How to create a collage poster with your Instagram photos

May 3, 2012 By 53 Comments Fat Mum Slim

1. Visit Printsgram.com

2. Log into your Instagram account.

3. Choose which poster layout you’d like to use.

4. Name your poster {eg photo a day photos}.

5. Drop and drag your photos into the poster {or double click the picture for them to automatically be added}.

6. Once completed, click create.

7. Download your PDF to your computer {click the download button on the left of your screen}

8. If you want to have it printed to display in your home, just send it off to somewhere like Officeworks {for Australians}. If you want to use it on your blog you’ll probably have to resize it to make it small enough to load properly. I do this in photoshop. Alternatively, just right click the image {when you’re on the same page you download it} and save it to desktop for a smaller version to use online.


Enjoy! Have a great weekend everyone!

Filed Under: Fat Mum Slim, iPhoneography, Social Media & Blogging Tips fat mum slim

How to create beautiful iPhone photos: lighting

April 25, 2012 By 23 Comments Fat Mum Slim

Morning! Today I thought I’d follow on with my series on iPhoneography and how to take beautiful iPhone photos, with the topic for this post being lighting. With a digital SLR camera {ie a big fancy camera with more technical stuff than you can poke a stick at} you can mess with the lighting a lot more than you can with your iPhone. With my big camera I love opening the aperture right up and letting as much light in as possible, but with my iPhone I’m more limited.

Here’s a few tricks I’ve learnt:

1. Natural is best
Natural light is the best friend of any photographer, unless of course you have a whizz-bang studio with wonderful lighting. Natural light gives photos a glow and makes everything more beautiful. So turn off your flash, and work with delicious natural light. The best times of day to shoot are morning and late afternoon {super soft and beautiful light}. If you’re shooting in the middle of the day, I find it best to shoot in the shade so it’s not so bright, or inside by a big window.

2. Work with what you’ve got
We’re limited with our control over the light on our iPhones, but there are a few things we can do. Moving around is one thing. Move about and try and find the best light for your photo. With a bit of practice you’ll soon learn what works best for you and your style. Shoot into the light/sun, shoot with the light/sun behind you. Try a few different ways and see what you like best.

I’m not a fan of using my flash, but it can definitely work for some photos. Use it and see if it works for you. At night, instead of using the flash, I try and find another source of light. You can sometimes just switch the light on right near your subject or the person you want to take photos of, or you can turn on a light not so directly on them to get a softer effect. If you want to get fancy and shoot food at night you can use a different light source like the iTorch app and have someone else shine the light on with their iPhone, and you shoot with yours. Technical? Yes! But anything in the name of a good photo!

For the photo below of my daughter’s birthday we switched off all the lights, which you do when there’s cake and candles, and we shot without a flash, just using the light of the candles. It means the photo is grainy and soft, but I think it adds to the photo.

3. Fiddle with the focus
When you’re taking your photo you can fiddle with the focus. Whether you’re taking your photo with your iPhone’s camera, a camera app or Instagram you’ll see a square appear if you touch the screen {like below}. This is for the focus. Where ever you click on your screen it will make sure that part is in focus.

But when you do this, it also plays around with the light as well. See the series of three photos below? I shot them at the football yesterday, all in the same minute. In the first photo I clicked on the field, in the second on the stadium and in the third on the clouds. See how it changed the lighting? Play around with that focus square when taking your photos and see what works for you.

4. Sunflare is tops
Sometimes when I’m taking photos I swear I can hear my iPhone screaming, ‘Ouch! My eyes! The sun is in my eyes!‘ OK, I can’t but boy do I give it a hard time. The other day I was at the beach shooting directly into the sunrise and my iPhone was having a hard time coping. It was too bright and it didn’t like it. Most of the time when I’m shooting directly into the light I can’t see my screen at all, because it’s too bright. I just snap away and choose which ones worked later on.

When I was shooting the photo below, I couldn’t see a thing. My screen was black and the sun was making my eyes water. I shot 10 photos and got 4 that were worth keeping.

Sunflare is the effect that direct sunlight can have on your photo. See how the sun has created some red dots and bubbles in the photo. This isn’t a filter, it’s the sunlight.

Below I’ve moved the sun to the side and not let it take up too much focus, as it has in the photo above. You can move about and just have a little sun, or a lot. Play around with the sunlight.


5. Get App Happy
If you just needed to take the photo and had no chance to fix the light or work with the sun, then you can definitely edit the photo to make it better. In Instagram alone you could add the lux feature {the sunshine button on the bottom left of your screen} which will give it a boost as well some of the filters {Sierra, Amaro and Rise are my favourites for boosting the light}. If you go to your camera roll and click edit in the top right hand corner, you can enhance your photos by click the magic stick. There are also a whole host of great apps that help make mediocre photos fabulous and I’ll take you through those soon.

Remember, I’m sharing the things I’ve learnt in time with taking photos with my iPhone. Of course each photo you take shouldn’t take hours to create, and I don’t imagine you’d want them to either. I’m sharing these tips in case you want to take better photos. You can consider each tip and use them as you wish. The most important thing is that photography should be fun, especially with your iPhone.

Happy snapping!


More in the How To Create Beautiful iPhone Photos series:

Filed Under: Fat Mum Slim, iPhoneography fat mum slim

How to create beautiful iPhone photos: the rule of thirds

April 18, 2012 By 51 Comments Fat Mum Slim

I’m often asked how I create my iPhone photos, so I thought I’d break it down and give everyone a crash course in iPhone photography. I’ll do it over a period of time, as a series of posts. Today I’m talking about the rule of thirds.

What on earth is this ‘rule of thirds’ you speak of?
The rule of thirds is a technique used by photographers to create balance in photos. By using the rule of thirds it’s quite pleasing on the eye and makes the composition more interesting.

Let me simplify it for you. Imagine your photo is broken up into nine little squares {see the image below}. Ideally you want to try to avoid cutting a photo in two by putting the object right in the middle. If I’d moved the building up to sit right smack-bang in the middle of the photo, it wouldn’t be as effective. For the composition to work it’s magic it is best if the focus of the photo {in this case the building} sits at the bottom third {as it does} or at the top third.


Confused? Don’t be. Here’s another example {below}. See how I’ve put the focus of the photo {in this case Lacey on her scooter} in the very right third of the photo. If I’d put her in the centre it just wouldn’t look as great composition-wise.

Take these two photos I took of the sunset over the weekend. I wanted to show how if I’d put the horizontal line in the photo, which is the skyline, in the middle it wouldn’t be as interesting visually. In the right-hand photo I’ve moved the skyline down into the bottom third and ta-dah, it’s much more pleasing. It works better, don’t you think?

It can be hard to imagine that grid in your photos when you’re taking them, especially when you’ve got a moving subject {ie little people!}. If you’re using an iPhone {and it’s upgraded to iOS 5} then you’ll see the grid on your screen as you take your photos. You can try and put the rule into action as you take your photos. Start by taking pics of things that don’t move – food, skylines, buildings etc for practice.

Or if you’re uploading to something like Instagram that requires a square photo, shoot away and edit later. Just select your photo in the camera roll and click edit {in the top right corner}. Click the crop tool and then select square. Move the picture around so it works with the rule of thirds. For my photo I wanted to make sure the top of the ferris wheel hit the first third in the photo. Lastly, click save.

On a final note, this is just a guide. Taking photos and breaking this rule doesn’t mean you’ll end up with a bad photo! Experiment, use this rule sometimes, and sometimes break it. I use this rule a lot when taking my photos as a guide, but a lot of other factors influence my photos too. I’ll talk about those over the next few weeks.

Happy snapping! x

Filed Under: Fat Mum Slim, iPhoneography fat mum slim

Sweet products to make from your Instagram photos

April 3, 2012 By 71 Comments Fat Mum Slim

My name is Chantelle and I’m an Instagram addict. But you knew that already, right?

After taking over 600 photos in a year I started to think about what I could do with them. A quick search and I found that there were a handful of fun options and now I’m sharing them with you. All of them were easy to use, you just log-in to your Instagram account via their site and all your photos appear for you to choose from. Here are some more details:

Casetagram
Make a beautiful iPhone case using the photos you’ve taken on Instagram. You can design it in a collage like the one I did {and choose where you place photos} or even polka dots. There are also loads of other designs and background colours.
Cost: $34.95 and free shipping worldwide
Quality: I’m impressed by the quality of my Casetagram, it’s sturdy and the colours of the photos are beautiful and true.
Website: Castegram.com

Keepsy
Create an album with your Instagram photos with pre-made page templates that your photos easily assemble themselves into. You can name your album, select which photos you want to include and choose the album cover design too.
Cost: Albums start at $29.95
Quality: This is Lacey’s favourite of all the products we had. The quality is great, even after a lot of use from little hands.
Website: Keepsy.com

{One of the pages inside the Keepsy album}

CanvasPop
I wasn’t expecting to love this one as much as I did, as I’m not a big canvas fan. This is about 30cm by 30cm and the quality of the print is pretty spot on. I love on the back of each canvas is a little sticker that says ‘Lovingly made by ____’. Mine was made by Anthony. Thanks mate!
Cost: Starting at $39.95 {but they don’t ship Internationally. I had to send to a mail forwarding service and then sent on, which was pricey}.
Quality: Crisp and lovely.
Website: CanvasPop.com

Blurb
Simple and clean is the layout for Blurb’s Instagram books, which I love. It let’s the photos be the star of the book. It’s smaller than the Keepsy album {so 18cm by 18cm}, but not too small. I plan on making a Blurb Instagram book when I finish the photo a day challenge at the end of this year, with all of my favourite photos {the page limit is 240}.
Cost: Prices start at $12.95
Quality: Absolutely brilliant.
Website: Blurb.com


{Inside the Blurb book}

Hatchcraft
A perfect gift for parents and grandparents {or anyone really} the Hatchcraft Bamboo Shadow Box impressed me on arrival. The quality is brilliant, as is the packaging. Choose from a 4 or 7 inch box.
Cost: Starts at $22
Quality: Spot on
Website: Hatchcraft.com

Stickygram
Turn your Instagram pics into magnets using Stickygram and your favourite photos. These have already taken pride of place on our fridge among the bills and recipes I want to try.
Cost: $14.99 with free shipping worldwide
Quality: They’re soft magnetic paper so don’t expect hard, plastic or fancy magnets.
Website: Stickygram.com

Prinstagram
Is this tiny book the cutest thing you ever did see? I love teeny things and this one won my heart. Design your own tiny book, each containing 24 photos and share with the kids. Prinstagram also does photos printed like polaroids {in the very top picture}, bigger books and lets you make a huge collage of your photos that you can print yourself.
Cost: $10 for 3 tiny books
Quality: Brilliant. The pages are made of card and it’s not flimsy at all.
Website: Prinstagram

Other Instagram products:

Would you turn your Instagram photos into something you could display or use? Which tickles your fancy?

Please note: I was sent all of these products for editorial review. I did cover the cost of international postage for the CanvasPop canvas. You can read my disclosure policy for more details. All reviews are truthful and my own opinion.

Filed Under: Fat Mum Slim, iPhoneography, Social Media & Blogging Tips fat mum slim
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