Right this very moment I am on a family holiday in Madeira. I hope I’m on a beach sipping

an ice cold diet coke in the sunshine...

whilst wearing a massive hat and factor 50 suntan

lotion obviously.

Because no, your screen isn’t overexposed, I am just this pale.

I couldn’t leave you without a video to jolly you along this week however

- (if you’re a member of the Kellgren-Fozard club this is actually your second video of

the week because you get exciting behind the scenes action when you sign up, click the

‘join’ button below…)

So I’m going to take you through how I edit my Instagram pictures! My style is very vintage

Old Hollywood: a mix of traditional studio photography and location shots. You can find

me through my handle @jessicaoutofthecloset.

Because: Gay.

Also: Clothes.

If you don’t have Instagram… consider getting it. Or else keep reminding me to upload

my pictures in other places. I constantly forget that YouTube Stories is a thing but…

I’ve had my Instagram account for years now, but I’ve only properly used it for

three years, I think. It’s where I post about fashion- if you’ve ever wondered where

a piece of clothing in one of my videos is from then check my Instagram, you’ll probably

find it there and I tag where I get everything (unless it’s true vintage).

I also post a lot of day-to-day chronic illness life stuff and just life-life stuff. Often

pictures with my wife because she is the most heavenly being I’ve ever come across and

I marvel every day to be in her presence.

If you’re into adorable lesbian couples then we also have a joint instagram but I

don’t edit those photos other than slapping Instagram’s Reyes filter at 10 percent on

them all so they’re vaguely harmonious.

I’m a bit obsessed with harmony-

But not as much as I am on my main account!

As you can see, I have a strict checkerboard pattern that I do not break with FOR ANYTHING.

I have created a rod for my own back and even though it drives me up the wall sometimes

I love this stupid pattern and I get very upset at the thought that Instagram may one

day go to four squares like the maniacs they are!

Stop changing things.

It’s outfit, picture, face, picture. Sometimes my outfits are seasonal.

[sleigh bells]

But there is always an outfit every four pictures. I also like my colours to flow nicely through

my grid… sometimes I photoshop the colour of flowers as a go-between picture to make

other pictures match. You can tell I’m really ill if I don’t post that day or I post things

that don’t properly flow in colour...

Which, considering I have a chronic illness, is actually pretty often!

We’re skipping over that.

On to taking photos!

VO: my lovely wife Claudia takes most of my pictures- I’m terrible at taking pictures

of myself, definitely not good with a selfie. She even takes the pictures she’s in! We

use our Canon 70D with a Tamron 70-24 lens. It’s a very versatile lens

and works at close range. It gives you shots like these.

We also use a Prime 100mil lens that is very heavy, very expensive and you need to be very

far away from… but goodness isn’t it nice?!

Of course when it comes to those outfit of the day shots…

well that’s a whole different matter!

VO: Firstly, there are no plain walls in my house and this is England so natural light

inside isn’t great. This means I can only take photos in front of my wardrobe and only

at certain times of the day.

Honestly, it was born out of necessity but now it’s a style choice! That may accidentally

be my personal motto: I’m disabled and can’t leave the house much but damn am I going to

look good doing it.

VO: We use a small Canon M6 mirrorless camera because it’s very light and then just the

kit lens because it’s actually really great at giving a very flat field of view and not

blurry. I rely on the natural light coming from the window to one side as it gives me

the best depth in the picture and definition in my clothes. In winter I have to replicate

the window light with a softbox. This one is from Amazon. It’s very cheap but durable.

I also have a ring light that gives a little light to my front and is excellent for the

portrait shots as it really kisses your whole face with light. I don’t worry too much

about my background because, as you’ll see in a minute, it doesn’t last for long!

I plan my outfits ahead of time, along with in-between pictures that aren’t time sensitive,

on the Mosaico app. Obviously I also leave gaps when I know something exciting is going

to happen!

I’ve tried a lot of different apps and I really like this one because it allows me

to easily drag and drop pictures that I haven't used yet,

So kinda switching them around, and also has a feature called Ghost,

Which I'm quite a fan of

You pull down the screen to activate it and then every picture you tap disappears.

It’s great if you’re considering getting rid of a picture on your feed- or quite a

few pictures- but need to see how it looks first.

Then we come to the actual editing section. If you’ve seen my Instagram before, you’ll

know this looks VERY different to a normal outfit post!

Now, my wife likes to make fun of the amount of time and effort I put into the editing

of a tiny picture on a phone screen that someone will look at for a split second as if being

a perfectionist is a bad thing or you know…

[ding]

Anyway… The first thing I do is open SnapSeed, which is my absolute favourite phone editing

app-

I should probably point out that I’m not sponsored by anything or anyone in this video…

except maybe my wife? And the Kellgren-Fozard Club?

Okay [clears throat], today’s video is sponsored by the Kellgren-Fozard Club in Collaboration

with Claudia Kellgren-Fozard. Thank you both.

So, yes.

Snapseed has a range of presets but the individual tools are actually really good.

If you are wondering, this is from amazon, it’s like £2 and I couldn't do without it really

Vital I would call it, it's vital for when you are editing a picture in your phone.

The first thing I do is lighten everything up, add a little contrast here as well…

If I feel the picture looks particularly wonky I’ll correct it. It was taken handheld after all.

So that is with the perspective tool. Uh… Lovely!

If there are areas that are particularly darker than the rest… always my legs! So we are

gonna brighten them up using the selective tool. It gives you the options of brightness

and contrast and then saturation...

Right, this last bit you’re going to say ‘what?’ but bear with me…

Right so we go to tools, we get our brush we ramp up the exposure right up and then...

we are just gonna overexpose this edge here.

Alright, we are gonna get the whitest of whites!

Because I’m truly obsessed with white. It’s my base colour ok?

For some people they think that black is their neutral and it goes with everything.

But my neutral is bright, shining white and I love it.

So white, it’s as white as fake teeth… [ding]

Which is gonna bring us to the next app that you might have

heard of before… it’s Facetune!

Basically Photoshop Fails for your phone.

It also has a handy ‘teeth whitening’ feature that… I use to brighten my background!

First however, we use this brush function and very carefully- excessively carefully-

so carefully some people may say you’re being stupidly pedantic and need to get a life

[ding]

-colour around my body.

I use the brush on Facetune rather than Snapseed because it’s much more precise

It's so good! With much shaper edges.

This may take some time…

No, really, let’s speed this up and play some music to keep you occupied.

[Music - Swagger Stagger - Epidemic Sound]

It isn’t actually white enough for me still so then we bring in the teeth whitening tool…

Are you ready? And we’re going to need to speed up again! So sorry!

[Music - Swagger Stagger - Epidemic Sound]

Honestly, either it’s a work of art or I’m loosing my mind...

Done!

Now I use the detail tool to bring out the texture of my dress and my hair along with

highlighting my features so they stand out. Very nicely.

Obviously this is a very stylised look but I think aspects of it can be helpful for other pictures too

[Music - Swagger Stagger - Epidemic Sound]

Alright now we can declare this done!

So we export it, save it in the camera roll. Lovely.

Now in photos, open photo itself, and we are going to do a little crop here just at the

top and the bottom and then very slightly in at the sides. You’ll see why in a mo

but basically it needs to be able to be able form half of the slide.

Ok, off to Instagram’s Layout app. We scroll along and then we find the one that is half

and half. Tap on that and then we mirror. Then we just adjust the 2 of them until they

are beautifully, perfectly symmetrical. In the most precise way possible.

Save.

Done!

Then, onto Instagram!

Now, I don't put any filters on the outfit of the day posts at all. I simply play around

with the tools on instagram. We are gonna up this brightness delightfully, up the contrast

here to 10, take out some of the warmth because it can be very yellow.

Voila.

Here we come to the fade. The fade! It's my favorite part of instagram at all! Yes, I

mainly use instagram so I can put a fade on my pictures. It just makes them look lovely

and old fashioned and vintage and stuff….

You know how it is…

The shadows however… also, why I use my finger and then I hold this?

So we are using the shadows, I really like how on instagram you can swipe but you can

also tap to be more precise. So I add quite a bit of shadow to get a lovely depth to the

picture. Delightful and then all its left sharpen.

Uh!

Beautiful, there you go, I’ll just touch that so you can get some nice before and after

moments.

So there you go, that’s how I edit my outfit of the day instagram pictures. Yes, it’s

a long process but I love that look so much!

When it comes to non-outfit pictures it’s a lot simpler! With these again we are opening

Snapseed and generally I turn down saturation and just brighten them up.

I also try to find some white in the picture because obviously:

obsessed with white!

It's a thing.

And also I just really like keeping everything pale.

Ok so, brighten up a little bit...

Lovely.

Then add a bit of contrast.

And then I tend to get very selective on the colours thanks to that wonderful selection

tool.

It’s so good because you can concentrate on just one colour and then really change

that one colour. That’s what we are going for there.

We got brightness, contras, saturation, structure… I don't use structure because it slightly

confuses me.

And beautiful! I know, it’s quite simple really. I just make it seem complex for the fun.

Here we go onto instagram. I do pretty much the same series of things as I do with my

outfits of the day, so we just up the brightness.

Contrast always important.

Taking out some warmth.

Again, the fade to give it a very romantic old fashioned look.

Shadows for depth. And some sharpen, cause we need a sharpen for that fade.

And voila! And now I spend the next 5 hours writing captions because-

I'm very dyslexic!... but that is another video.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look at how I do my Instagram and it’s maybe given

you something helpful. If you have any questions then please do leave them below and I’ll

try to get to them once I’m back home from holiday!

Wohoo, I’m so excited!

Whilst you are watching this, I am ON holiday. I'm just very excited and I’m quite tired

because we had a big photo shoot yesterday with a jewelry brand for some pictures on

@jessieandclaud which will be coming up very soon.

Next week actually, to the week you are watching this in.

We really knocked ourselves out doing them

so I hope you’ll agree that they are really nice.

I’m going to go see the Avengers in a few hours, I haven't packed a single thing, but

the Avengers came first. It’s the only subtitled screening ok!

If you’re new here please do subscribe, it would be lovely to have you!

See you in my next video, goodbye!

[kiss]