With all of the iPhones, Android and devices out there you can make your site look impressive and not use stock photography. Not only does using your own photos make your site look more friendly and personal, it also saves you time and money. There are even some really powerful free and relatively cheap apps to help your smartphone photos pop.
Instead of scouring around the internet for a photo that fits your website best and at the same doesn’t cost a fortune, try breaking out your iPhone or Android device. Millions of us have them in our pockets or in front of our faces right now. Cameras on iPhones and Android devices right now rival even the best of stand alone point and shoot digital cameras out there. The newest iPhones and Android devices have 4K video that even beats most DSLR cameras’ video today.
If you are taking photos with your smartphone be sure to shoot in landscape mode to grab the most of the subject as you can. Since the web is wide and responsive, the wider the shot, the more use you can get out of any photo. Now let’s talk about filters which are great. Filters can always be added after the fact but not always removed. So shoot those photos in your phones native camera app and save those filters for later. You may want to keep a copy of the original photo as well, adding the filter to a copy.
Some of those camera apps that also take photos are slow, don’t use the full quality of the cameras ability and add their on filters. If you are sending your a designer to put on your website be sure to send them the original shot unedited, this way they will have the largest format and best quality possible.
Editing Tools for iPhone and Android
The iPhone Photos app and Google Photos app already have some excellent options for touching up your photos, but here are some cool apps for iOS and Android that go even further.
VSCO Cam iOS and Android
http://vsco.co/store/vscocam
AfterLight iOS, Android, Windows Phone and Windows
http://afterlight.us
Camera+ iOS only
http://campl.us
Adobe Lightroom iOS and Android
https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/how-to/lightroom-mobile.html
Not really an in-depth photo editing tool for everyday use, but one of my favorite apps lately is Waterlogue. Waterlogged makes your photos look like water color paintings.
http://www.waterlogueapp.com/madewith/
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