How to Edit Photos on the iPhone

When shooting on an iPhone, the editing process couldn’t be easier: there is no transferring files or cables & SD cards to get lost. Editing photographs is the last step in bringing your images to life, and in this article I’m going to talk you through some tips and tricks for editing your iPhone images on your phone.

This process should be about enhancing what is already there, tweaking the colors to suit your signature style, or simply adding that last layer of dimension. Though it can seem overwhelming for beginners, it doesn't need to be an intense or confusing process.

In this article, you will learn the best file types for editing, ways to fine-tune your colors, and how to get creative with edits. There are many apps and software you can use to edit your photographs, and today I am going to show you how I edit in my signature style in both Lightroom and the iPhone's native Photos app.

My signature colors are usually warm golden tones with rich greens, and though I mostly achieve this look through editing, there are other factors to consider. The time of day you shoot, the outdoor light, and the gear you use. But before we begin pressing the shutter button, we have a decision to make:

RAW vs JPEG

This is a choice you make in camera/on the phone before you even shoot photographs, but it’s an important decision.

A RAW file contains much more detail and produces a higher quality file, which subsequently gives you much better dynamic range and more flexibility to play with when editing. Though this can be a frustrating point for storage because the file sizes are large, you will get much more out of your photographs when you edit them, as they contain much more information. This is especially true if you are shooting in more challenging lighting conditions, as JPEGs cannot recover as much data from blown-out highlights or underexposed images. Shooting RAW also gives you more options for printing your images or getting creative during editing.

JPEGs can be great; they're smaller in file size and brilliant for beginners who just want to practice as much as possible without filling up their cloud storage. I always shoot RAW as it gives me the option to downsize the file to whatever I need or want to store it as.

In the Moment Pro Camera app, you can choose to include a JPEG-processed file as well as shoot RAW (most cameras do this too), which is great if you want to get a preview story up for Instagram but edit the RAW photo and post it to your main feed later.

Where To Start:

Whether you’re using a software like Lightroom or you’re using the native Photos app, it’s always best to start with basic adjustments to correct and perfect the exposure of your image. Start by bringing down the highlights and recovering any over-exposed skies or bright areas and then lift the shadows to brighten up your dark spots and reveal some extra details.

If you use iPhone’s Photos app to edit, you’ll notice an option called ‘Brilliance’ which will pull up your shadows and bring down your highlights at the same time. You can use the exposure slider if your photograph is too dark but where the highlights and shadows settings are more specific to those areas, the exposure tool affects the entirety of the image, meaning you’re brightening all areas of your image at the same time.

My tips: Usually, on Lightroom, I’ll take the clarity back to about -5 and then add in some dehaze to remove an overly perfect HDR look but add in those punchy contrasts. To mimic dehaze in the Photos app, you can you can lower the ‘Blackpoint’ and increase the ‘Definition’.

Color-Grading on iPhone

The Color Grading area in Lightroom is a great starting point. Split into 3 color wheels, you can adjust the color tones in the highlights, midtones, or shadows, and combine all three to completely change the look of an image. Instead of white balance, which affects all three areas simultaneously, you can warm the shadows and cool the highlights to get a more balanced image.

For example, with a golden hour shot, you can further warm the highlights and midtones while leaving the shadows to maintain a more natural look. You can get really creative here depending on how intensely you want to change these colors. These are also a great way to make your photographs look more like film: give your shadows a slightly green hue and your highlights a warmer orange tone, and you can emulate that disposable look.

In the Photos app, you can’t get as creative with color, but you can adjust the image's temperature, play around with tints and tones, and increase its saturation or vibrance to your liking. Tint will add a green or purple hue to your image,depending on how you move the slider. If you pair this with temperature, then you can change the overall tonal balance of your image.

Using iPhone Filters and Presets

You can find presents in abundance across the internet, and it can be hard to know who to trust and how to tell which ones are going to be a good investment. I would recommend learning to color yourself and creating your own presets, or paying for a subscription to an app with a variety of presets so you’re not limited to buying 5 and potentially not liking any of them. The only preset collection I would recommend is Evan Ranft’s preset system, which includes preset colors, white balances, exposures, and effects tabs, letting you mix and match different aspects for a much more personalized preset solution.

In the Apple Photos app, I tend to avoid the built-in filters, as they’re a bit too intense. However, apple has an option for photographic ‘styles’ in the settings app under camera where you can choose a slight colour preference for the undertones of your images, which will automatically be applied within the camera app so that all your photographs straight out of the native camera app will be shot with these tones - almost like a ‘baked in’ preset and then you can simply adjust your basics afterwards.

Within the Moment Pro Camera II App, you can also create a ‘profile’ similar to Apple’s photographic styles; you can save a list of settings that include custom white balance, tint, which lens is being used, where the file is stored, and other viewfinder options. This means you can switch between profiles if you have a telephoto lens attached, are shooting in a warm-toned JPEG, or are shooting in RAW.

Creative Choices

The last layers include adding things like grain or slightly fading your image, perhaps adding a vignette or some masks. Unfortunately, you don’t get too much choice with creativity in the Photos app; however, in Lightroom, you can play with masks, illuminating certain areas of your images to draw the eye or adding grain to get a nostalgic feel.

Lightroom also has a feature where you can add Lens Blur, making your iPhone photographs feel a little bit closer to DSLR with a depth effect; however, this can be hit-or-miss depending on the photo you choose to edit!

In other editing apps, there are other ways to get creative, such as adding artificial light leaks or glow effects, depending on your subject.In other words, you get a stronger file without filling up your iPhone as quickly.

Top iOS Editing Apps

Aside from the native Photos app and Lightroom, there are a plethora of apps for editing. Some require a monthly subscription, some are entirely free, or some have a free tier to try out, such as VSCO or Canva.

VSCO is a fantastic choice for beginners and mid-level photographers, with a lot of great presets. I used this exclusively for years before I got the hang of Lightroom.

Another one I really love is Prequel; it is really creative and has some fantastic filters and effects for a vintage or cinematic look. It's best for people who want to experiment with creative looks and ideas, and it works really well for street scenes and portraits.

Lightroom, in my opinion, is one of the best editing tools for beginners, all the way through to professionals.