This sunset was so beautiful. The sun behind the clouds creating those amazing rays of light; the reflection on the water, mirroring the sky. I decided to take a picture with my iPhone 5 and post it on Instagram. The challenge that I found was that this photo needed some editing in order to match what I was seeing, and to create a more dramatic mood. So, after I took the picture, I used the Photoshop Express app on the iPhone to edit this photo. I basically adjusted the exposure, contrast and saturation, and I did not use any of the presets. What I liked about the result was the beautiful blue sky, the enhanced contrast of the sun’s rays and the yellow cast. You can see this post on my Instagram feed @edseloliveira.

One of the challenges that I find when posting on Instagram is that we need to catch the viewer’s attention in a split of a second on a small smartphone screen. The good news is that when working with darker images, noise is almost completely suppressed, and contrast creates an attractive image. The bad news is that this edited image does not look good on a larger computer screen, most of the time. So, there you have it.

Photo of a sunset unedited using iPhone5 in Orlando, Florida.

Edited photo of a sunset in Orlando, using iPhone. The Photoshop Express was also used to edit this picture.