We are very fortunate to live in a world where most of us carry small computers in our purses or pockets. Even more impressive is these devices’ ability to take high-quality photos and videos in the palm of your hands. If you’re anything like me, you snap a quick photo, upload it to your feed or story, and the thought stops there. If you’re feeling particularly fancy, you pop a filter on it or a string of text and call yourself an “artiste.” Thankfully, we once again have a popular social media app to thank for the next viral trend that we guarantee you’ll be using all summer long. The trick, which was originally posted by TikTok user @anaugazz has now been viewed by over 16 million people. If there’s one piece of advice I can give you when attempting this, it’s to trust the process. Part of what makes this so fun is that you begin the process by completely distorting the image. It asks you to do all the adjustments basically blind, and then in your final adjustment, you return the photo back to its new and improved self. If you’ve ever fiddled with the “edit” feature when you’re looking through your photos, you may have touched upon some of the settings this hack asks you to adjust, but I’m willing to bet many of them you’ve never batted an eye at. Another thing I love about this hack is that it doesn’t rely on precision. You’ll see in a moment that I will lay out a list of settings and the levels you should set them at. But getting the desired effect doesn’t require you to be at exactly the numbers listed. If you’re 3 to 5 notches off, up, or down, you have nothing to worry about. Continue reading for the complete settings and to see some before and after shots of photos I put this hack to the test on.
Exposure: +100 – This is where the distortion will begin, but don’t lose faith. Brilliance: +100 Highlights: - 30 Shadows: - 30 Contrast: - 30 Brightness: -15 Black point: +10 Saturation: +10 Vibrance: +10 Warmth: +10 Tint: +40 Sharpness: +15 Vignette: + 25
Lastly, set the brilliance and the exposure back to 0 and watch the magic happen!
The result is a much brighter and more vivid image with worlds more color and depth.
How do you usually edit your photos? Leave a comment with a photo that you try this hack on down below!
