Using just a phone and applying photo editing tips, you can create your own professional-looking images. Fresh, updated images are essential for social media marketing. For hairstylists, makeup artists, and other beauty pros, this is a great way to not only attract new clients but also maintain a portfolio for their work.

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Photo Editing Workshop with Salon Noir

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A few weeks back, I had the honor of speaking at a photography and social media workshop for Salon Noir. I spoke to the Noir gals with Alex Perry from Perry Rose Media. Together, we delivered an insightful discussion about how to elevate their social media marketing. 

The goal of my course was to inspire the stylists to take beautiful, eye-catching, and more professional-looking images with just their cellphones. Typically, a cellphone is more accessible than a camera itself. Following a client appointment, grab your phone and snap some shots! Don’t worry if you don’t know where to start.

Here are some of my tips for taking photos on your phone:

• Use the highest resolution possible
  

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Phone Settings for a Great Shot

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Pro tip: Instagram newsfeed crops to a square, so make sure you think about the crop and where you’ll be using the photos on social media. Take a step back from your subject to make sure you can still get the entire subject in a square crop as well.

• Cell phone settings matter! Set ration to 16:9/ 9:16 (best for Instagram stories) 
• Don’t zoom in. This lowers the quality of your final image.
• Use the camera on the back of the phone, not the front-facing camera for the best quality. 

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Incorporate The Rule of Thirds

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• Turn grid lines on and utilize the “Rule of Thirds”

Pro tip: The rule of third was created by the ancient Greeks. Basically, you divide your photo into thirds both vertically and horizontally. It will look like a tic-tac-toe grid on your image. So instead of centering the subject of your image, you arrange the subject so it’s at any of the intersection points or grid lines. This will offset your subject and create a more interesting image by making it asymmetrical. 

• Don’t use flash, if possible. The lighting is very harsh and unflattering.
• Be careful using selective focus or portrait mode, since it automatically blurs out the background, it can give strange effects on people’s hair. 
• Turn HDR off for portraits.

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Professional Photo Editing Tips

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Now, let’s get to some photo editing tips. Try some of my favorite user-friendly photo editing apps! I recommend Afterlight and Snap Seed. These tools can improve your photos; best of all, they’re user-friendly. Pro tip: Don’t over-do the photo editing. You don’t want to edit in a way that causes a sense of distrust with your work. You just want to make slight adjustments like improving lighting or blurring a background. Watch the videos below for some photos I edited for the girls and see exactly how I edit my phone images.