There were so many beautiful views from the windows in our B&Bs in Italy. I wanted to take photos every time I saw a pretty view, but they didn’t look good at all. Now, if I was a professional photographer, with a professional camera and using PhotoShop or Lightroom, I could make every photo perfect. I’m not. I use my smartphone for all my photos. But I have learned a couple of relatively simple things you can do to improve those photos. See my example below where Jim is enjoying breakfast at our B&B and I am in awe of the ancient hill town and church that is the view out the window. I grab my phone and snap a photo and it looks like #1 – I can see Jim and the breakfast table, but the view out the window is completely washed out – overexposed.
Fixing the washed out part
It’s really hard to fixed a washed out photo after the fact. The camera has not captured enough detail. There’s just not much to work with. It’s best to set your camera’s exposure to capture the bright parts best before you take the shot. On your smartphone, it’s easy to do. Just tap the screen at the bright part of the window. At least that’s how you do it on an iPhone. On my Samsung S21 Ultra I need to long press on the spot and then adjust even further by dragging left on the screen. Here’s a little video to show you what I mean: