Often, the worst mistake beginner photographers make is also the easiest to fix.

This is good news. It means you can go from the bottom to the top pretty quickly with this one change:

EDIT YOUR PHOTOS!

One of the most common mistakes phone photographers make is not getting into the habit of editing their photos.

If you can commit a couple minutes to editing your photos in Lightroom before posting them, I promise they will start standing out above the rest.

Here's proof that editing makes all the difference:

So where do you start in Lightroom?

These are the 5 editing adjustments I do every time:

1. adjust exposure (your photo may need to go brighter, or it may need to go darker.)
2. increase contrast (rarely does your photo need less contrast. So bump it up.)
3. adjust white balance (you may prefer your photo to have a warmer glow, or you may prefer a colder look. Use the Temp slider to add more blue or yellow.)
4. a boost of texture (most photos can benefit from this. Explore it with the Texture and Clarity sliders)
5. "polish" your photo (add sharpening and noise reduction to finish it)

These 5 steps are the easy beginning to making your photos look more pro. Try it for yourself! Lightroom Mobile is free. So you basically have nothing to lose.

If you can add Lightroom to your photography routine, you'll be ahead of most phone photographers. It's that simple.

Happy editing!

-Gabrielle

PS: Want to go deeper? Learn how to transform your phone photography into a creative habit for life. I'll show you how I use my phone to create stunning photos. Take the deep dive here.