Minimal Mobile Editing Workflow

Taylor's Top Tips

Taylor Pendleton, one of our prized filmmaker(s) making dashing debuts on the YouTube channel, has mastered the art of aesthetic with her chic and timeless photographic goodies. Her work immerses you in a world that feels both vintage and decidedly of the moment poised with simplicity. Her use of negative space is drenched in bright sunlight with sensual silhouettes outlining every perfectly composed line in the frame. She’s a winner.

Lucky for us, Taylor sat down in front of the camera to go over a few of her most sought after minimalistic-driven editing tips with 4 of her favorite apps, so listen up.

Simple, minimal, yet refined.

Editing wise, Taylor’s style is continuously evolving (she speaks more about this in the video above) even in the simplest of subtleties. Her minimalistic vibe allows natural colors to POP and look clean and pleasing to the eye without compromising the integrity of the original, untouched image.

Film It Up!

Everyone digs the film look, no? Try adding some natural dust / scratches to the frame to vibe it with a nostalgic feel. Editing our images to mimic film is a sure fire way to remedy any oversaturation, color issue, or bulky contrast concerns. Dilute the highlights for a cleaner feel and add only a touch of contrast to punch the blacks.

Use Color Indulgently, Alongside Infused Texture

Minimalistic design lets the image speak for itself; no need to overcomplicate toggles when the subject matter is infused with rich texture and vibrant colors. Take the below image(s) for example. The flower’s colorful nucleus and rugged outlines display an appropriate combination of an already-perfect image in need of little to no editing.

Taylor’s use of color amplifies the natural pigment in the flora, and yet she added just enough clarification to punch each detail. She also used the App, Snapseed, to reduce unwanted black circles, including the large one in the middle of the petal. Do you see the difference between the edited and unedited?

Basic Workflow Between the 4 Must-Have Editing Apps

Taylor prefers to use four particular editing apps as her weapon(s) of choice: VSCO, Afterlight, Darkroom, and Snapseed. VSCO is fantastic to use for pretty filters and presets, Afterlight allows you to go deeper into the editing process, while Snapseed and Darkroom offer ways to remove / add to the image in more complex ways. She switches back and forth between the four depending on what photo she's editing and what needs to be done to the image. 

Step 1: Darkroom

Darkroom is now integrated with the Moment App, meaning you can easily cross over any image into Darkroom and start editing right away at the click of the button. Rad, we know. Adjust simple mechanics within your image like straightening, brightening, and increasing sharpness. 

Step 2: VSCO

Like most folks out there in the photography industry, Taylor loves how VSCO offers a wide variety of presets. What can we say? They stand through the test of time. She toggles back and forth between presets A1 and A6, as those are what evokes a more classic feeling.

Step 3: Afterlight

She super digs the scratch and grain filters in Afterlight. Once you have an image that looks and feels properly edited, drag the image to Afterlight for some fun "scratches" to dust over the images' frames. Refer back to Tip #2.

Step 4: Snapseed

Finally, when the image is near complete, take the image you have fully edited into Snapseed and remove any unwarranted spots or specks on skin, clothes, backgrounds, etc. This is the most important step to take into consideration in order to have that clean, minimal photograph.

Happy Editing!