A clean, interesting photo will make your project more likely to be viewed. Here are a few tips for taking compelling photos of your creations.
STEP 1: TAKE A GOOD PHOTO
Default Phone Settings
To take a quality picture on your mobile device or with your digital camera, we recommend no less than a 5-megapixel camera. If you use the primary camera on one of the following phone models, the image quality should be more than sufficient for posting publicly (visit this external site for additional details about standard phone models). Make sure that the photo you take is crisp and clear before proceeding to the next steps.
- LG G5 (16 MP primary camera; 8 MP front-facing camera)
- Galaxy S7 (12 MP primary camera; 5 MP front-facing camera)
- iPhone 7 (12 MP primary camera; 7 MP front-facing camera)
- iPhone 8 (12 MP primary camera; 7 MP front-facing camera)
- Nexus 6 (13 MP primary camera; 2 MP front-facing camera)
- Lumia 950 XL (20 MP primary camera; 5 MP front-facing camera)
- Huawei P9 (12 MP primary camera; 8 MP front-facing camera)
- HTC 10 (12 MP primary camera; 5 MP front-facing camera)
Environment
Find a neutral (i.e. white or beige) background and if possible, thematic props to highlight your project in its “native environment”. Drapes, tablecloths, wood, fabric, table surfaces, or decorative paper may highlight the project theme.
Camera Angle
We recommend positioning the camera directly above the item (i.e. with a card and envelope lying flat on a table) or from directly in front of the item (i.e. with a card and envelope propped up perpendicular to the table’s surface). In both cases, do your best to ensure the camera lens is parallel with the front surface of the project so that those viewing the project can get a clean and complete view of the finished project.
Horizontal Orientation
Snap the photo using the horizontal orientation, with the object or key features of the object in the middle of the frame. If possible, ensure that the photo has a 3:2 aspect ratio (1500 pixels width x 1000 pixels height). This will make it easy for you to the crop the photo and easier for us to display your project in a variety of ways: banner-style, square, and original.
Natural Lighting
Leverage natural lighting by using a lightbox, diffuser, or sheer curtain. Go outside if you don’t like the light inside. Natural light will call out the colors and design of your project “in the real world”.
STEP 2: PREPARE PHOTO FOR UPLOAD
Mobile Apps for Image Editing
There are several mobile apps available on both iOS and Android that will help you crop and edit your image on the go. Consider downloading one or more of the following apps if you would like to edit your images on your mobile device.
| App | Icon | Download Links |
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Default Camera |
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Snapseed |
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Facetune |
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VSCO |
Tuning
If you’ve taken the photo of your project with sufficient light and a clean background, you can tune your image by slightly adjusting some of the following until you like the way it looks. For example, you may want to adjust:
- Contrast (UP↑)
- Saturation (UP↑)
- Shadow (DOWN↓)
Clean Up
If the basic tuning you’ve done to the image doesn’t produce a result you like, open up your image in Facetune or Snapseed to fix cosmetic blemishes.
| Feature | Before | After |
|---|---|---|
| In Facetune, use “Whiten” to lighten and whiten areas of your background. |
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| In Facetune, use “Smooth” to blend contrasting colors in a region of your photo. | ||
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In Facetune, use “Patch” to blend one part of your image with another. |
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| In Snapseed, use “Selective” to adjust Brightness, Contrast, or Saturation. |
Filters
Consider applying a natural light filter with a mobile app like VSCO. VSCO provides several free filters, which can be downloaded to their app such as HB1 (Hypebeast X VSCO® and SE3 Bright & Clean filters). We recommend that you not use filters that have dramatic color changes.
STEP 3: FINISHING TOUCHES
Collage
- If you want to upload more photos that are allowed per project, consider assembling some of your project videos in a collage using Pic Jointer.
- Please do not use a collaged image as the main image as this will clutter up the main project feed.
Watermark
- It is possible to apply a watermark to your photos using apps like PicsArt, Watermark, or eZy Watermark.
- If you decide to do this, be sure to position your watermark near the bottom of the photo on the right or left side.
- To avoid a cluttered project image and project feed, we prefer that you not add noisy logos or watermarks to project photos.
- If you would like to upload your logo as your profile image, you may see better views to your projects in the project feed.
Not Recommended
- For consistency across all project photos, we do not recommend applying a vignette filter or any other Instagram-style filters to photos.
- We also do not recommend applying any kind of frame or border to your picture.
- This will make it possible for all of the Cricut Community projects to look their best once the labels, profile pictures, and social sharing features have been added to the image.
STEP 4: TRANSFER & UPLOAD
Transfer to Computer using one of the following mobile apps or by connecting your device to your computer via USB. Once you have transferred your image to your desktop, you will find it easy to upload photos to your project.
| Photo Transfer (iOS) |
Photo Transfer (Android) |