Tutorial: How I Photograph My Nails

  Taking a good picture of my nails was something I struggled with when I first started trying. I would see all of these awesome pictures on Instagram and I just couldn't figure out how to make my pictures turn out like that. Every time I would paint my nails I'd try to snap a picture with my phone immediately afterwards and let's just say it didn't look great. I just couldn't figure out how to get that nice, tight shot, or how to get the lighting to not look awful. It was frustrating. I asked Nicole from youngwildandpolished how she took the pictures that she posts on Instagram because her nail pics are always so good. I asked if she was using a real camera, or a macro setting or something, and she said that she always just used her iPhone. That meant that there was hope for me! She extolled the importance of really good lighting, and encouraged me to keep trying. It was that same night that I finally (a little late to the party) realized the tools I had at my disposal in the form of editing a picture. It was like a little lightbulb went off, the missing piece of the puzzle finally clicked into place. Rather than trying to get the perfect angle, or put my hand in front of the lens close enough for a tight shot, I could just crop and rotate my pictures! #duh...

  

Terrible indoor lighting!

So, that was part one---getting the angle and shot I wanted. Part two was still lighting. My education in lighting came in the form of a YouTube video by nailstorming. She posted a really helpful FAQ video about swatching for brands and in that video she mentioned taking pictures in outdoor, but indirect, light to get the most color-accurate photos. Bingo. As soon as I tried it I realized that was what I was missing. I had been taking pictures inside, under horrible fluorescent bulbs. Yikes. And if you want to watch her video, which I highly recommend, you can find it right here. 

     

Now we're getting somewhere

Now that I was armed with the education in nail photography that I sorely needed my pictures started to become what I wanted them to be. Below are the steps and tips and tricks I use when photographing my nails. Please note: I am obviously not a nail technician or a professional photographer, and I don't profess to take the world's greatest nail pics. The following bullet points are just the things that work for me and help me take pictures that I am happy with. 







1). Step 1: Make sure your nails are camera ready. Now this is a very important step, in my opinion, because a close-up shot of your nails exposes every little flaw. Now admittedly, I get a little obsessed over cleaning up my manicures and making sure my cuticles look good, but I think it's worth it. I prefer taking pictures two days after painting my nails because it gives me the opportunity to make sure any last minute little cleanup opportunities are met. And sometimes your top coat will leave a visible film outside of the polish line that can be scraped off, so I try to get all of that off before taking my pictures. Also! I find that it's best to take pictures of clean, dry hands, free from lotions or cuticle oils/balms. Certain lotions will leave your pretty, shiny nails looking a little dull right after application, and, on the cuticle oil side, greasy, oily cuticles aren't the prettiest in photographs. That being said, make sure you take care to keep your cuticles and skin hydrated overall! Good cuticle care is a must!

2). Lighting. Most of the pictures I post online were taken during the day, inside of my car in between school and work. Another favorite spot to take nail pics is on my parent's patio. My husband makes fun of me, but I swear there's something magical about the lighting on that damn patio. Finding that special spot for taking pictures is important because it will help your pictures be consistent, and it makes life easier because you'll instantly have that go-to spot that will give you the lighting you want.

2). iPhone photography. I do use my iPhone to take pictures. I hold the camera about 5-6 inches from my nails, making sure that the way I'm holding the bottle is not super awkward, and that I like the way my nails are lined up. Sometimes I take pictures without holding a bottle, but just be sure your hand and fingers don't look to tense! Having your hand in a nice, relaxed pose is much nicer than the dreaded "claw hands." The actual angle of my hands in the picture doesn't matter too much here, I will rotate the picture in a later step. Make sure that your picture is in focus! The iPhone has an auto-lock feature that I use sometimes. Press and hold your finger on the screen before you snap your picture to enable that setting.

3). Choose the best image. Admittedly I take a bunch of pictures before selecting the one I will be posting. But it's all good, I just narrow it down and delete the crappy ones. Sometimes a miracle happens and I'll just snap a quick picture and it turns out perfectly, like this one...

I *HEART* this picture

4). Photo editing. If you're strictly using your phone, like I am, you can easily edit your image with the stock picture-viewing app on your phone. I also do a lot on my editing on Instagram since I am always posting the picture there anyway. And since I am posting to Instagram, one of the first things I do is resize the picture to be square. I know the iPhone camera has that setting on it when you are taking pictures, but for some reason I never use it. After I crop it to be square, I will zoom in and rotate the image. The pictures below show how to do this on the stock iPhone picture-viewing app on iOS 8. 

Raw image of me in my car

Below: After you click "edit" these option appear. 

The little square box to the right of "cancel" will get you in to the cropping and alignment options. 

If you click the rectangular-shaped icon above the "done" button a pop-up will appear with re-sizing options. I select "square" and then rotate the image to my preference using the curved sliding bar that runs along the bottom of the picture. 

Then I zoom in to where I want it, finalize the angle, hit "done," and viola!

The finished image

To edit on Instagram the steps are the same, it's just in a different form. I don't crop within the app since it's already going to be a square image... I just adjust the alignment and zoom. The images below show how I edit an image by using the settings on the Instagram app for iOS....

The rotate and adjust setting on Instagram

I don't apply a filter to the pictures I post on Instagram because I want the color to be as accurate as possible. And obviously there are so many more things you can do to manipulate your pictures in both of these apps that I didn't cover since I just wanted to talk about what I do regarding nail pictures specifically. 

How do you take your nail pictures? Got any tips and tricks to share? I hope this post was somewhat helpful and until next time, happy polishing! XO