There are some important things you need to know when you want to have your headshots taken. If you’re having your headshots taken and want to know how to pose, then keep reading. These tips I share below can also be used if you’re taking your own photos using a tripod and a timer on your camera.

Before you start you need to first understand the theme and what these headshots will be used for. Is it for a business professional photo, a modelling portfolio, images for your online business, something fun and creative for social media, etc? Knowing this will help you to prepare what to wear, how to style your hair and make up and decide what locations you will be shooting at.

As a former model and beauty pageant winner, I’ve learned these things and am sharing it now with you to help you take beautiful headshots!

1. Show emotion through the eyes.

The saying, “the eyes are the window to the soul” couldn’t be truer in photography. Your eyes in photos can portray a multitude of different emotions and you need to first figure out what emotion you want to portray and express that in your eyes.

2. Show different facial expressions.

Experiment and take photos with different facial expressions. Each facial expression is a whole new pose. Your facial expressions change the mood of the photo so definitely pay attention to that.

3. Mind the chin & neck.

Make sure you don’t give yourself an extra chin or make your neck disappear. Here is a trick to reduce any double chins that models and celebrities use.

Face the camera directly, slightly stick your head out forward, lower your face and chin down slightly and look at the camera! It feels so weird and awkward but if you do those moves only slightly then your audience can’t tell the difference.

4. Change the Angles of the model (tilt your head, 45 degree angles, chin up or down, looking down, to the side, up, etc.).

Each slight move and change is automatically a different pose. You don’t have to do something very drastic to take a new pose. This will help you get many different shots and help you choose your favourite photo.

5. Where is the light?

Pay attention to where the light is. The photographer or yourself (depending on who is taking the photos) should figure out the lighting situation based on the type of photos you’re taking. Indoor studio shoot lighting is very different then natural light. If you’re taking your own photos, figure out how you want the lighting to be in your photos before starting to shoot. If you’re using natural light outdoors and it’s a cloudy day then it is very easy you don’t have to worry.

6. Lean against something.

This will help you feel more natural and less awkward. It helps to make the photo also more interesting.

7. Don’t have a busy background or use a blur effect.

Busy backgrounds take away focus and distract the viewer. So if for some reason you can’t change the background, then use portrait mode on your smartphone or the right camera lens.

8. Movement or walking helps the model be more comfortable.

Walking towards the camera or creating some sort of movement like a fan in a studio to make your hair blow or the wind outside, helps create more interesting images and walking will help you be more comfortable. You can even take photos flipping your hair.

9. Make eye contact with the camera – shows confidence.

Making eye contact with the camera shows boldness and confidence and looking away from the camera gives a more mysterious and shy look.

10.  Corporate headshots – plain background, contrast between clothes & background looks good, side lighting.

If these headshots are for corporate, then these things are so important to make you look professional. Use side lighting and slightly higher up as you can see is being done in the second photo.

11.  Use props.

Using props will help you be more comfortable and give your hands something to do. The props should be related to the theme. You can be holding your phone, in front of your computer, holding a plant or flower, sunglass, wearing a hat, holding or drinking a beverage, etc.

12.  Arms crossed.

This pose gives you a more serious, confident, dramatic look. You can do this pose facing the camera straight or at an angle like below.

13.  Look over the shoulder.

This is a favourite pose of mine and really helps change up the typical headshot.

14.  Hands on a table.

You can do this standing or sitting down. This pose looks great especially if you’re holding your favourite beverage.

15.  Play with your hair.

This is a more fun, playful look and gives your hands something to do and adds a bit of movement to the shot.

16.  Hands near the face for more dynamic & interesting shots.

Don’t scrunch your fingers or fully hold your head or face because that looks weird. You just want to keep your hands near the face and keep your hands and fingers relaxed.

17.  Use powder on the face to remove any shine.

The camera picks up any shine on the face a lot so whether you have oily skin or not your skin may look oily so professionals always put powder on the face T zone for anyone on tv or camera and even sometimes on the cheeks.

18.  Frame the subject.

Put yourself in a naturally occurring frame if you’re shooting outdoor or if your shooting indoor maybe stand in an archway or door way or use trees that are around.

19.  Make sure there are no poles or trees sticking out of your head.

This is so important because this  is a major mistake that I have made and I’ve seen other people make when we’re not paying attention to our background and it will ruin a shot. This can sometimes be edited out but it’s a lot more work.

20.  Shoot in portrait mode.

When taking the photo on your smartphone, shoot in portrait mode because this makes your headshots look more professional and brings the focus on you as the main subject and looks like it was shot on a professional camera with a blurry background.

Keep in mind you can definitely combine these tips which will make your photos very beautiful and professional.

There you have it! I hope you enjoyed these tips and if you did be sure to leave a comment with what your biggest takeaway or aha moment was Let me know in the comments.

Tag me in your photos on Instagram using #AsyaPhotoTips and I’ll be sure to give you a shoutout. I love seeing what you are learning and creating!

Follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more photography and posing tips.

Happy Posing!

Asya

Most of us don’t learn how to pose for photos unless we go into a career of modeling or acting. Especially if you’re a business owner, this is the last thing you might think about. Whether you’re an entrepreneur, blogger, YouTube, Influencer, it’s increasingly more important to show up confident on camera and have a lot of photos of yourself taken because you need to have an online presence and show up so your clients know who you are.

Unless you’ve had previous training, this knowledge doesn’t just come to you. Why am I qualified to help you?

I have attended modeling school when I was 15, I modeled for 8 years and I’ve done runway shows, studio & on-location photo shoots, competed in beauty pageants locally & globally. I had the honor of representing Canada as Miss Canada Tourism 2007 in Turkey and was awarded the titles of Miss Bikini Tourism 2007, Miss Bikini World Americas 2007 and Miss Bikini Universe Americas 2007.

So, if you want to learn how to pose for photos and show up on camera like a pro without having to have gone to a modeling school or done any modeling, either just for fun or for your online brand and business, then these are my biggest tips for you.

#1) Practice!

Practice does make perfect. The best way to practice is first to go to Instagram or Pinterest and screenshot or save poses that you want to learn to do.

Next, you need to open your camera on your phone to selfie mode (front-facing camera) and place it on a tripod or somewhere at eye level maybe on your windowsill so you can see yourself on the screen.

Next up – lights, camera, action! Set your timer for 10 seconds and start practicing those poses! Make sure in the beginning to review the photos every 2-3 photos you take.

Ask yourself these questions as you review the photos:

What challenges am I having? Did I struggle in one area than another for example maybe you struggled with headshots more than the full body shots? Why did I struggle in one area more than another? Look to see what angles you like better. 

Start by taking these photos at home or your backyard where nobody is watching you because it’s a good way for you to become more confident and comfortable so later when you’re doing photoshoots in public, you’re not so shy and self-conscious.

P.S: I don’t recomend prcaticing in front of the mirror because you always look different in the mirror then on camera.

#2) Posture

Be mindful about having good posture. This is so important because it can make or break a good photo. Look out for that in your photos and if you have someone take your photos and you know you tend to have bad posture, ask them to tell you if your posture is bad so you can correct it.

#3) The Beauty Pageant Pose

This pose models use all the time especially in beauty pageants you’ll see the ladies do this pose and it will look good for any woman with any body type!

Start by placing your upper body on a 45-degree angle, lower body facing more toward the camera, lean on one leg that’s behind, and other leg bring in front and on the tippy toes.

One hand goes on the hip that you’re leaning on and the hand either on the hip or placed on the leg that’s in front, back straight and there you go!

#4) Use Props

Props are a great way to give your hands something to do, make the photo more fun and help make you more confident.

Some props that are great to use are holding your favorite drink (coffee for me!), hats, purses, sunglasses, flowers, laptops, cameras, cigars.

Models tend to use props a lot when working with brands. Think of yourself as a model that’s modeling and promoting the prop!

When using props in your photos, you don’t need to use them in photos the way they’re supposed to be used or worn. For example, you don’t have to wear sunglasses on your face, you could be holding them, putting them on top of your head. Same with a hat, you could be holding it, or place it on a chair beside you, and so on.

#5) Create Movement

Creating movement makes the photo more dynamic and interesting. This is also great when you run of out ideas on how to pose, you’re in a creative funk or just need to take a quick photo. When all else fails, use movement!

Here are some ways you can create movement in your photos:

• With your hair: hair flips

• If you’re wearing a dress, use the corners of the dress to move around

• If there is a slight wind, use that to your advantage when it comes to what you’re wearing or letting your hair move in the wind

• Walking! Walk towards, away from the camera, walk by in front of the camera

• Jump or run

• Water – splashing, swimming

• Doing sports

#6) Create Curves

Every one of us has beautifully different body shapes. Some of us have more or fewer curves. If you have natural curves this may be easy for you. The goal is to do an S shape with your body.

You can do this by facing the camera or slightly at an angle. Push your hips out to one side and your torso and upper body to another side. You’re leaning on one leg and the other is free to move around.

#7) Don’t Forget About Your Facial Expressions

This goes back to practice because one of the things you must also practice is your facial expressions. Sometimes when we are concentering so much on our pose our face can look like a deer in headlights.

You can’t go wrong with a smile! Relax your face and your jaw. You can smile with or without showing your teeth. Take different photos of you smiling looking at the camera and some looking away from the camera.

You can also do the serious dramatic look. Again take some photos looking at the camera and away from the camera.

#8) Think About Your Camera Angles

The camera angles will impact the way the pose looks. For example, if the camera is lower looking up at you it will make you look taller and give the illusion of longer legs. If the camera is higher up looking down at you, it will make you look shorter with a bigger head. Anything that’s close to the camera will always look bigger.

#9) Create Space & Triangles

Create space between your limbs and your body. Don’t stand like a stick, separate your arms and legs from your body. Pretend you’re creating triangles as you see in the images below.

#10) Point Your Toes & Elongate Your Body

This can dramatically make your pose better. Think of yourself as a ballerina. No matter what pose you do, you can incorporate this tip.

Did you learn something new? What was your biggest takeaway? Let me know in the comments and come say hi on Instagram! Tag me in your photos using #AsyaPhotoTips and I’ll be sure to give you a shoutout. I love seeing what you are learning and creating!

Follow me on Instagram and subscribe to my YouTube channel for more photography and posing tips.

Happy Posing!

Asya

Do you want to take great travel photos? Over the many trips I’ve gone on, I have always been focused on taking the best photos possible. I’ve compiled a list of the 6 biggest things you can do that will change your travel photos from ok to great!

Travel photography is art. It makes remembering your trips whether alone or with friends or family that much better. An average travel photo can make that experience seem average. The photo should represent and capture the moment or trip in almost the same way as you experienced and sometimes better.

It’s true what they say, a photo says a thousand words so let your photos from your trip tell your travel story.

1) Plan & Research

Before you head out on your trip, look up the destination online. Use Google, Pinterest & Instagram to take a look at some of the activities you plan on doing there. Try to plan and figure out the best spots for photos and save those images to your phone or save it into a folder on Instagram to refer to later. Maybe there is a cool metal doorway in the city you will be at, you’ll want to remember that place. I do this all the time because I don’t want to miss the best photo opportunity.

2) Showcase The Experience, Food, Locations.

Before booking a specific hotel, I like to look at photos of it online to make sure I like it before I book but every time I see photos that people have taken, they are terrible at showing what the place is really like. When we stayed at the Royalton Hicacos in Varadero, Cuba, the hotel was ten times better than the pictures people posted of the hotel.

Make sure to capture your room, the bathroom, the different restaurants, the pool and please don’t forget the beach if there is one. I’ve looked at beachfront hotel photos where no one except the hotel themselves posted a photo of the beach. If you’re going to show these photos to other people, you want to make sure it really showcases the place properly. When at a restaurant, capture photos of the interior to show the vibe, your food, maybe a photo of you sitting at the table, the view if it’s really nice, the live music if there is some, etc.

Show the city streets as you walk around. Will the person looking at your photos get a good idea of what it’s like to travel there? When you look back at these photos, will it feel like you’re transported back in time to that moment?

If you want to learn how to take great quality photos at night on your iPhone, check out my YouTube video here.

3) Lighting!

The quality of the lighting in the photos will make or break a great photo. Make sure there is enough light whether outdoors, indoors or at night so your photos don’t end up blurry. If you’re having your photo taken or taking a photo of someone and you want to see their face smiling, make sure the light is not behind them because you will get a silhouette and won’t be able to see the person.

During mid-day, taking a photo of a person’s face you will see harsh shadows and raccoon eyes. To combat this take the photo of the person or yourself far away from the camera or turn the face more towards the sun.

4) Composition

Composition means how the elements are positioned in a photograph. This will also make or break a great photo. This applies to anything like food, a person, a landscape photo, etc. Don’t just point and shoot. Think about what’s in the photo and what’s not in the photo. What elements do you want in your photo? If you’re walking down the street do you want the street to be centred or do you want it to be off to one side? Do you want to show the people walking around or do you want to capture only the stores or architecture?

If you’re taking a photo of your food on the table, do you want your used side plate to be in the shot? If you can’t move it, you might want to take the photo a different way.

Use the Rule of Thirds to help you with your composition. You can turn on the grid section in your camera settings for this. It divides your camera into 3 vertical and 3 horizontal sections and the way to use it is to place your subject along where the lines intersect.

5) Move Around    

Don’t take the same photo everyone else would of an important monument or a place. Change your angle, use the light rays if there are any, get closer or take the photo at a really low angle where you’re camera is almost at the ground.

Sit, kneel, stand on something, climb a tree, don’t be afraid of looking foolish and different because that is where the best photos will always come from. The people staring at you, you’ll never see them again and usually, they wish they were as creative as you and hey you may inspire someone else to take their photos differently.

6) Keep It Candid

If you’re traveling with friends or family, it’s fine to take photos of everyone posing but make sure to take lots of candid shots. These photos will make you feel like you’re there in that moment again. Do it at dinner or when walking, or doing fun activities. Be like a paparazzi in a way. These are my favourite types of photos when taking of other people.

*Bonus – Take Lots Of Photos!

Don’t just take 1 photo and be done with it, take a few and from different angles as well because the last thing you want to happen is later when you get to your hotel and you’re looking through the photos you took, your finger was in the shot or it came out blurry or someone’s eyes were closed.

Don’t forget to have fun as well and enjoy the moments in between. After you take some photos, put the camera down and enjoy the moment. 

If you want to dive deeper and really leverage iPhone photography for business or fun or you want to learn how to look good in photos and pose properly, check out my 1 on 1 iPhone Photography Coaching program. It is customized based on your needs and goals and will help you to become a professional when it comes to iPhone photography.

Have you ever wondered why other people take great photos & how they learned? I can tell you that no one is perfect when they first start anything.

Making mistakes is how we learn. We should not be scared of making them but instead, we need to be open-minded to acknowledge them & learn from our own & other people’s mistakes.

The smartest way is to learn from an expert, someone who has gone through it already that can teach you and save you the time of learning on your own.

I’ve made all these mistakes many times & had a lot of learning years to get to this point. I hope this post will save you the pain of making these mistakes on your own so that you can start taking better photos today as a business owner & content creator.

1. Subject Is Not In Focus

Having a subject in a photo makes it more interesting and gives the viewer something to focus on. However, if that subject is blurry & out of focus you will lose the attention of your audience. 

This can happen mostly if you’re taking a photo in low lighting (low exposure) using your iPhone. The shutter of the phone has to stay open longer to let in more light so if you take the photo & move your hands right away, that photo will not turn out.

The other reason this could be happening is because you may be allowing the iPhone to auto focus instead of you setting the focus manually. To set the focus manually just tap your screen on the subject.

If you tap and hold on the subject on your screen, it will lock the focus. I don’t like using that feature because if the subject or you moves, then you have to readjust the focus.

2. Using Zoom

No matter what they say, when you zoom on an iPhone or Smartphone, it always looks blurry and can make you look like an amateur. Instead of using zoom, get closer to your subject.

3. Overediting

Editing is a very important part of photography, but overediting will ruin your photos. When the colours are too saturated your photo looks fake & unappealing. It makes you lose credibility & you lose the interest of your audience.

Do you see the difference in the images below?

4. No Editing

I don’t know what’s worse, not editing your photos or overediting. If you want your photos to compare to a pro & be high quality, then you have to edit your photos. This is like the icing on the cake. It brings out your unique style & helps you to be more creative. There are so many free apps you can download and edit directly on your phone. 

A great photo will be even greater after editing. Do you see how much of a difference editing makes?

5. No Subject

Photos with no subject can be dull. Having a subject in your photo makes it more interesting, even if you’re taking landscape or city photos. A subject can be anything, a rock, a tree, a house, an animal or a person. You can also find subjects in landscape or city photos.

Composition has a major part to play in how you organize a subject to make it interesting and direct your viewer’s eye.

This is something you will learn more about in my 1:1 Travel iPhone Photography Coaching program.

6. Poor Composition

Poor composition can make or break a good photo. Composition means how the things in your photo are arranged to make it interesting & tell a story. You use composition to direct your viewer on what you want them to focus on.

The best way is to think about and plan how to take the photo. Be strategic, don’t just snap aimlessly. Take the same photo in different ways, change the angle, the layout, look for interesting patterns or colours.

7. Bad Lighting

The position of the light source is very important especially on an iPhone. If you’re taking a photo of a person, make sure the light is not behind them because that will create a silhouette & you won’t be able to see the person clearly.

When shooting on your iPhone you must learn what type of photos can be taken, what time and where.

For example, if you’re taking a photo of a person after the sun sets or at night with minimal fluorescent light, the photo will not turn out good. It will be blurry & pixelated even if you use the newest iPhone. But at night you can take beautiful photos of city lights. 

Be mindful of the lighting based on what you’re taking a photo of. Some rules are meant to be broken but first you must learn the rules & learn which ones you can break.

8. Busy Background

If your background is too cluttered or busy you will lose the attention of your audience because it’s very distracting. If you’re taking a photo of a person and the background is very busy & distracting, try taking it in portrait mode or blurring the background in editing. 

Again you must be strategic in how you compose the photo & don’t be afraid of experimenting.

Social Media, especially Instagram is very visual and your photo is what will stop someone scrolling before they can read your caption so you want to make sure your photos stop the scroll.

Have you made any of these mistakes? Which of these do you struggle with the most?

Let me know on Instagram & follow me for more!

Want to learn more on my photography tips? Subscribe to my YouTube channel.

The photography game has evolved. Whether you’re taking photos for your blog, as an influencer, new business owner or creative, we all have a smartphone and if you’re like me you have an iPhone. It's no surprise that the iPhone has become so popular in the photography game. It’s always on you in your pocket or purse and readily available to easily use to capture a moment.

Even some of the most professional photographers will take photos with their iPhone sometimes, because that's the camera they had available when they see an opportunity to capture a moment. Carrying around a DSLR isn’t always convenient and most of us don’t have a photographer following us around to take photos of us constantly.

In the beginning of starting your business or side hustle/blog you don’t have the budget to hire a photographer or buy your own DSLR then figure out how to use it, but you probably have an iPhone already. I will teach you in this post the foundations of iPhone photography so that you can use these tips to take amazing photos on your iPhone for your business, blog and influencer marketing.

If you use and apply my tips, you will be able to take great professional photos for your business, Social Media and blog.

1) Clean your lens!

Don’t forget to clean your lens with a soft cloth or soft material because you may have touched the lens and gotten finger prints on it.

2) Turn on HDR

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range. This is good if you’re shooting a high contrast scene and you want to get better exposure. (Exposure means how bright or dark an image is.)  Some people don’t like to use this but as a beginner you will want to turn this feature on. Once you take a photo, it will show up twice in your photo album. One will be darker than the other and will make the background or the lighter part of the photo more clear and the 2nd will make the darker part of the image brighter. You can turn this feature in your Camera Settings.

3) Lighting, Lighting, Lighting!

With an iPhone this is a little different then a DSLR. With a DSLR, golden hour is the best time to shoot, aka the hour before sunset. Depending on what version of iPhone you have, if you take photos during golden hour your photos will likely end up a bit blurry unless you’re shooting on a beach or somewhere where you can see the sun setting with no clouds.

My suggestion is to take photos early in the morning after the sun has risen, all day during the day and maybe 2 hours before the sun sets latest because natural light is the best especially for travel photos.

If you’re taking pictures of a person during the day on a sunny day, its better to do it in the shade to avoid weird shadows on the face (*make sure the person taking the photo is also in the shade). If for some reason you can’t do that, make that person turns their head towards the sun a bit, up or just turn to the right or left or take the photo from the back to make it more artistic.

I’ve done this to use the shadows to my advantage to make the photo more artistic.

Cloudy days are the best great for taking photos of a person because mid day the lighting is perfect and won’t create weird shadows.

4) AE/AF Lock

When taking a photo, you can tap the screen once where you want to camera to focus. This is called manual focus because you're choosing where the focus is. If you tap & hold on the screen in one area, the camera will turn on AE/AF Lock (Auto Exposure & Auto Focus lock).

Tapping once to set focus works well in many situations, but sometimes this isn’t enough. For example, if something moves within the scene, the camera’s autofocus system might kick in, & the focus point & exposure level might automatically re-adjust. To ensure this doesn’t happen, you can use the AE/AF Lock feature to lock the focus & exposure. This effectively disables the autofocus system, allowing you control over focus & exposure.

Once you’ve locked focus, you shouldn’t change the distance between your camera & the subject. If you do move forwards or back, the camera will end up focusing on the wrong place. If you think you’re going to want to take more than one picture of the same scene, use AE/AF Lock to save you from having to set focus & exposure for each separate shot. When you activate AE/AF lock, the camera keeps focus & exposure locked even after you press the shutter button.

5) Rule of Thirds

Go to your camera settings and turn on the grid feature. This will turn on a grid on your camera to divide the screen into 3 horizontal and 3 vertical sections. Using the rule of thirds allows you to more easily frame the subject in an interesting way. You can frame the subject where the horizontal and vertical lines intersect.

When starting out, always use the grid feature until you become more proficient. It’s also good to have it on in case you ask someone else to take your photo, because it will help you direct them on how you want that photo taken.

6) Composition

This refers to what is in your photo and how its arranged to draw a viewer’s eye to the most important part – how and what is your photo composed of to make it interesting. It means paying attention to what will be photographed, how it is placed in relationship to other objects in the image, and how well the subject matter is expressed.

Keep it simple - an overly cluttered shot with chaotic backgrounds can distract the eye. If you have no choice you can always shoot in portrait mode to blur the background.

7) Angles

The most common is for us to take the photo straight the way your eyes see it. This is definitely fine, but try to change up the angle to make the photo more interesting. Play around with the angles and see what looks good.

But be careful because if you take a photo of a person too high looking down on them, it makes their head look too large or if you take it too low looking up, their legs may look too long and disproportionate. Also, anything closer to the camera will look larger.

In the photo on the right below, the camera angle is slightly lower looking up at me so it makes me look taller and makes my legs look longer.

8) Take lots of photos

You can’t just take 5 photos because likely you won’t like any of them. To get that 1 perfect photo you must take at least 20-30 photos. When I was modeling, that’s when I learned this. When my fiancé takes my photos for Instagram he takes about a hundred per look. And we usually do a few different looks.

9) To zoom or not to zoom?

Don’t use zoom if you’re taking a photo of a person. It will almost always be blurry and grainy that even when you edit it, it won’t help. Just get closer to your subject.

If you’re taking landscape travel photos, then a little zoom is ok but don’t zoom too much!

10) Lines

The viewers eyes are naturally drawn along lines in a photograph. Using lines in a photo will draw in the viewers eye to where you want them to focus on and will make a photo more interesting. If you want to draw attention to a certain part of the frame, look for lines which already exist & then use them to your advantage. You can use lines & naturally existing frames to frame your subject in the photo.

11) Natural Light vs Fluorescent Light

You can take great photos with each but they are different. Natural light is my favourite which is the light from the sun. Fluorescent light is good too but when you’re taking photos with it indoors make sure there is enough light hitting your subject (you).

If possible, move the lighting sources around and see what looks good or if you can’t move the lights then move yourself around to find the perfect spot with the best lighting.

12) Camera Modes

There are 2 main modes I use – regular photo & portrait mode. If you’re doing head shots, portrait mode is great for that because it looks like you used a DSLR. It creates a bokeh effect which means the subject is in focus and the background is blurred.

If the sun is setting or there isn’t enough lighting, you will notice when using portrait mode the photo is too dark and/or the subject is blurry even though your focus is fine.

13) Live Photo

With iPhone you can turn on the live feature. It will take a short video on every shot and auto select the best sharpest moment in your photo as the main photo. This is great for action shots where your subject is moving because if you don’t use live photo you’ll get tons of blurry photos and no good ones you can use.

You can also edit the photo and select another shot that you may like better.

14) Don’t forget to edit

Editing your photo is such an important part most people overlook. All pros do this even if it’s a few things but not doing any edits to a photo is like not putting icing on the cake.

Yes, overly edited photos look really bad but so do unedited photos. You will likely be using these photos for your Social Media or website. Instagram especially is such a visual app and the photo will stop the scroll, then a person will read the caption.

Your photos need to stop the scroll that’s why editing is important.

Bonus Tip: Location of Light

When planning to take a photo, first figure out where the light source is coming from & place your subject accordingly. Make sure the light is not behind your subject, unless that’s the look you’re going for, otherwise it creates a silhouette where your subject is too dark and its very hard to edit it after. In some cases, this is a nice effect if that's what you're going for but if you want to see your subject make sure the light is not behind them. Always be strategic when taking a photo.

I will write a separate blog post on everything you need to know about editing a photo on your iPhone, so be sure to subscribe to my newsletter and you will be notified of new blog posts, specials, promos and you will receive a FREE PHOTOGRAPHY CHEATSHEET!

Were these tips helpful? Did you learn something? Do you have any questions about these tips? Send me a DM on Instagram or leave a comment and let me know.

If you use my tips in your photos, please tag them #asyaphototips so I can see your work and I can give you a shout out in my IG stories!

PS: Want to know how to take better night photos on your iPhone? Check out my YouTube video with all those tips!