 Create A Shared Album

The first step is to create a new shared album.

Open the Photos app on your iPhone. Tap Albums (you might need to tap it twice) at the bottom of the screen to go to the main list of albums:

In the Shared Albums section, tap See All. The Shared Albums screen will open. Here, you’ll see any albums that you’ve shared with others or that others have shared with you:

To create a new shared album, tap Edit at the top right. Then tap the [+] icon in the top left corner:

Type a name for your shared album, then tap Next:

The next step is to invite people to subscribe to your shared album.

2.2 Invite People To Your Shared Album

You can now invite people to subscribe to your shared album. (You’ll add photos to the album in the next step.)

Invite people by typing their email address or iPhone number into the To box. Or tap the [+] to the right of the To box to access your iPhone contacts list. Then tap Create:

Note that when you invite a user by email, you’ll need to use their iCloud Apple ID contact information. If you’re not sure which email address they use for their iCloud account, confirm with them first – otherwise they won’t get the invite.

Your new shared album will appear at the top of the Shared Albums screen. Tap Done at the top right:

What if you want to share albums with a non-iCloud user?

Simply create a shared album as above, but don’t invite the person as a subscriber. Then open that new shared album, and tap the People tab at the bottom. Turn on Public Website:

iCloud will create a link to your shared album on the iCloud.com website. Tap Share Link to share that link with anyone you want. When they click on the link, they’ll be able to view your shared album.

After you’ve created a new shared album, it’s a good idea to check the settings for that album. Open the album, then tap the People tab at the bottom of the screen:

Switch on any settings that you want for this shared album. Subscribers Can Post means subscribers can add their own photos to your shared album. Notifications means you get notified when subscribers like, comment, or add photos to the album:

Tab Back at the top left to return to the Shared Albums screen.

2.3 Add Photos To A Shared Album

It’s now time to add some photos to your shared album!

Tap on the shared album you just created. Then tap the [+] icon:

Select the photos you want to share. Then tap Done:

Type a comment if you wish. Then tap Post:

The photos will appear in your shared album. People subscribed to that album will be able to see the shared images:

To exit the shared album, tap Back at the top left.

2.4 Subscribe To A Shared Album

Has someone else invited you to subscribe to their shared album? If you want to see the photos, you’ll need to accept their invitation.

When you receive a notification, accept the invitation to view the shared album.

2.5 Like & Comment On Photos

iCloud Photo Sharing allows the album creator and subscribers to like and comment on photos. Any subscribers signed in to iCloud can like and comment on the shared images.

If you think a photo looks great, tap the Like (thumb) icon at the bottom right to let others know that you like it:

To comment on a photo, tap Add A Comment at the bottom of the screen. Type your comment, and tap Send:

Note that if you’ve already liked a photo, you’ll need to scroll up to see the Add A Comment option.

2.6 Save Photos From A Shared Album

If someone adds a photo to a shared album, you can save it to the Photos app on your own iPhone.

Here’s how to download photos from iCloud shared album to your device:

Select the photo you want to save, and tap the Share icon (square with up arrow). Scroll down, then tap Save Image:

The photo will now be stored on your iPhone as well as in the shared iCloud album.

If the owner of the photo deletes it from the shared album, you’ll still have the image in the Photos app on your iPhone.

Other users can save your photos to their iPhone by following the same steps.

2.7 Delete Photos From A Shared Album

If you no longer want to share a photo, you can delete it from the shared album.

Select the image you want to delete. Tap the Delete (trash) icon at the top right. Then tap Delete Photo:

When you delete a photo, it gets deleted from the shared album on all your devices and all subscribers’ devices. But it doesn’t get deleted from its original location in the Photos app on your iPhone.

2.8 Remove A Subscriber From A Shared Album

Do you want to remove a subscriber from your shared album?

Open the shared album, then tap the People tab at the bottom of the screen. Subscribers’ contact details are at the top of the screen:

Tap on the subscriber you wish to remove. At the bottom of the screen, tap Remove Subscriber, then tap Remove.

That person will no longer have access to the shared album.

2.9 Delete A Shared Album

Do you want to delete a shared album that you created?

On the Shared Albums screen, tap Edit at the top right. Tap the red circle on the album you want to delete, then tap Delete:

The album (and all the photos in it) will be deleted from all devices of all subscribers. Subscribers will no longer have access to the shared album.

3. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On A Mac Computer

Do you have photos or videos on your Mac computer that you wish to share with other people?

If so, you can use iCloud Photo Sharing in the Mac Photos app – just like you do on your iPhone.

On your Mac, make sure you’re signed in to iCloud with your Apple ID. Do this by clicking the Apple icon at the top left of the screen, then go to System Preferences > iCloud:

Once you’re signed in to iCloud, open the Photos app on your Mac.

To ensure iCloud Photo Sharing is switched on, click Photos at the top left of the screen, then select Preferences:

Select the iCloud tab. Then ensure the Shared Albums box is checked:

Close the iCloud dialog box.

To create a shared folder on your Mac, ensure the Photos app is open.

On the left side menu, hover your mouse over Shared Albums and click the [+] icon. Give your album a name, invite people, and add a comment if you wish. Then click Create:

You can now add photos to the shared album. Select the photo you want to add (or select multiple photos by holding down the Shift or Command key).

Click the Share icon (square with up arrow) at the top of the screen. Select Shared Albums from the dropdown menu:

Click the album that you want to add the photo to:

4. How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing On A Windows Computer

If you have a Windows computer, you can still use iCloud Photo Sharing to share your photos with others.

You can create shared albums on a Windows computer as long as you have an iCloud account/Apple ID.

To enable iCloud Photo Sharing on Windows, download and install the iCloud For Windows software on your computer. Click here to download iCloud For Windows from the Apple website.

Once you’ve installed iCloud For Windows, open it and sign in with your Apple ID. Use the same Apple ID that you use on your iPhone.

Ensure the Photos box is checked. Then click on Options beside Photos:

Check the iCloud Photo Sharing box. Click Done, then click Apply:

Now you can create a shared album and invite people to view your photos. Open File Explorer on your computer. Then open iCloud Photos from the left-hand sidebar:

Click the New Shared Album button at the top of the screen. Add the iCloud email addresses for the people you want to invite.

Name your shared album, and click Next. Select the photos you want to add, then click Done.

Your photos will be shared to the album. Other subscribers can now see your pictures.

5. Shared Album Storage Limits

You can share up to 200 albums via iCloud Photo Sharing. And each shared album can contain a maximum of 5,000 photos or videos.

The great thing about iCloud Photo Sharing is that photos and videos in shared albums don’t count against your iCloud storage limit.

So you don’t need to worry about upgrading your iCloud storage plan. And it will never cost you any money to share your photos!

The post How To Use iCloud Photo Sharing To Share Your iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Table Of Contents: How To Organize Photos On iPhone

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1. What Are iPhone Photo Albums?
2. How To View Your iPhone Photo Albums
3. View Your Entire Image Libary
4. How To Use The Media Types Albums
5. Do Albums Use Up More Storage Space On Your iPhone?
6. How To Create Your Own iPhone Photo Albums
7. How To Change Album Name On iPhone
8. How To Rearrange Photos In iPhone Album
9. How To Remove Photos From An iPhone Photo Album
10. How To Delete Photo Albums From iPhone
11. How To “Favorite” Your Best Photos
12. How To Manage Your Deleted iPhone Photos

1. What Are iPhone Photo Albums?

An iPhone photo album is a storage place for a particular set of images within the Photos app.

When you take a photo with your iPhone camera, the image gets stored in the Recents album of the Photos app.

But the Photos app also contains other albums. And your iPhone automatically organizes your images into the appropriate album.

For example, Live Photos get stored in the Live Photos album. Portrait mode photos get stored in the Portrait album. Burst mode photos get stored in the Bursts album.

The Shared Albums are for sharing your iPhone photos with others. And the People & Places albums are great for finding photos of a particular person or place.

The People album uses facial recognition to group together all of the photos of a particular person. And the Places album displays your photos on a map.

You can also create your own iPhone photo albums. This is perfect for organizing different collections of photos, such as landscape photos, family photos, etc.

Organizing your photos into albums makes it much easier to find particular photos.

2. How To View Your iPhone Photo Albums

To find your iPhone photo albums, open the Photos app. Then tap Albums at the bottom of the screen.

If you don’t see the Albums screen (similar to the one above), it means you’re currently viewing photos within one of your albums.

In this case, tap Albums at the top left to return to the main list of albums.

3. View Your Entire Image Libary

Do you want to see every single photo and video on your iPhone?

Simply tap Albums at the bottom of the screen. Then tap on the Recents album.

You’ll see the album name (Recents) at the top of the screen. And your images will be displayed as small thumbnails.

Scroll through the image thumbnails, and tap an image to view it at full size. To return to the thumbnail images, tap the back arrow at the top left of the screen.

To exit the Recents album, tap Albums at the top left.

4. How To Use The Media Types Albums

Would you like to view just a certain type of photo or video?

Maybe you shot some beautiful portrait photos and you’d like to see them all in one place.

Perhaps you took a bunch of panoramic shots, and you want to see which ones worked out.

Or maybe you want to see all of the videos that you’ve shot with your iPhone.

Luckily, your iPhone automatically organizes different types of photos and videos into albums.

The albums are named according to the “media type,” e.g., Videos, Live Photos, Portrait, Long Exposure, Panoramas, etc.

To access these albums, go to the main list of albums by tapping Albums at the bottom of the screen. Scroll down to the Media Types section, then tap the album you want to open.

The example above shows images in the Portrait album. These are all of the photos that were taken using Portrait mode in the iPhone Camera app. (Portrait mode creates beautifully blurred backgrounds in your photos).

Keep in mind that all of these photos and videos can also be found in the Recents album. The Media Types albums just make it easier to find a particular type of photo or video.

5. Do Albums Use Up More Storage Space On Your iPhone?

Having images in multiple albums doesn’t use up more storage space on your iPhone.

For example, a Live Photo will appear in the Recents album as well as the Live Photos album. But it’s not taking up the storage space of two photos.

The image is actually only stored once on your iPhone. But you can view it in either the Recents album or the Live Photos album.

The same goes for iPhone photo albums that you create yourself.

When you add a photo to an album you created, the photo doesn’t get duplicated and take up more storage space. The image is really only stored in one place on your iPhone, but it can be accessed from multiple albums.

6. How To Create Your Own iPhone Photo Albums

Do you want to organize your iPhone photos into different collections based on a theme?

Maybe you want to have all of your favorite landscape shots in one place. Perhaps you’d like to group all of your vacation photos together. Or maybe you’d like all of your best flower pictures in a single album.

Creating your own iPhone photo albums lets you organize your images in any way you wish. And it makes it much easier to find and view just the photos you want to look at.

So how do you create your own albums in the Photos app?

First, find the photo or photos you want to put into a new album. Ensure you’re viewing the images in thumbnail view as shown below. Then tap Select at the top right.

Select all of the photos you want to add to a new album. Then tap the Share icon at the bottom left of the screen.

Scroll down and tap Add To Album.

You now have two options:

You can select an existing album from the My Albums section. Or you can tap New Album to create a new one.

If you’ve chosen to create a new album, type a name for the album. Then tap Save to add the photos to the album.

To view the album you just added photos to, tap Albums at the top left. Your album will be in the My Albums section at the top of the screen.

If you can’t see the album you want to open, swipe across the screen or tap See All.

Tap on the album name to view the images within that album.

7. How To Change Album Name On iPhone

If you create an iPhone photo album, you can easily change the album name later if you wish.

Go to the main Albums screen (tap Albums at the bottom of the screen if necessary).

In the My Albums section, tap See All. Then tap Edit at the top right.

Tap on the album name you want to change. Use the keyboard to type a new name. Then tap Done to save the changes.

8. How To Rearrange Photos In iPhone Album

Once you’ve added images to an iPhone photo album, it’s easy to rearrange the order of the photos.

(Note that you can only reorder photos in albums that you’ve created yourself. You can’t change the order of photos in the built-in albums such as Recents, Videos, Bursts, etc.)

Here’s how to rearrange photos in iPhone albums that you’ve created:

Open the album you want to organize. Drag any photo to a different position within the album, then release your finger.

9. How To Remove Photos From An iPhone Photo Album

Do you want to delete photos from an album you created?

If so, you have two options:

You can remove the photo from the album, but keep it in the Recents album. Or you can delete the image from both the album you created and the Recents album.

Here’s how to remove photos from an album without deleting them from the Recents album:

Open the album containing the photos you want to remove. Tap Select at the top right.

Select all of the photos you want to remove. Then tap the Delete (trash) icon at the bottom right.

Tap Remove From Album. The photos will be removed from the album, but they’ll still be stored in the Recents album.

If you want to delete the photos from all albums on your iPhone, tap Delete on the above dialog box.

10. How To Delete Photo Albums From iPhone

You can easily delete iPhone photo albums that you’ve created.

Go to the My Albums section of the main Albums screen. Tap See All, then tap Edit.

Tap the red circle on the album you want to delete.

A message appears asking if you want to delete the album. But notice that it says the photos won’t be deleted.

This is because the photos aren’t really stored in this album. They’re actually only stored in the Recents album.

Therefore, you can delete a photo album that you created, but the photos still remain in their original location within the Recents album.

To confirm that you want to delete the album (but not the photos within it), tap Delete Album.

11. How To “Favorite” Your Best Photos

Would you like to see all of your favorite images in a single album in the Photos app?

The iPhone makes it easy to mark your best images as “Favorites.” These images then appear together in the Favorites album.

To add a photo to the Favorites album, tap on the image to open it. Then tap the Favorites (heart) icon at the bottom of the screen so it turns blue.

To view all of your Favorites, go to the main Albums screen, then open the Favorites album.

If you no longer want a photo to appear in the Favorites album, tap on the photo to open it. Then tap the Favorites (heart) icon so it appears white.

Please note, if you use the Delete button to remove a photo from the Favorites album, it will also be deleted from the main Recents album.

So, always unfavorite the photo using the heart icon rather than deleting it.

12. How To Manage Your Deleted iPhone Photos

Before you experiment with deleting your photos, it would be a good idea to transfer your photos from iPhone to computer. Or back them up to external or cloud storage. That way, you won’t lose any of your favorite images if you accidentally delete them.

You can use an iPhone photo transfer app to back up your photos. If you have a Mac computer, click here to learn how to download photos from iPhone to Mac. If you have a Windows computer, read our tutorial on how to transfer photos from iPhone to PC.

12.1 How To Delete Photos

To delete a single image from the Photos app, open the image and tap the Delete (trash) icon at the bottom right. Then tap Delete Photo.

To delete several photos, ensure you’re viewing the images in thumbnail view (as shown below). Tap Select at the top right.

Select all of the images you want to delete. Tap the Delete icon, then tap Delete Photos.

When you delete photos from your iPhone, they don’t get permanently removed straight away.

Instead, the deleted photos go into the Recently Deleted album where they remain for 30 days.

Within that 30-day timeframe, you can recover photos and put them back into the Recents album. This is useful if you delete a photo by mistake!

You can also permanently delete photos before the automatic 30-day timeframe.

12.2 How To Recover Or Delete Photos From The Recently Deleted Album

To manage your deleted photos, go to the main Albums screen in the Photos app. Scroll down, and open the Recently Deleted album.

You’ll now see all of your recently deleted photos. Each photo shows the number of days remaining before it’ll be permanently removed from your iPhone.

Do you want to recover deleted images and move them back into the Recents album?

Start by tapping Select at the top right of the screen.

Select the photos you want to recover. Tap Recover at the bottom right, then tap Recover Photos.

Do you want to permanently delete photos from the Recently Deleted album before the automatic 30-day timeframe?

Select the photos you want to delete, then tap Delete at the bottom left. Tap Delete Photos to permanently delete the selected images from your iPhone.

If you want to permanently delete all images from the Recently Deleted album, tap Select, then Delete All.

The post How To Use iPhone Photo Albums To Organize Your Images appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Table Of Contents: iPhone Video Editing In The Photos App

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1. Ensure Your iPhone Is Running iOS 13 Or Later
2. Duplicate Your Video To Preserve The Original
3. Open The Video Editor In The Photos App
4. Trim Your Video
5. Apply A Filter To Your Video
6. Adjust Color, Brightness & Sharpness
7. Crop, Straighten & Adjust Perspective
8. Set The Slow-Motion Section Of A Slo-Mo Video
9. Mute The Sound In Your Video
10. Save Your Edited Video
11. Remove Your Video Edits

1. Ensure Your iPhone Is Running iOS 13 Or Later

The Photos app is one of the best photo and video editing apps for iPhone.

And it’s built right into your phone – so you don’t need to download a third-party editing app.

But the video editing tools are only available if your iPhone is running iOS 13 or later. (iOS is the iPhone operating system).

If you have iPhone 11 or iPhone 12, you’ll already have the new video editing tools in the Photos app.

If you have an older iPhone (iPhone 6s or newer) running iOS 12 or earlier, you can update to the latest iOS for free.

If you have the iPhone 6 or earlier, unfortunately, you won’t be able to access the video editing tools (because you can’t update to iOS 13 or later).

To update your iPhone to the latest iOS, open the Settings app from the Home screen. Then go to General > Software Update.

If your software is up to date with iOS 13 or later, you don’t need to do anything else. You’ll already have access to the iPhone video editing tools.

If your software isn’t up to date, follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the latest iOS. Before doing this, make sure the data on your iPhone is backed up – just in case something goes wrong!

2. Duplicate Your Video To Preserve The Original

When you edit a video, the original video is overwritten with the edited version.

However, edits that you make in the Photos app are non-destructive. So you can revert back to the original video at any time.

But what if you want to keep the original video in your photo library, along with a separate edited version?

In such cases, you can duplicate the video before editing. That way, you’ll have two copies of the video on your iPhone – one of which can be edited.

To duplicate a video, open it in the Photos app, then tap the Share icon (square with arrow) at the bottom left.

Scroll down and select Duplicate.

Tap the Back arrow at the top left of the screen to return to thumbnail view in your photo library.

The duplicate video will be at the bottom of your photo library.

You can now edit this duplicate video, safe in the knowledge that the original version won’t be altered.

Note that the video editing tools support all video formats captured on iPhone. So you can edit videos, time-lapse videos, and slo-mo videos.

3. Open The Video Editor In The Photos App

So, how do you access the video editing tools in the Photos app?

Simply open the video you want to edit, then tap Edit at the top right.

At the bottom of the screen, you’ll see four icons. From left to right, these icons are: Video, Adjust, Filters, and Crop.

Read on to discover how to create beautiful video edits using each of these tools.

4. Trim Your Video

Do you want to remove content from the beginning or end of your video?

It’s easy to trim a video in the iPhone Photos app.

Ensure the Video icon is selected at the bottom of the video editor screen.

To trim the beginning of the video, tap the small arrow to the left of the frame viewer and drag it to the right.

A yellow box indicates where the trimmed video will start and stop.

To trim the end of the video, drag the right-hand side of the frame viewer to the left.

Tap the Play icon (white arrow) to preview the trimmed video.

If you need to make adjustments to the start and stop time, drag the edges of the yellow box.

5. Apply A Filter To Your Video

Filters make it quick and easy to change the look and feel of your video.

You can choose from color or black and white filters to create the look you want.

Tap the Filters icon (three circles) at the bottom of the video editor screen.

Swipe across the filter thumbnails and watch how the colors in your video change.

When you find a filter you like, use the slider to adjust the intensity of the filter.

If you don’t want to apply a filter to your video, select the Original filter.

6. Adjust Color, Brightness & Sharpness

The iPhone records amazing quality video. But you can often make it look even better by adjusting the color, brightness, and sharpness.

To make adjustments, tap the Adjust icon (dial) at the bottom of the video editor screen.

The adjustment icons appear beneath the video. Swipe across to see them all.

When you apply an adjustment to a video, all frames in the video will be affected. In other words, the effect is applied to the entire video.

Read on to learn how each of the adjustment tools will affect your video footage.

6.1 Auto Adjust

The Auto tool automatically adjusts the colors and brightness of your video.

When you tap the Auto button, the icon turns pale grey to indicate that it’s switched on.

You can use the slider at the bottom of the screen to adjust the strength of the automatic edit.

If you swipe across the adjustment icons, you can see which adjustments have been applied by the Auto setting. A bold line on the circle around an icon indicates that it has been used.

If you wish, you can fine-tune the Auto adjustment using individual adjustment tools. Just tap an adjustment tool and use the slider to adjust its strength.

To remove the Auto adjustment from your video, tap the Auto icon so it turns dark grey.

Now let’s explore the manual adjustment tools located to the right of the Auto tool.

6.2 Exposure

The Exposure tool brightens or darkens the video.

Drag the slider right to brighten the video, or left to darken it.

The Exposure tool has a heavier bias towards the highlights. So the bright tones in your video are affected more than the dark tones.

6.3 Highlights

The Highlights tool adjusts the brightness of the bright areas in your video.

Drag the slider right to brighten the highlights, or left to darken them.

6.4 Shadows

The Shadows tool adjusts the brightness of the dark areas in your video.

Drag the slider left to darken the shadows, or right to brighten them.

6.5 Contrast

The Contrast tool adjusts the contrast between the bright and dark tones in your video.

Increasing contrast makes the shadows darker and the highlights brighter. Reducing contrast makes the shadows brighter and the highlights darker.

In general, lowering the contrast doesn’t look good. Increasing the contrast a little bit can make the video look sharper.

6.6 Brightness

The Brightness tool brightens or darkens the video (but in a slightly different way from the Exposure tool).

Drag the slider right to brighten the video, or left to darken it.

The Brightness tool has a slightly heavier bias towards the shadows and midtones. So the dark and medium tones are affected more than the bright tones.

6.7 Black Point

The Black Point tool affects the brightness of only the darkest tones in your video.

If your video lacks deep blacks, drag the slider to the right to make the darkest areas appear black. Dragging to the left can make the colors in your video look faded.

6.8 Saturation

The Saturation tool makes the colors in your video more or less vibrant.

Drag the slider right to make the colors more vibrant, or left to make them more muted.

Be careful not to over-saturate the colors as they’ll look unnatural if they’re too vibrant.

Setting the Saturation slider to -100 will remove all color, creating a black and white video.

6.9 Vibrance

The Vibrance tool boosts muted colors to make them richer without affecting skin tones and saturated colors.

Drag the slider right to make muted colors more vibrant, or left to make them less vibrant.

The Vibrance tool often results in more natural-looking colors than the Saturation tool. This is because it doesn’t over-saturate skin tones or colors that are already vibrant.

Even at the maximum Vibrance settings of 100 and -100, the skin tones still look natural.

6.10 Warmth

The Warmth tool makes the colors warmer (more orange) or cooler (more blue).

Drag the slider right to make the colors warmer, or left to make them cooler.

Adjusting the warmth allows you to correct the color balance or change the overall mood of your video.

6.11 Tint

The Tint tool adjusts the color balance by adding more green or magenta.

Drag the slider left to add a green tint, or right to add a magenta tint.

6.12 Sharpness

The Sharpness tool sharpens detail by making edges crisper and better defined.

Drag the slider to the right to increase sharpness.

However, be careful not to over-sharpen your video. Adding too much sharpness can reduce the quality and make it look grainy.

6.13 Definition

The Definition tool adjusts contrast to increase the clarity of your video footage.

Drag the slider to the right to increase clarity.

6.14 Noise Reduction

The Noise Reduction tool reduces or eliminates “noise” – such as grain caused by shooting in low light.

Drag the slider to the right to reduce noise in your video. But be careful not to apply too much noise reduction as it can soften the detail too much.

6.15 Vignette

The Vignette tool brightens or darkens the edges of your video. This can help draw attention to the center of the frame.

Drag the slider right to add a black vignette, or left to add a white vignette.

In most cases, a dark vignette will look better than a bright one. A dark vignette can add a wonderful sense of drama to your videos.

7. Crop, Straighten & Adjust Perspective

Tap the Crop tool at the bottom of the video editor screen.

This gives you access to a range of options for cropping, straightening, and adjusting perspective.

7.1 Crop

Do you want to crop away the edges of your video?

Simply drag the crop handles at the corners of the frame.

If you crop in too far, pinch inwards with two fingers to bring back the cropped areas. You can also drag the video preview to adjust which area appears within the crop frame.

When cropping, keep in mind that the entire video will be cropped – not just the frame that you see in the preview.

After cropping, drag the timeline bar at the bottom of the video to check that the entire video looks good when cropped.

If you want to crop to a specific aspect ratio, tap the Aspect Ratio icon at the top right.

Swipe across the row of aspect ratios, e.g. Square, 9:16, 8:10, etc. Then select the one you want to use.

Above the aspect ratio options, select whether you want the video to be cropped vertically or horizontally.

You can drag the video preview to change which area appears within the frame. And you can pinch in or out to adjust how much of the video is cropped.

To exit the aspect ratio options, tap the Aspect Ratio icon at the top right.

7.2 Straighten

If your video footage doesn’t look level, you can easily straighten it.

Tap the Straighten tool beneath the video.

Then drag the slider to rotate and straighten the video.

The entire video will be rotated when you use the Straighten tool. So always check that the whole video looks good when straightened.

7.3 Perspective

Sometimes you might want to correct the vertical or horizontal perspective in your video.

For example, if you shot the video from a low angle, tall subjects (such as buildings) may appear to converge towards the top. But you could correct or reduce this with the Vertical Perspective tool.

Drag the slider left or right to adjust the perspective.

If you want to adjust the horizontal perspective, use the Horizontal Perspective tool.

After adjusting perspective, check that the entire video looks good with the perspective adjustments.

8. Set The Slow-Motion Section Of A Slo-Mo Video

Have you shot a Slo-Mo video in the iPhone Camera app? If so, the start and end of the video will play at normal speed, while the main section in the middle appears in slow-motion.

But did you know you can adjust when the slow-motion part starts and ends?

In the Photos app video editor, ensure the Video icon is selected at the bottom of the screen.

Beneath the frame viewer, you’ll see a row of white vertical bars.

Where the bars are close together, the video plays at normal speed. Where the bars are further apart, the video plays in slow-motion.

To set which section plays in slow motion, drag the two tall white bars to the left or right.

9. Mute The Sound In Your Video

Would you rather your video didn’t have any sound?

To mute the sound in your video, ensure the Video icon is selected at the bottom of the screen. Then tap the yellow Sound (speaker) icon at the top left.

The icon appears grey when the video sound is muted. To switch the sound back on, tap the grey Sound icon.

The icon appears yellow when the video sound is switched on.

10. Save Your Edited Video

When you’ve finished editing your video, tap Done to save the changes and exit the video editor.

If you don’t want to save your edits, tap Cancel instead. Then tap Discard Changes.

11. Remove Your Video Edits

All video edits in the Photos app video editor are non-destructive. So, even after you’ve saved your edits, you can undo them at any time.

To revert your edits, open the video in the Photos app and tap Edit.

You can remove or adjust individual edits by going to a particular tool and changing the setting.

Or you can remove all edits by tapping Revert > Revert To Original.

The post How To Use iPhone Video Editing Tools In The Photos App appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Table Of Contents: VSCO Tutorial

Click any title link below to go straight to that section of the article:

1. How To Use VSCO App: Overview
1.1 Navigate The VSCO App
1.2 Import Photos Into VSCO For Editing
1.3 Open The VSCO Photo Editor

2. VSCO Filters
2.1 Apply A VSCO Filter To Your Photo
2.2 Download More VSCO Filters

3. VSCO Photo Editing Tools
3.1 Exposure
3.2 Contrast
3.3 Adjust (Crop, Rotate, Straighten & Skew)
3.4 Sharpen
3.5 Clarity
3.6 Saturation
3.7 Tone
3.8 White Balance
3.9 Skin Tone
3.10 Vignette
3.11 Grain
3.12 Fade
3.13 Split Tone
3.14 Borders
3.15 HSL (Hue, Saturation & Lightness)
3.16 Change Or Delete Individual Edits

4. Save Your Edited Photo

5. How To Use VSCO Camera
5.1 Focus & Exposure
5.2 Manual Camera Controls
5.3 RAW Format
5.4 Grid & Tiltmeter
5.5 Flash
5.6 Exposure Compensation
5.7 White Balance
5.8 Manual Focus
5.9 Shutter Speed
5.10 ISO
5.11 Preview Your Photos
5.12 VSCO Camera Vs. iPhone Camera App

1. How To Use VSCO App: Overview

What is VSCO?

It’s a fantastic app that lets you shoot, edit and share your iPhone photos.

But if you’re new to the app, it can be difficult to find your way around. And some of the icons don’t have labels – which can make it even more confusing.

So, in this section, you’ll learn how to navigate around VSCO and import your photos for editing.

1.1 Navigate The VSCO App

When you open the VSCO app, you’ll see five icons at the bottom of the screen. From left to right, these are VSCO Feed, Discover, Studio, Profile, and  VSCO X.

The VSCO Feed (circle icon with three lines) displays photos from people you follow on VSCO.

The Discover icon (circle icon with four intersecting lines) lets you discover new photographers in the VSCO community.

The Studio (two stacked squares icon) is where you import your photos ready for editing.

To open the VSCO camera, tap the Camera icon at the top left of the studio screen. When you’ve finished taking photos, tap the arrow at the top right to exit the camera.

The Profile icon (smiley face icon) displays photos that you’ve shared with the VSCO community.

The VSCO X icon at the bottom right allows you to subscribe to VSCO X membership. For $19.99 a year, you’ll get access to the entire range of VSCO filters, as well as additional editing tools.

1.2 Import Photos Into VSCO For Editing

To edit a photo in VSCO, you first have to import the image from your iPhone’s photo library. Tap the [+] icon at the top right of the VSCO studio.

The Camera Roll screen will appear. This displays the images from your iPhone’s photo library.

Scroll down to view more images. Or select a different album from the row of albums at the top of the screen.

Tap on the photo or photos you want to import for editing. Then tap Import at the bottom of the screen.

The imported images will appear in your VSCO studio.

1.3 Open The VSCO Photo Editor

In the VSCO studio, select the photo you want to edit. A gold outline appears around the selected image.

Tap the Edit icon (two sliders) at the bottom of the screen to open the VSCO editor.

Note that if you’ve selected multiple photos, you won’t be able to access the editing tools. If you’ve selected more than one photo, tap the X at the bottom left to deselect all images. Then select the photo you want to edit.

There are two ways to edit a photo in the VSCO app. You can use one-tap VSCO filters to quickly change the look and mood of your image. Or you can make manual edits using a range of VSCO editing tools.

Of course, you can edit using both filters and manual adjustments to create the exact look you want.

To open the VSCO filters, tap the Filters icon (white square) at the bottom left. To access the VSCO editing tools, tap the Edit icon (two sliders).

Next, you’ll learn how to create beautiful edits using the VSCO editing tools and filters.

2. VSCO Filters

VSCO filters (also known as ‘presets’) offer a quick one-tap editing solution. Each filter creates a different look by applying preset color and exposure adjustments.

VSCO is one of the best photo filter apps for iPhone. Its presets are subtle and have a wonderful film-like quality.

Read on to learn how to create beautiful VSCO edits using filters.

2.1 Apply A VSCO Filter To Your Photo

To apply a filter, first select the photo in your VSCO studio. Then tap the Edit icon (two sliders) at the bottom of the screen. On the next screen, ensure the Filters icon (white square) is selected.

The VSCO filters appear beneath your photo. Swipe across to see more filters.

Tap on a filter to apply it to your photo. If you don’t like the effect, tap a different filter.

After applying a filter, you can reduce its intensity to tone down the effect.

Tap on the active filter, then use the slider to adjust the filter strength. Tap the checkmark when you’re done.

When editing photos in VSCO, you can easily compare the before and after images. Tap and hold the image to see the original unedited version. Release your finger to return to the edited photo.

2.2 Download More VSCO Filters

The free VSCO app comes with a basic set of 10 filters to get you started. But there many more filters available.

To access to the entire collection of over 130 VSCO filters, you’ll need to subscribe to VSCO X.

It costs $19.99 a year, but it’s well worth it for the huge choice of filters that you’ll be able to use.

Edited with VSCO filter HB2

As a VSCO X member, you’ll also get access to some additional photo editing tools.

So, how do you subscribe to VSCO X?

Simply tap the VSCO X icon at the bottom right of the studio screen. Then tap Start Free Trial.

The 7-day free trial allows you to try out VSCO X (and all of the filters) before you commit to paying the annual subscription.

Edited with VSCO filter G1

Once you’ve signed up to VSCO X, you’ll have access to the full range of VSCO filters.

Now you can experiment with different filters to create just the look that you want.

3. VSCO Photo Editing Tools

VSCO has a wide range of photo editing tools for fine-tuning color, brightness, and sharpness. It also has adjustment tools for cropping, straightening, and correcting perspective problems.

To access the photo editing tools, select the photo you want to work on in your VSCO studio.

Then tap the Edit icon (two sliders) at the bottom of the screen. If you’ve already opened your photo to apply a VSCO filter, you can skip this step.

Tap the Edit icon (two sliders) at the bottom of the next screen. The VSCO photo editing tools appear beneath your image.

Swipe across the row of editing tools to see the full range of tools available.

Tap on a tool to access the options for that adjustment. Most tools have a single slider for making adjustments. But some tools have other options too.

Below you’ll discover how to create stunning VSCO edits using these photo editing tools.

3.1 Exposure

The Exposure tool lets you change the image brightness. Drag the slider left to make your photo darker, or right to make it brighter.

3.2 Contrast

The Contrast tool adjusts the amount of contrast between the bright and dark areas.

Increasing contrast makes the dark areas darker and the bright areas brighter. This creates a bold, dramatic image. Reducing contrast creates a softer image with less difference between dark and light.

3.3 Adjust (Crop, Rotate, Straighten & Skew)

The Adjust tool contains four image adjustment options: Crop, Rotate, Straighten and Skew.

To crop away the edges of your photo, ensure the Crop + Straighten option is selected. Then drag the corner handles to a new position. You can crop to a specific aspect ratio by tapping one of the options at the bottom of the screen, e.g. 1:1 (square), 4:5, 16:9, etc.

To straighten your photo, drag the slider left or right. This is perfect for leveling up slanted horizons in your landscape photos.

To rotate your image 90 degrees at a time, tap the Rotate icon (curved arrows) to the right of the slider.

The Skew option lets you correct problems with horizontal and vertical perspective.

If you’ve taken a photo looking up at a building, the top of the building will appear narrower than the bottom. Adjusting the vertical perspective can fix this problem, making the building appear straighter.

Tap Skew, then use the Y slider to adjust vertical perspective. Use the X slider to control horizontal perspective.

To return to the Crop, Straighten and Rotate tools, tap Crop + Straighten.

3.4 Sharpen

Use the Sharpen tool to makes the detail in your photo appear sharper and more defined.

Be careful not to over-sharpen though. Too much sharpness can degrade the quality of your photo, making it appear slightly grainy.

3.5 Clarity

The Clarity tool enhances detail in your photo and makes your image “pop.”

3.6 Saturation

The Saturation tool controls the vibrancy of colors in your photo. Increase saturation to make the colors more vibrant. Or decrease it to make colors more muted.

3.7 Tone

The Tone tool lets you control the brightness of highlights and shadows separately. Highlights are the bright tones in your image. Shadows are the dark tones.

Use the Highlights slider to darken areas of your image that are too bright. And use the Shadows slider to brighten areas that are too dark.

These tools bring out color and detail in the bright and dark parts of your photo. But if an area is so over-exposed that it appears pure white, you probably won’t be able to retrieve any detail.

Also, be careful not to over-apply these settings. Darkening highlights and brightening shadows can result in an image with not enough contrast.

3.8 White Balance

The White Balance tool lets you adjust the color tone of your photo with two sliders. You can use this tool to change the mood of your photo. It’s also useful for correcting color casts caused by different types of light.

The Temperature slider makes the colors cooler (more blue) or warmer (more orange).

Making the colors cooler can create a cold, lonely or melancholy mood. A warmer orange tone creates a happier, vibrant mood. Warming up the color temperature is perfect for enhancing your sunset photos.

The Tint slider adds a green or purple color tint to your image. Dragging the slider to the green end of the scale is great for boosting the green tones in your photos.

3.9 Skin Tone

The Skin Tone tool is great for enhancing the skin color in your portrait photos. Drag the slider left to add more pink tones. Or drag it right to make the skin tone appear yellower or more tanned.

3.10 Vignette

The Vignette tool subtly darkens the edges of your image. Vignettes can add drama to your photos. And you can use them to draw the viewer’s attention to the center of the scene.

3.11 Grain

Use the Grain tool to create the look of film grain in your photo. Grain isn’t usually a desirable feature in a photo, but in certain situations it can work.

Grain can add a gritty, vintage look to your images, especially when used with a black and white filter.

3.12 Fade

The Fade tool washes out the colors in your photo to create a faded, vintage look.

3.13 Split Tone

The Split Tone tool lets you add different colored tints to either the shadows or highlights.

To tint the dark areas of your photo, select Shadows Tint. Next, select a color at the bottom of the screen. Then use the slider to adjust the strength of the tint.

The example on the right has a blue tint applied to the dark areas of the image.

To tint the bright areas, select Highlights Tint. The example of the right below has an orange tint applied to the bright areas of the photo.

3.14 Borders

You can add a border around your image using the Borders tool. A border can add a finishing touch to your edited photos.

Drag the slider right to increase the width of the border. Then choose a border color from the circles beneath the slider.

Note that the Borders tool is locked with the free version of the app. You can use the tool, but you can’t save your border unless you subscribe to VSCO X.

With VSCO X, you pay $19.99 a year to get access to every VSCO photo editing tool and filter.

3.15 HSL (Hue, Saturation & Lightness)

HSL stands for Hue, Saturation, and Lightness. These tools let you control the hue, saturation, and lightness for each color in your image.

Start by selecting the color you want to change using the colored circles at the bottom of the screen. Then drag one of the sliders to adjust only that color in your photo.

Hue refers to the particular shade of a color. In the example below, only the yellow hues in the photo have been changed using the Hue slider.

Saturation describes a color’s intensity. In the examples below, the Saturation slider was used to adjust the vibrancy of only the blue colors.

In the left photo, saturation was reduced, making the blues appear more muted. In the right photo, saturation was increased, making the blues appear more vibrant.

The Lightness slider lets you change how dark or light a particular color is. In the examples below, the lightness of only the blues was adjusted.

In the left photo, the lightness of the blues was reduced. This makes the blue sky and water appear darker. In the right photo, the lightness of the blues was increased. The sky and water appear lighter, while the rest of the colors in the photo are unaffected.

As you can see from these examples, the HSL tool gives you ultimate control over every color in your photo.

It’s a powerful photo editing tool, but it’s locked in the free version of the app. You can use the tool, but you can’t save your edits unless you subscribe to VSCO X.

3.16 Change Or Delete Individual Edits

VSCO allows you to view, change or delete individual edits that you made to an image. This is a useful tool for seeing what edits you’ve made and tweaking them further. It’s also helpful if you want to delete an edit that you no longer want.

At the bottom of the VSCO editor screen, tap the circular arrow icon. A list of your VSCO edits appears beneath the image. Scroll down to see more edits.

When you tap an item in the list, two icons appear. Tap the trash icon to delete that edit from your image. Or tap the slider icon to open the adjustment slider for that particular edit.

To delete all edits that you made to the image, scroll to the bottom of the list and tap Clear All.

4. Save Your Edited Photo

When you’ve finished editing your photo, tap Save at the top of the screen. This saves your edited photo into your VSCO studio.

You now need to save the image to the Photos app on your iPhone. Select the image in your VSCO studio. Or select several images to save them all to your Photos app in one go. Then tap the Options icon (three dots) at the bottom of the screen.

In the pop-up menu, tap Save To Camera Roll. Then select Actual Size to save the image at the largest size and highest quality.

5. How To Use VSCO Camera

You can use the VSCO camera to take photos, instead of using the iPhone’s built-in Camera app. Tap the Camera icon at the top of the VSCO studio screen.

You can use the camera’s auto settings. Or take control with DSLR-like advanced manual camera controls.

These include exposure compensation, shutter speed, ISO, white balance and manual focus.

Below you’ll learn how to use the VSCO camera controls. But first, ensure the camera is set to Photo mode.

DSCO mode is for creating animated GIF videos. You don’t want to use this mode for shooting photos.

5.1 Focus & Exposure

It’s essential to set focus and exposure before taking a photo. Setting focus ensures the most important part of the scene appears crisp and sharp.

Exposure controls the brightness of the image. Setting exposure ensures the image doesn’t appear under-exposed (too dark) or over-exposed (too bright).

Tap the screen to set focus and exposure at a single point (indicated by two red circles).

To separate the focus and exposure points, tap the screen with two fingers. The focus and exposure points will appear as two separate circles.

You can drag these focus and exposure points to any position. Drag the focus point to the part of the scene you want in sharp focus. And drag the exposure point to the area you want correctly exposed.

Double-tapping the focus or exposure point will lock the current setting. Lock focus and exposure whenever you want to take several photos of the same scene. This will save you having to set focus and exposure for each new shot.

To unlock focus and exposure, drag the red circles to a different part of the screen. To exit the separate focus and exposure mode, double-tap the screen or drag one red circle onto the other.

5.2 Manual Camera Controls

The manual camera controls are at the bottom of the viewfinder. Below you’ll discover how to use the VSCO camera settings.

5.3 RAW Format

The RAW icon lets you shoot in RAW file format. RAW images aren’t compressed like a standard JPEG photo, so they’re much higher quality.

Shooting in RAW offers greater control when editing. For example, it allows you to bring out more detail in over-exposed and under-exposed areas.

Normally, if an image contains over-exposed areas that are pure white, you can’t bring back any detail. But if you shoot in RAW, there’s a better chance that you’ll be able to recover this lost detail.

If you want to create the highest quality edits in VSCO, switch on RAW when shooting. But be aware that RAW images have much larger file sizes than JPEGs. So you may run out of storage space on your iPhone if you shoot a lot of photos in RAW.

5.4 Grid & Tiltmeter

The Grid icon lets you switch on the gridlines or tiltmeter.

Use the gridlines to help you line up the elements in your shot. Or switch on the tiltmeter to ensure your iPhone is level. This is useful for making sure the horizon is straight in your landscape photos.

Keep tapping the Grid icon to toggle through the different grid display options. When the icon appears as a grid, you’ll see the gridlines in the viewfinder.

When the Grid icon appears with a single horizontal line, you’ll see the tiltmeter on your screen. This is an amazing tool for ensuring your camera is level before taking your shot.

As you rotate your iPhone left or right, watch the leveling line rotate at the center of the screen. When the central line turns green, your phone is level.

The two red lines tell you whether your phone is tilted forwards or backward. To ensure your phone isn’t tilted, line up the red lines with the two white lines on either side of the screen. They’ll turn green when your phone is perfectly straight.

5.5 Flash

The lighting bolt icon offers four different flash options. You can use the flash to light up a dark scene. But use it with caution as the bright light can create glare and harsh shadows.

Keep tapping the Flash icon to toggle through the different settings. When the Flash icon appears with an “X” next to it, the flash is off. The letter “A” means Auto Flash. If there isn’t enough light, the flash will automatically fire.

The lightning bolt icon without a letter next to it means the flash is On. The flash will fire every time you take a photo.

The letter “T” means Torch mode, which provides a continuous beam of light. This is useful in very dark scenes to illuminate the subject even before you press the shutter.

5.6 Exposure Compensation

Exposure Compensation lets you control the brightness of your image. Tap the Exposure Compensation icon (sun) at the bottom of the screen. Then drag the slider to adjust brightness.

Tap “A” to the right of the slider if you want to revert to Auto Exposure. Tap the arrow to the left of the slider to exit Exposure Compensation.

5.7 White Balance

White Balance allows you to make the colors in your photo cooler (more blue) or warmer (more orange). Tap the WB icon, then drag the slider to adjust the color.

Tap “A” to the right of the slider to return to Auto White Balance. Tap the arrow to the left of the slider to exit the White Balance setting.

5.8 Manual Focus

Manual Focus lets you control focus using a slider, rather than tapping on the screen. This is great for close-up photography when you want to ensure focus is set on the exact spot you want.

Tap the Manual Focus icon (+ symbol), then drag the slider left or right to adjust focus. Tap “A” to revert to Auto Focus. Tap the arrow to exit Manual Focus.

5.9 Shutter Speed

The Shutter Speed icon (circle made up of small lines) lets you adjust the camera’s shutter speed. Shutter speed refers to the amount of time the shutter is open when you take a photo.

Drag the slider left to make the shutter speed faster. Or drag it right for a slower shutter speed.

A slow shutter speed lets you create stunning long exposure photos. Any movement in the scene, such as flowing water or moving vehicles, will appear as motion blur.

By contrast, a fast shutter speed freezes movement. Use a fast shutter speed to capture sharp photos of moving subjects or to avoid camera shake in low light.

5.10 ISO

The ISO setting controls the camera’s sensitivity to light. Increasing the ISO makes the camera more sensitive to light. This means you can shoot with faster shutter speeds in low light, helping you avoid camera shake.

Tap the ISO icon, then drag the slider left or right. Drag left to make the camera less sensitive to light. Drag right to make the camera more sensitive to light.

Use a low ISO setting in bright conditions. If you use a high ISO in bright light, your photo may appear over-exposed as shown in the right-hand image above.

Use high ISO settings in low light, so that you can use a faster shutter speed. But keep in mind that high ISO settings can introduce noise (grain) into your photo.

5.11 Preview Your Photos

When you take a photo, you can view it by tapping the image thumbnail at the bottom left of the screen. Scroll through your recent photos by swiping across the screen.

When viewing a photo, you have several options. To edit the image, tap the Edit icon (two sliders) at the bottom of the screen. Tap the Options icon (three dots) to save, delete or share the photo.

To exit the image preview, tap the arrow at the top left. This takes you to your VSCO studio where all of your images are stored.

If you want to take more photos, tap the Camera icon at the top of the screen. To exit the camera and return to your VSCO studio, tap the arrow at the top right of the camera screen.

5.12 VSCO Camera Vs. iPhone Camera App

The VSCO camera has more manual controls than the iPhone’s built-in Camera app. If you want to control white balance, shutter speed, ISO and manual focus, VSCO is a great choice.

But the VSCO camera does lack certain features that you’ll find in the iPhone Camera app. VSCO doesn’t have burst mode, self-timer, HDR, Portrait Mode or Live Photos.

You can’t shoot wide panoramic photos with VSCO. And you can’t shoot video, time-lapse or slow-motion footage.

The post How To Use VSCO App To Shoot & Edit Beautiful iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Table Of Contents: Foap App

Click any title link below to go straight to that section of the article:

1. What Is Foap?

2. How Does Foap Work

3. How Much Does Foap Pay?

4. Foap Review

5. How To Use The Foap App To Sell Your Photos
5.1 Navigate Around The Foap App
5.2 Upload Your Photos To Foap
5.3 Join A Foap Mission

6. How To Increase Your Chances Of Selling Photos On Foap

What Is Foap?

Foap is a free app that lets you sell your photos.

Businesses and well-known brands often buy images for commercial use. They might need photos to advertise their products, use on their website, or include in company brochures.

The Foap app brings your photos to the attention of potential buyers from all over the world.

If you have the kind of images they need, you’ll be in with a chance of making a sale!

The Foap app also has a photography community that you can get involved in. You can explore photos from other Foap members and get feedback on your own pictures.

2. How Does Foap Work?

The Foap app lets you upload photos straight from your iPhone.

Once uploaded, your images are available for sale. You can sell the same photo as many times as you like.

Buyers can search for images and purchase them through the Foap Market at Foap.com.

Another way to sell your photos is through Foap missions. These are photo challenges organized by famous brands, such as Pepsi, MasterCard, Nivea, Volvo, MasterCard, and Bank of America.

The company provides a brief which specifies the kind of images they need. You then submit suitable photos to the mission. If your images get picked, you’ll get paid!

3. How Much Does Foap Pay?

Photos that you upload to your Foap profile sell for $10 each on the marketplace. Foap takes 50% commission. So you’ll end up with $5 for each photo sold.

You can make more money by joining Foap missions. Each mission pays a prize for the winning image, starting at $50. You can potentially earn hundreds of dollars with missions on Foap.

Even if you don’t get selected as a winner, companies often buy other photos that were submitted.

Some missions specify that chosen photos will be exclusive to the brand. This means the brand gets full ownership of your image. As a result, you can’t sell it to anyone else. If the mission is set to exclusive, you’ll earn $30 for each photo sold.

Payment is made via PayPal.

4. Foap Review

Can you really generate income with Foap? Or is this app a time-wasting gimmick?

Below, you’ll discover the advantages and disadvantages of using the Foap app. This Foap review will help you make an informed decision on whether Foap will work for you.

Advantages Of Using Foap

• Foap app is free to download and use.
• Upload photos straight from your iPhone.
• Upload images in batches to save time.
• Get your photos seen by big brands.
• Foap missions offer a way to earn more money.
• Photos are watermarked and displayed at a reduced size until purchased. This avoids people stealing your full-resolution images.
• Photos sell with non-exclusive rights (apart from exclusive missions). So you can sell a single photo many times.
• See what’s selling to get an idea of the kind of images that are likely to sell.
• No minimum amount that you need to earn before you can cash in your earnings.
• Supportive community where members rate each other’s photos.

Disadvantages Of Using Foap

• Huge number of users uploading photos, so there’s a lot of competition.
• Time-consuming to create a large portfolio of photos.
• Descriptions and keyword tags have to be added to all images so they can be found by buyers.
• You’ll lose money if you buy a product to photograph for a mission but don’t make a sale.
• Earning potential isn’t great due to the low selling price of images on the Foap marketplace.
• Photos sold with exclusive rights in a mission can’t be sold again.
• It may take a long time before you make any sales.
• There’s no guaranteed success of sales… ever!

If you’re hoping to make a lot of money quickly, Foap probably isn’t for you.

It might take months before you make a sale. In fact, you might never sell a photo at all. And you’re unlikely to earn huge amounts from selling your images.

But if you’re happy to put in some time to upload your photos, it’s worth giving Foap a try.

I’ve had my photos on Foap for a few months now. But I haven’t made a sale yet.

However, I found it easy to upload my images. So I don’t feel I’ve wasted too much time. And now that my photos are there, they have the potential to sell many times without me having to do any more work.

Would you like to start using Foap to sell your iPhone photos?

Read on to learn how to use the Foap app. And discover some great tips for maximizing your earning potential!

5. How To Use The Foap App To Sell Your Photos

The Foap app is very easy to use.

When you first download the app, you’ll need to create a Foap account. After that, you can upload photos, explore current missions, and discover other people’s photos.

5.1 Navigate Around The Foap App

There are five icons at the bottom of the screen which let you navigate around the app.

The Newsfeed icon takes you to the News section of Foap. Here, you’ll find the latest information on current missions and recent winners.

If you’re following other Foap users, tap Following at the top of the screen to quickly access their profile. The Me tab shows how other users have rated your photos.

The Explore icon lets you view other Foap members’ photos.

Tap the Sold tab at the top of the screen to see which photos have sold. Tap Recent to view recently uploaded pictures. Use the Search box to search for a particular genre of photography.

The Camera icon lets you upload your photos to the Foap app.

The Missions icon shows details of the latest missions organized by famous brands.

The Active tab lists all current mission briefs. The Joined tab shows any missions you’ve joined. The Winners tab displays the winning shots from previous missions.

The Menu icon takes you to the settings and options for your Foap account. Here, you can manage your photos, change notification settings, and withdraw money from sales.

5.2 Upload Your Photos To Foap

To add your images to the Foap marketplace, you’ll need to upload some photos to your profile.

Tap the Camera icon at the bottom of the screen.

Find the photo you want to upload, then tap to select it. To save time, you can select several photos to batch upload them. Tap Done to start the upload process.

Next, add an accurate description and as many relevant tags as possible. Tags are keywords that help your photos appear when buyers search for those words.

Select from the suggested tags beneath your photo. Or tap Add Tags to type your own tags, then click OK.

Tap Publish at the top right.

Next, you have to answer some questions about whether there are people in your photo. Answer Yes or No.

If you answer Yes, you’ll be asked if the faces are recognizable. If you can’t recognize any faces in your photo, tap No. You can then tap Publish to complete the upload.

If there are recognizable faces in your photo, you’ll need to complete a model release form. The model must sign the form. For children under 18, a parent or guardian needs to sign.

Click here to print off the model release form. Once completed and signed, take a photo of the form and click here to upload it to Foap.

Remember, if you don’t have the model’s permission, you can’t sell your photo on Foap.

When you publish a photo, it appears in the list of your published images. To exit this screen, tap the arrow at the top left.

To view your uploaded photos, you’ll need to go to your Foap profile page. Tap the Menu icon, then tap your Foap profile name at the top of the screen. Tap on a photo to view it full screen.

5.3 Join A Foap Mission

How do you increase your chances of earning more money with Foap?

The best way is to join some missions.

Missions are set up by big brands. They specify exactly what they’re looking for and how much they’ll pay. Some offer as much as $500 for a winning submission.

The mission runs for a set number of days. The brand then chooses its favorite photo and pays the reward. They might also buy other photos submitted to the mission.

Joining a mission puts your photos right in front of famous brands. This increases your chances of making some big sales.

To browse the current missions, tap Missions at the bottom of the screen.

Tap on a mission to read the details. To exit the mission brief, tap the arrow at the top left.

You may already have photos that fit the mission brief. Or you might need to take photos specifically for the mission.

To increase your chances of a sale, pay attention to what the brand wants.

Some missions require a particular product in the shot. There might be a certain age range or clothing requirements. They might want photos to have minimal editing. Or maybe they need images in a particular format, such as square.

It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on the competition. Tap Photos near the top of the screen to see what other people have submitted. Tap the arrow at the top left to return to the mission brief.

To submit your photos to a mission, tap Join Mission at the bottom of the screen.

Select your photos, then tap Done. Add a description and tags, then tap Publish.

Try to submit several photos to a mission to increase your chance of success.

6. How To Increase Your Chances Of Selling Photos On Foap

How do you maximize your chances of selling photos and earning more money with Foap?

Here are five top tips:

Tip 1: Upload Lots Of High-Quality Photos

The more photos you upload, the more chance you have of someone liking one of your pictures and buying it.

Make sure you only upload high-quality images. Buyers will be looking for clear and sharp photos with good lighting and great composition.

Click here for 10 iPhone photography tips to quickly improve your photos.

Tip 2: Edit Your Photos Carefully

Edit your images before uploading to make them look as good as possible.

Simple edits can make a big difference. Use an app like Snapseed to straighten horizons, crop your photo, and adjust brightness and color levels.

But try to keep your edits subtle. Most buyers are looking for images without heavy editing effects.

Click here to learn how to create beautiful iPhone photo edits.

Tip 3: Add Accurate Descriptions & Tags

When you upload your photos to Foap, take the time to add accurate descriptions and tags.

Good descriptions and tags help your photos to appear in searches made by buyers. Think about what the buyer might be searching for to find a photo like yours.

You’ll need to add a minimum of five tags to your photo, but try to use a lot more.

When creating tags, be both specific and more general. For example, a photo of a red rose could have the following tags: rose, red, flower, petals, nature, floral, garden, florist, valentines day, romance, love.

Tip 4: Join Missions

Take part in photo missions organized by famous brands.

This does make using Foap more time-consuming. But it increases your chances of getting your photos noticed.

And the payment rewards are much higher than selling photos through the Foap marketplace.

Tip 5: Discover Which Photos Sell Well On Foap

Another top tip is to get an idea of what kind of photos sell well on Foap.

Use the Explore icon at the bottom of the screen to view recently sold photos.

What kind of photos are currently selling? What are the most popular subjects and scenes?

Once you have an idea of this, you can try to shoot and upload similar kinds of images.

Having the right kind of photos will definitely increase your chances of making some sales.

The post How To Use Foap App To Earn Money From Selling Your iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Powerful Photo Editing Suite With A Few Surprises

Fotor comes pre-loaded with a basic set of auto-correct settings and a decent number of adjustable filter presets (“Scenes” and “Effects”) to simulate a whole range of styles.

What’s nice about these filters is that they’re fully adjustable, so you’re not stuck with using filters that are over-pronounced or overly tacky. In fact, the included filters are quite useful and not too garish like with some apps.

Beyond the filter presets lies a wealth of solid editing tools. Included are the basics such as Contrast, Saturation, Brightness and Sharpness. These all function simply and intuitively as you would expect from any other editing app.

The advanced setting options include adjustments such as Vignette, Shadows, Highlights, Tint, Temp and RGB levels. There’s also a full-featured Curves tool for refining your exposure and contrast levels.

Highly Adjustable Focus Adjustment Tool

One particular tool that Fotor offers is a selective focus tool. This works a bit like the circular blur tools found in apps like Snapseed, but it’s applied a bit differently.

You’re able to set the center point anywhere you want by simply dragging the on-screen circle where you’d like it. The size of the circle is easily adjustable by pinch zooming with two fingers. Then, you can quickly adjust the depth of blur using the slider below your image.

As you might have noticed, this feature works to mimic the aperture setting on a larger DSLR-like camera as each adjustment point is based on a simulated aperture setting, e.g. f/2.8, f/5.6, etc.

While the specific numbers are a bit arbitrary as they don’t correspond to a specific lens size/type, they add a bit of a retro touch and the overall tool functions very well regardless.

Additional Editing Options

Fotor includes options to crop or rotate an image, as well as adding text, frames and stickers.

It also includes a collage tool that offers two different types of collage styles. The first is similar to what you find in most collage apps.

In the “Classic” collage section, you can choose from square or rectangular collage shapes and then add your photos to each section of your selected template.

The other collage style is called “Magazine” and gives your collages more of a narrative feel as if they’re part of a story/feature in a magazine.

It’s a bit of a gimmicky feature, but could be used to great effect if done well. As with any such feature, experiment with it and see how it works for you.

Events and Inspiration

Finally, Fotor’s “Vision” section brings you to the social side of the app. In this section, you can view the current list of Events (new ones are posted each week), which are essentially themed challenges that you can submit photos to.

Fotor are inviting award-wining photographers from the iPhone Photography Awards to be their judges, and the winners of the Events receive actual prize money.

This prize money gives these challenges a tangible end goal beyond just recognition. You can see all of the photos submitted for a given Event to help you gauge whether or not you might wish to submit some of your own.

Additionally, the Vision section includes another tab called “Inspire” where you can view top photos selected from past Events and challenges.

The look of the Inspire section is very clean and uncluttered, which allows the photos to take center stage. If you’re familiar with the VSCO Grid in the VSCO app, the Inspire section of Fotor looks very similar.

A quick browse through this section will reveal the high caliber of photos that Fotor users are creating with the app and submitting to challenges.

This is a great demonstration of what the app is capable of. If you decide to try the app out for yourself, check this section out first!

Final Thoughts

When app developers try to combine too many features into an app, it usually suffers from a “jack of all trades, master of none” effect. However, Fotor is an exception to that rule.

The app offers a well-balanced collection of editing tools that all work very well. On top of that, the social aspect of the app is focused and offers clear direction. In fact, if you’re familiar with stock photo apps such as Snapwire, the Events section of Fotor bears a strong similarity.

Highlights

• Great collection of included preset filters
• Clean and uncluttered interface
• Unique selective focus tool
• An above-average sharpening tool (this feature is handled terribly on so many other apps)
• Ability to share edited photos directly to a wide range of other sharing services like Instagram and Flickr
• Chance to win money when submitting your photos to the themed challenges

Potential Drawbacks

• Additional “gimmicky” tools including stickers and frames (but these can easily be left alone)
• Exported image quality appears to be slightly below the highest level of JPG output available on the iPhone, but it’s perfectly acceptable for most purposes

All in all, whether you’re looking for another photo editor to add to your virtual “camera bag” or interested in possibly making some extra money by way of the Event challenges (or both!), it’s definitely worth checking out the Fotor app.

Fotor is available for FREE on the App Store. Additional filters are available as in-app purchases.

The post How To Use Fotor App To Edit, Share & Make Money From Your iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.

Just like with photo editing, there’s no “right” way to back up your iPhone photos. There are many different options and each of us will have a unique personal approach to organizing the storage of our photos.

Some folks may prefer an app that backs up all images automatically, while others may prefer a more manual approach. My advice is to try a few techniques and see what works best for you.

There are essentially two main options for backing up and storing your iPhone photos. One method is to back up the images to a computer or external hard drive. The other option is to back them up to cloud storage over Wi-Fi.

In this article we’re going to take a look at some of the various options available for both of these methods.

Back Up To A Computer Or External Hard Drive

First, we’ll consider options for backing up your photos locally to your computer and/or a separate external hard drive. This is a great option for easy storage and access to your photos. In addition, it typically involves no additional cost as you most likely already have the storage hardware.

There are several ways that you can transfer your iPhone photos to a computer or external drive. We’re going to take a look at three of the most popular methods. You can learn more about how to transfer photos from iPhone to computer by clicking this link.

Note: If you have a Windows computer, read our tutorial on how to transfer photos from iPhone to PC. If you have a Mac computer, check out our tutorial on how to copy photos from iPhone to Mac.

1. iTunes Backup

The first option to consider is simply backing up your photos to your computer. If you sync/backup your iPhone with iTunes by plugging your phone into your computer, then you are likely already backing your photos up to your computer this way.

The downside to this option is that you don’t have direct access to the individual photos. You can use the backup file to restore your entire camera roll if you buy a new iPhone or need to restore your current phone, but you can’t view or manually manage the stored photos in any way from your computer.

So it’s a good option to give you peace of mind that if you have a problem with your iPhone or you buy a new one that you can simply restore your photos, and other iPhone files and settings, to your phone. But it’s no good for when you want to view and organize your images on your computer.

2. AirDrop

If your computer is a Mac, one of the easiest ways to transfer photos from your iPhone to your computer (and vice versa) is to use the AirDrop functionality built into iOS and Mac OS.

Simply ensure that both your Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are turned on for both devices and then select the photos from your camera roll that you wish to transfer.

Now tap the icon in the lower left corner of the screen (square with upwards arrow) to bring up the share menu. Here you will see AirDrop at the top.

It may take a moment for your devices to sync via Bluetooth, but you will then see the names of any available devices appear in that same part of the screen.

Just tap on the name of the device you want to copy your selected photos to and they’ll start to transfer. You’ll have to accept the transfer from the other device before it can complete, but that’s it.

3. PhotoSync App

Another similar option for copying photos to and from your computer is an app called PhotoSync which costs $2.99 from the App Store. In addition to the PhotoSync app for your iPhone, you’ll also need to download the free PhotoSync Companion app for your computer – you can do this via the PhotoSync website.

Unlike AirDrop, which only works between iOS and Apple devices, PhotoSync is also available for Windows computers and Android devices thereby giving you even more options for sharing your photos across devices.

PhotoSync works very much like AirDrop in that you simply select the photos you want to share (from within the PhotoSync app itself), tap the Share button (red circle in the upper-right corner), then select the destination you want to share to.

One feature of PhotoSync which is particularly useful is that you can set a preferred device to share to and then automatically share to that device with a long press of the Share button (thereby bypassing the device selection screen).

Another advantage of PhotoSync is that if you share photos from a specific folder on your phone, it copies them to a similarly named folder on your computer, which helps to keep your photos well organized.

In addition, PhotoSync remembers which photos you’ve already copied in the past. This makes it much easier to know which photos to select when storing large quantities of photos.

If you’re not concerned with manually managing your photo storage, PhotoSync also offers an auto-backup option that can be configured in the settings to automatically sync photos in your camera roll to your computer.

Back Up To The Cloud

Cloud-based storage has become an incredibly popular way of storing your files. Cloud storage is basically a facility where your files are stored on the host’s servers, rather than on your own local computer or external hard drive. You simply transfer your files to the cloud over the internet.

Backing up your photos to the cloud not only makes great sense as a way to protect your images, but it also makes it easy to access your photos from anywhere that you have internet access.

There are many cloud-based storage solutions to choose from. Below are a just a few options to consider.

1. Dropbox

One of the most popular services for cloud backups is Dropbox. The basic (free) account offers 2GB of storage, although additional free storage can be had if you set up various linking and other options. You can also upgrade to a paid account for $9.99 per month, giving you 1TB of storage and additional sharing and management tools.

The free Dropbox app for iOS is very straightforward and easy to use too. While you can set up an auto-upload of all images from your camera roll, the real power is in organizing your photos into custom folders according to your personal preferences.

In the screenshot above, you can see that I have my images organized by year as well as having some special folders set up for specific purposes. In addition, the last folder is a shared one that I’ve set up with my friend Chris Stern (@chris_stern) that we can both post to for collaborative projects.

Within individual folders, photos are displayed with convenient thumbnail images for easily locating a specific image.

You can also install Dropbox on your computer to make it easy to transfer files to and from your computer from your Dropbox account. You don’t have to do this though (although it can be more convenient) as you can simply log into your Dropbox account from any web browser on any device.

This is one of the best reasons to consider a cloud storage solution like Dropbox – easy access to your photos (and other stored files for that matter) from anywhere that you have internet access.

2. Google Drive

Similar to Dropbox is Google Drive, which functions almost exactly the same as Dropbox. You can store images as well as other files on Drive, and manage them via the free Google Drive app or via any web browser.

One key advantage of Drive is that it closely integrates with the full suite of Google apps such as Google+, Google Docs and Gmail, making it easy to share files across those other services with friends and colleagues. If you’re not a heavy user of Google apps, then this may not be an issue for you.

Like Dropbox, you can use Drive to organize your photos (and other files) into custom folders and sub-folders for a truly personal storage solution.

One other advantage that Drive offers over Dropbox is that the basic (free) account comes with 15GB (as opposed to 2GB in Dropbox).

Drive also offers two paid options – a $9.99 per month option that provides 1TB of storage (just like Dropbox offers) and also a $1.99 per month option that offers a still generous 100GB if you don’t need a full terabyte of storage.

This makes Google Drive a more affordable option for most mobile photographers as the file sizes of most iPhone photos are still very small compared to DSLR and other cameras.

For what it’s worth, I have a Google Drive account that I’ve been using for a few years for both mobile and DSLR work and I still haven’t maxed out the free 15GB of storage with a basic account. Everyone’s needs will vary, but it’s always good to have options.

3. iCloud Photos

One of the options that can’t be ignored is Apple’s own iCloud Photos. This feature allows you to effortlessly sync all your media files across all your Apple devices. It also allows you to share photos with friends and family via iCloud Photo Sharing.

For folks that prefer to use only Apple and iOS devices, this may be the best fully-integrated solution. However, to fully-integrate it with your Mac, you must upgrade to the latest version of OS X for iCloud Photos to be fully functional. This may be a limitation for some folks with older machines.

4. Other Cloud Storage Options

Other relatively new services such as Trunx have also appeared on the scene recently. Again, I haven’t tried all of these, so I can’t give much of an opinion as to how well they function, but they’re all worthy of consideration as one may fit your personal storage needs better than others.

The nice thing about many of these storage options is that you can try them out for free to decide which one(s) work best for your needs. You may find that you go through a few different apps before you find a cloud storage solution that works for you.

While backing up your iPhone photos may not be as exciting as taking and editing images, it’s an important part of the iPhone photography workflow and shouldn’t be avoided. Just imagine how you’d feel if you lost all of your amazing iPhone photos!

So get backing up your images now, and then you can enjoy getting on with shooting more great iPhone photos, safe in the knowledge that your older pictures are securely stored on your computer or in the cloud.

The post A Guide To Backup & Storage Options For Your iPhone Photos appeared first on iPhone Photography School.