My mobile photo editing workflow


Although I carry a camera around my neck pretty much whenever I’m outdoors, I still take photos with my iPhone, especially if I know I want to share them right away. My workflow may not suit everyone, but I’ve spent years perfecting it.

  1. Shoot the photo in the native iPhone camera app. 
  2. Run it through the Perfectly Clear app, which often does something. 
  3. Upload to Snapseed to crop and edit basic things like exposure and contrast.
  4. Use the Snapseed Transform feature, altering vertical and horizontal perspective to make it look unnatural and bad.
  5. Undo.
  6. Save to Camera Roll. Or Favorites. Or is it Moments?
  7. Upload the saved photo to the VSCO app.
  8. No, not that one. The other one.
  9. Repeat step 7.
  10. Try every filter. 
  11. Try them again.
  12. Go back to the one that looked good. 
  13. Which one looked good?
  14. Repeat steps 6 and 7.
  15. Determine that I like none of the filters and revert to the original, which now somehow seems lacking.
  16. Post to Facebook and/or Tumblr and/or  Flickr and/or my blog, based on vague and ill-defined criteria.

Give it a try!

Street photographers face a variety of challenges unique to the genre. How do you approach strangers? What equipment will allow you to be mobile and responsive while still capturing sharp, well-lighted images? How can you take even one goddamn picture without a FedEx truck in the background?