A picture-perfect Instagram account? Besides just having fun, being personal and adding some humor, there are proven tricks that make your feed stand out. Because me and my team get so many requests to share filter secrets, today we’re spilling the beans. Here’s what we do to create a consistent, bright and pretty Instagram feed.
@yara_michels
Can’t-live-without filter: Nico (Afterlight) is by far my favourite. If there were sunglasses that made me see life in these soft, fresh shades I’d totally be down with that.
How do edit your Insta-photos? With military precision! I always start out with Nico and from there analyse what the photo needs. In most cases, that’s amping up the brightness, scaling down the saturation and adding around twenty points in sharpening. I’ll admit that I have used Facetune to clone disturbing things out of photo backgrounds like traffic signs, garbage - I went as far as deleting a couple out of this serene beach photo. Building a good-looking, consistent feed starts at the moment you snap a photo, though. I take all of my photos in squares so I know the important details will fit in the frame and have the built-in filter ‘fade’ on in my iPhone camera.
@marijneline
Can’t-live-without filter: Nico, Russ or Cole for black and white (all in Afterlight).
How do edit your Insta-photos? It depends on the picture. Sometimes I edit in Photoshop, but mostly I use Afterlight. When I use Afterlight I start out by adding some brightness, and sometimes I add a bit of Nico or Russ, to filter out some unwanted yellow tones. If it is a colourful picture, I make sure I add a little more saturation to make the colours pop out, and before I post it to Instagram I add a little extra sharpness as icing on the cake. Now my picture is ready to be added to my digital life, a.k.a. my Instagram feed.
@kellynederlof
Can’t-live-without filter: Russ for colour and Ash for black and white pics.
How do edit your Insta-photos? I’m a long time fan of the app Afterlight. It’s like a miniature version of Photoshop and lets you play, shift and tilt just about anything. When I’m making an Instagram, I shoot in square mode (I easily make 20 pictures of a pair of socks) with natural light. After choosing the perfect one, I open Afterlight, make sure the horizon is straight and tap the Russ filter to add up or reduce certain hue or color. Then I go over to - in the following order - brightness, exposure, clarity, contrast and add few point of saturation until I reach (some kind of) perfection. Tadaaa!
@emmapeijnenburg
Can’t-live-without filter: Actually, it’s more a routine. First I start with Afterlight, I’m not using any filters, just to add some brightness.
How do edit your Insta-photos? I always make sure I cut back on the highlights when I add some brightness, to avoid overexposure. After that, I use the app called Mextures (this one’s a winner for landscape shots) where I use “Frosted” to take out warm tones. Et voilà!
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BY THIS CHICK'S GOT STYLE
Welcome to CHAPTER FRIDAY! Your online toolkit to an awesome and successful life, curated by Yara (and team of supergirls). Hopefully you are excited about this next chapter, and the natural transformation of fashion blog This chick's got style. Find out more about that process here.
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Yara Michels is a professional blogger, all-round business chick, award nominated marketing author and freelance ELLE writer. She hosts blogging masterclasses, takes on online cases for big companies and is an experienced speaker on online topics. Curious yet?
Hey, I was wondering which camera do you normally use to take pictures for your blog?
I love using VSCOcam. Their filters give a great vintage look.
http://www.throughmyowneyes.com
Cool post!
the-renaissance-of-inner-fashion.blogspot.co.uk
wow great pics
http://www.carrieslifestyle.com
Posts online about Dubai, Monaco, USA…
Afterlight is inderdaad een fijne app om foto’s te bewerken op je telefoon, dan heb je ook geen instagram filter meer nodig
De broek die je op de eerste foto draagt is echt leuk! Waar komt ie vandaan?
Hi Marloes, precies! Alleen nog maar nodig om je foto’s te posten
De broek is van Topshop!
Ik gebruik ook afterlight. Geweldige app!
x
http://www.thecherryfactor.com
Fijne en gebruiksvriendelijke app is dat, he! x
All Afterlight, nobody uses VSCO?
It’s my personal favorite. But maybe I should try Afterlight too, the effects seem really cute.
http://taleofthegreat.com
Right!? I love using VSCO. I have tried Afterlight, but I keep coming back VSCO.
I’ve just started using it! It’s great for re-creating your Insta feed, I use it to see if everything matches beforehand! What are your favourite filters?
Great tips!
xx
SASHA
Brightness & white it is then
Ik gebruik eigenlijk nooit AFterlight, wel VSCO, daar ben ik dan weer helemaal verliefd op.
VSCO is ook superfijn!
Love this. Always forget to use after light. I think I just need to spend a bit of time practicing with it. Following these instagrams!x
I definitely like to make my images bright and light, add a blue tone and play around with composition! All fab tips ladies <3
Lauren x
Britton Loves | Lifestyle Food Beauty
We’re definitely going to try that next time! x
I always add (a lot of) brightness and contrast to my photos, then sharpness. It takes a whole process to come up with a decent photo for Instagram, but I kinda established my own routine and now just stick with it
xx
ALINA ERMILOVA | BLOG
I think it’s so funny to see how people edit their photos!
http://www.thoughtsinstyle.com/
I think @emmapeijnenburg’s before and after shots are actually two different photos, the “before” is missing the straw and pom toothpicks and is also taken from a slightly different angle than the “after”. Thought you would want to know since you are showing how the filters look.
That’s true, thanks for pointing that out! I think she lost the original, but these were taken a few seconds after each other so the edit would have been the same