Lazy Girls Guide because; who has time for that anyways, short and sweet is always best and it shouldn’t be complicated it’s not rocket science. Basically my reasoning for the name and most things in life—though the name is not crazy original, it fits too well not to add it to the H+H line up.
For all the reasons listed above, The Lazy Girls Guide will hopefully become a regular occurrence around here—covering a wide range of topics I personally want to know more about but just don’t have time to learn rocket science. If you come around here often you know I like life to be very uncomplicated, but also enjoy it when it’s perfect (or my version of perfect)—which I assume you do too, if you are coming back.
And hey, iPhone photos are no different so here is my really quick (3 step) lazy guide to getting great photos with the iPhone.

1. FOLLOW THE LIGHT

The best photos always happen when you have a nice amount of natural light. Of course dawn and dusk can produce epic light results, but you don’t have to be an expert light chaser. Just stick close to natural light and your phone photos will be clear, less pixellated and pretty true to color.
The goal is to get the best photo you can, straight out of the iphone—rather then trying to snap a shot and fix it later when you are editing. If natural light isn’t available (hey some of us have more fun when the sun is down), try to use whatever light is available to your advantage—this is where #2 comes in handy.

SUMMED UP/LAZIEST ADVICE: Shoot in natural light whenever possible. If not try to use the light available to your best advantage.

2. FIND A CAMERA APP

The standard iPhone camera is great. Actually no, I lied. It stinks. Find a separate camera that suits your needs and comfort level. Personally I only use Camera +, I love it and notice such a big difference when I shoot with it or if I get extra lazy and try to use the basic iPhone camera. I really like that I have the ability to change the white balance, focus points and exposure level with Camera+.

SUMMED UP/LAZIEST ADVICE: Use a separate camera app (Camera+ is great), an app that allows you to take the best possible photo so you relay very little on editing. The camera that comes with the VSCOcam app is pretty great, if you want to simplify even more.

3. FIND AN EDITING STYLE

Eventually you will end up creating your own style after playing around with editing apps, having a “style” makes it easy to keep your photos looking consistent (keep your IG grid looking consistent and great) and makes editing really easy and quick. I lean towards very minimal when editing, just tiny enhancements or corrections when I didn’t take my own advice—but maybe you like things more dramatic? I only use VSCOcam and Afterlight, and then I play with each filter and level till the levels are all juuuust right.

SUMMED UP/LAZIEST ADVICE: Use editing to enhance or maybe add your own style to the photo.

And for fun, a quick little before and after round-up (using photos from my Instagram feed), my personal changes and style is minimal and very slight/lazy girl styles.

BEFORE + AFTER (very slight difference – VSCOcam filter and level fix)

BEFORE + AFTER (tiny bit of exposure correction Afterlight corrections and VSCOcam filter)

BEFORE + AFTER (very slight difference – VSCOcam filter only)

Of course the angles you shoot in, the framing of a photo and cropping after the fact play a huge roll in having a pretty great photo—but those are all very personal (more so then all the above points) and change depending on how you view each moment. Which is part of the beauty of a photograph, seeing a moment through someone elses eyes or through your very own memories eye. What do you think, helpful?

And hey, if you aren’t you want more detail and information. Check out this Making it Pretty online workshop!