photo tips Archives - We live in a flat

Some people take pictures with planning and care. They check the edges of their frame, their composition, the light, etc and try to take the picture in such a way that there will be minimal needs for editing it too much later on.

But when one is dealing with living things, particularly small ones with only a camera phone in hand, one just tries to take sharp pictures as much as possible.

Remember the creepy crawlies?

These little dudes were constantly wriggling away so much that it was impossible for them to be sharp if one went too near. This meant that my camera phone had to be further away from them.

To get this photo:

I had to crop it from this shot:

How I made a GIF image that shows you my step-by-step image edits

By weliveinaflat

On October 17, 2013

In Photography

The simple answer is, I used Photoshop.

Learning to use the software Adobe Photoshop requires another set of instructions so I’m not even going to go into that here. I am instead going to share the concept of how the image is done, and how you could possibly replicate it using the gif apps that you could download from your iTunes or Android apps store.

How I achieved a plain even colour for the floor

By weliveinaflat

On October 10, 2013

In Photography

If you like me, live on this earth, shadows will be cast. It’s the law of nature. But what if you really want a bright white floor or an even coloured floor in your picture?

First thing first, plan to take your picture against a white or plain coloured background. You may remember these recent examples:

The previous how-I-did-it photo editing post dealt with overall brightening of the image, and how I converted the image to high contrast black and white with few shades of grey in between. I got a harder image with a more graphic quality that way.

In this post, we will look at how to brighten or even out specific areas of the photo, rather than the whole photo.

Here’s how I did it on my iPhone for the picture used in Look what I found hiding in the study!

How I converted this dull photo to high contrast black and white photo

By weliveinaflat

On October 3, 2013

In Photography

Dull colours in the living room on a cloudy afternoon turned high key black and white image.

An image, no matter how well composed with expressive subjects can fall just that little bit short due to the dull light of that cloudy day, especially when taken indoors. But with the use of a few mobile photo apps, a little bit of time, the mood of this photo has lifted from drab and dull to spare but eye-catching.

Here’s how I did it on my iPhone for the colour to black and white conversion of the recent A third black, two thirds white post.

How I dramatised this mobile photo for Instagram

By weliveinaflat

On September 10, 2013

In Photography

The future looks bright and no stink-eye cat will get in my way!!

An image, no matter how well composed with expressive subjects can fall just that little bit short due to the dull light of that cloudy day. But with the use of a few mobile photo apps, a little bit of time, the mood of this photo has lifted from drab and dull to bright and dynamic.

Here’s how I did it on my iPhone for the colour version of the recent High Alert Cat post.