Welcome to Week 22 of 2025!
In today's e-mail, you'll get:
TIP OF THE WEEK: Your phone camera is applying a dull filter (that you can fix)
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: When cabbage stops me in my tracks
RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE: Culinary arts for inspiration
TIP OF THE WEEK
Upgrade Your Flat Photos
One of the biggest reasons why your phone photos look dull and uncreative is because you’re going straight from shooting to posting. There is no editing work in between.
Phone cameras tend to apply a broad low-contrast effect on all photos.
This is why your photos straight-out-of-camera look dull and grey.
You could leave them as is... but if you're not a big fan of having average-looking photos, I've got a fix for your dull photos.
Your camera is applying this mid-grey treatment so that you have a flexible base to start from when you edit.
Your photos aren't meant to exist straight out of camera - they are meant to be edited. Watch what I mean:
If you leave them unedited, they look dull and struggle to stand out.
But when you edit them in Lightroom, they come alive.
How to tell if your photo needs editing:
- The blacks look dark-grey, the whites look light-grey
- The colours are muted
- The edges of contrast are soft and hazy
- Skin tones look muddy and colourless
- Textures aren't well defined
There’s a trend on social media where announcing #NOFILTER on a phone photo is supposed to be a positive thing.
It’s not.
The truth is, all photos that come out of phone cameras get a filter applied.
Even if you don’t add a filter, your phone already has.
There is no such thing as NO FILTER on a jpg phone photo.
Phone cameras apply a medium-grey treatment to all your photos, whether you want it or not. It’s a default process that happens on photos, whether it’s a jpg or .heic file.
This default filter (or photo treatment) is designed to give your photos the most potential editing outcome. But you shouldn’t make it the final outcome if you want pro-looking photos that stand out.
Your photo needs your creative, editing touch!
The best way to start is to copy my workflow:
- Take multiple photos of your subject or scene
- Review all the photos and select your favourite ones
- Send only the selected favourites to Lightroom Mobile
- Apply basic editing (using a preset you’ve already created)
- Review the photo and do extra custom tweaks as needed
Now your photo is properly finished!
Custom editing will make your photos pop and catch more attention.
Get started with Lightroom Mobile here:
PHOTO OF THE WEEK
Finding High Design in Nature
I was chopping veggies for a Thai salad recipe the other day, and this purple cabbage stopped me in my tracks. I had to put the knife down and pull out my phone camera to take a photo! Wow.
You can imagine what the original photo looked like straight out of camera: the whites were darker and the darker purple was duller. I boosted the contrast, brightness and saturation in Lightroom to make this image pop.
A bright, colourful photo of a vegetable is not only fun to shoot, but can make a great visual if you're sharing a recipe online or wanting to add fun design to your food blog.
RESOURCES YOU MIGHT LIKE
Culinary Arts For Inspiration
Getting exposed to other forms of art is a practice I value. I believe that my creativity grows when I observe creativity at play in other people's field of work (not just in photography).
If you're looking to be inspired by observing a different field of work, consider watching culinary arts at play.
For this, you should watch Chef's Table on Netflix!
The creativity of chefs, along with stunning visuals, captivating documentary storytelling and a rich musical soundtrack make it a fantastic way of spending 50 minutes of your time immersed in art.
I recently watched an episode with José Andrés, and it was stunning.
Check out episode #2: