Top 5 Apps Every Lash Artist Needs to Edit Photos
In last week's blog, I mentioned how early in my career, I decided I wanted to take affluent clients and not spend a lot of time on clients that didn't value what I do or wouldn't pay what I felt I was worth. I knew that in order to attract the kind of clients I wanted, it meant I'd have to become a better version of myself. My skill, appearance, attitude, confidence, photos, social media, everything... would have to be at the top of their game. But sharing high quality photos was something I knew I could use as a tool to immediately differentiate myself from other artists and attract the kind of clients I really wanted. So while working on the other stuff, I put a lot of focus into photography and sharing high quality photos.
Instead of taking pictures from my phone and sharing, I bought a used fancy DSLR camera from one of my coworkers in the corporate world and started learning how to use it. What I didn't know at the time was that all of those beautiful photos you see on social media and in magazines, weren't just taken from a great camera and posted online to see. Sure, the photo quality was the starting point but to take the photo from great to incredible required image editing.
So another day, another task to learn. I had to find a photo editing software that I could use to make my images look professional and high end.
In today's article, I'm going to share the apps I and other top lash artists use to edit photos so you can use them too and take your photos to the next level.
PHOTOSHOP
In the world of photo editing, photoshop is king. There's so much you can do with it from making skin look perfect to the feature I love, making you look slimmer. The best lash artists in the industry use it however it's commonly used for magazines and any publication where photos need to look perfect. You can adjust all details of your photos making one part more defined, change colors of items, etc. Photoshop however is SUPER advanced. Especially if you're a beginner. If you have the patience and the time to learn it, and you want a super polished and editorial look, this is the best of the best.
FACETUNE
While this isn't an app I use anymore, I really got a lot of good mileage out of it. Facetune is great for smoothing skin, removing blemishes and drawing focus to any area of your photo that you want potential clients to see. What's also nice is that Facetune has free mini tutorials showing you how to use each feature so you're not left to figure it all out on your own.
PICMONKEY
Picmonkey has been my jam for years! In fact, I still use it from time to time. From filters to skin smoothing, to tools to make you look slimmer, there are a lot of great features under the hood. Not to mention, Picmonkey gives you the ability to create collages, store photos in their hub, add text to your photos and design images from scratch. All of these features and more for less than $40 a year. You just can't beat it.
CANVA
Canva is a well known app throughout a lot of industries. They have many of the same features as Picmonkey, but a lot more template designs for posters, business cards, postcards, social media banners and even book covers. A feature I love a lot is that if you create a book cover for example, Canva has a feature that will allow you to convert that book cover automatically to an image you can use across social platforms.
POLARR
And to my current favorite, Polarr. I may be a little biased as this was created here in the Bay Area but in terms of functionality, it's as close to photoshop as I've seen but way more user friendly. Plus there's a desktop and phone app so you can edit on the go. While there are preset templates that look amazing, Polarr also has a brush tool you can use to edit specific parts of your photo. I love that you can easily add text or overlay your logo onto photos as well. This is an app I use at least weekly and I'm guessing you'll hear a lot more about them soon.
Which app do you plan to use to take your photo game to the next level? Leave a comment below.