Happy New Year! It’s 2022, what a wild thing to think about. I’m back with another iPhone tutorial, this time on post-process lighting and how you can elevate a simple portrait in only a handful of steps. It’s 2022, there’s no excuses for your content to be subpar, even if you only have a smartphone to shoot on.

Let’s start with the basics. You need a plain colored wall or as bare and clean of a wall you can find. A darker wall works better for this but lighter colored ones will work too. You need a simple lighting setup such as a ring light or softbox. If you have direct window light that will work too, just make sure you are evenly lit. The point of this tutorial is to give your photos some life with color. I’m big on incorporating color into my shoots and planning it so it elevates the photo in a purposeful way.

I unfortunately got a mile case of COVID (yes, I am vaccinate and boostered) for the holidays, so that means y’all get a tutorial. I bought myself this cool denim jacket as a shut-in serotonin boost and these portraits were born.

You’ll need two apps – Snapsneed and Photoleap – for this tutorial to work. Video below!

TEXT DIRECTIONS:
Open photo in Snapsneed and click on EXPAND
This will expand your background so your subject has a lot of space behind them.
The app will fill in the background but you’ll have to clean it up a bit using the heal tool, don’t worry about texture.
I put a “VINTAGE FILTER” over it and saved.
Open the photo in PHOTOLEAP.
Go to EFFECTS and click on DUO.
Scroll to the end and you’ll see colored examples thumbnails.
Click on one and you’ll see two color options.
I chose LINEAR for these but you can choose whatever you want.
Pick your two colors!
Adjust your brightness, exposure and contrast to your liking.