Making your posts look professional and eye-catching on Instagram can be challenging. Editing photos for Instagram is tricky because you want to amplify the best parts of your photos while reducing the parts that aren’t as appealing.
Editing photos may not be something everyone can do well, but it’s a skill worth trying to take your photos to a new level. This step-by-step guide will provide everything you’ll need to learn how to edit photos for Instagram by telling you:
- What You Need to Know About Editing Photos for Instagram
- What You Need To Properly Edit Pictures
- How To Edit Pictures for Instagram
Read on to find out all you need to know to spruce up your Instagram feed.
What You Need to Know About How to Edit Photos for Instagram
Let’s take a look at the features Instagram provides to help you edit photos.
White Balance
This feature is similar to what cameras have been using for years, but Instagram makes it easy to swap between different presets.
Use this tool to balance color temperature and make adjustments that improve your photos. You’ll notice a significant difference in the look of your photos, and it’s worth taking time to ensure your colors are as vibrant as they can be.
Contrast
The contrast feature allows you to adjust the difference between the light and dark areas of your picture. This is how you increase the brightness of your photo, also known as the exposure. This can improve the look of your photo by making it sharper.
Color Vibrancy and Saturation
This feature is similar to the exposure and contrast tool but includes sliders that improve your hues.
You can boost saturation for the colors you want to feature in your photos or reduce the colors you don’t want to see. This control gives you power over the colors of your photos, allowing you to make adjustments quickly.
Sharpen
This tool allows you to add contrast and make items in your images clearer. This feature isn’t as precise as some of the other adjustments Instagram allows you to make, but it can produce interesting effects in your photos.
Crop & Rotate
You may get a photo with a great composition, but you might have to crop it down or rotate it before uploading it to Instagram.
This tool is essential for ensuring your photo is cropped and rotated to ensure the best composition.
Filters
These filters will give your photos a different look, and you aren’t limited to just a few options. Instagram offers dozens of filters, giving you plenty of options for adjusting the mood of your photo.
Vignettes
Another Instagram tool that gives your photo a different look is vignetting. These are filters that darken the edges of your photos and can give them a unique look.
Vignettes range from super-simple to complex. If you like how the photos appear, you can adjust the tool, so it’s even more unique.
Surface Blur
These tools include a surface blur filter that’ll give your photos an artistic vibe by blurring the edges of items in your photos.
You can apply this filter to portraits, landscape photos, and more. You can also adjust the intensity, making this tool very flexible for your needs.
Stickers
Instagram has a wide range of stickers you can use in your posts. Some can add a fun and artistic element to your photos while others are more neutral.
You’re not limited to just one type when you use Instagram stickers, so you can use any sticker that looks good in your photo before you upload it.
What Do You Need to Edit Photos for Instagram
Editing photos for Instagram isn’t an onerous process. You’ll need to have a few supplies on hand before you start editing photos for Instagram. These supplies include:
A Smartphone or Computer to Edit Photos On
You’ll need to have a smartphone or computer that’s capable of editing photos for Instagram. You don’t need the newest, most powerful device, but you should be able to perform basic edits on your phone or computer. You can access Instagram through just any computer or smartphone.
The Instagram App
Instagram is available on both the Apple App Store and Google Play, meaning you can download it to your computer or mobile device.
If you don’t want to spend money on a photo editing software, the free app allows you to edit photos before you upload them to Instagram without spending a dime.
A Picture to Edit
You can use a picture you took with your phone or a picture that’s already on your computer.
If you take a picture with your phone, you can save time and edit it right on Instagram. You can also do the same if you want to edit the photo on your computer.
The process is simple since you can open your photo and start editing it quickly. You’ll always have access to your photo when you edit using a computer, but smartphones allow you to share the photo with friends and family instantly.
How to Edit Photos for Instagram (5 Steps)
Now that you know which Instagram tools are available, let’s look at how to use them to edit your photos.
You can use these steps in many other applications, but they’re most effective when you’re editing photos for Instagram.
Step 1: Use Crop & Straighten to Clean Them Up
The first thing you’ll want to do is crop your photo. You may not have the best composition, so this step will help you create a better photo for Instagram.
Just open up the Instagram app and open the photo you want to edit. Tap the image to bring up controls you can use to crop your photo. You can tap and drag the corners or the sides of your frame to adjust how it looks.
When you’re happy with the crop, tap Done in the upper right corner of your screen. The photo on the screen adjusts to ensure everything is in the frame.
Additionally, you can use the straighten tool to improve the composition of your photo. You should carefully crop and straighten your Instagram photos before posting them.
This feature is slightly different from the crop tool on other platforms because you can quickly and easily straighten your photos.
Step 2: Adjust the White Balance
After you’ve cropped and straightened your photo, you can use the White Balance tool to make adjustments.
When you’re ready to make your changes, tap the image on your screen again. This will bring up the controls that allow you to adjust White Balance.
You’ll see a dial that allows you to swipe through different presets until you find one that looks best in your photo. You can also tap the arrows on the dial if you want to adjust the temperature slightly or manually choose a setting.
When you’re happy with the look of your photo, tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen. You’ll see your changes applied to your image, so you can double-check that everything looks good.
This is a relatively simple step, but it’s essential if you want your photos to look their best on Instagram. This tool will give your photos more contrast and make them appear crisper.
There are many different presets that you can use, so you can find one that looks the best in your photo.
Step 3: Adjust Exposure And Contrast
After you’ve adjusted the White Balance and brightness of your photo, you should consider adjusting the exposure.
To adjust the exposure in your photo, tap the image on your screen to bring up the controls. You’ll see a dial with an arrow that allows you to swipe through different presets until you find one that looks right.
You can also tap the arrows on the dial to go through different options for exposure. When you see one that looks good, tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen to save it.
This step gives your photo a different look and makes it more colorful. This is one of the most common ways to edit photos, and you can use this step to adjust your photos for Instagram in many different ways.
This is an effective step because you can use it to change the colors in your photo. For example, if you have an uninteresting white background, you can brighten the colors to look more vibrant.
Step 4: Adjust Color Vibrancy And Saturation
At this point, you can adjust the vibrancy and saturation of your photo.
When you’re ready to make changes, tap the image on your screen again. You’ll see the controls that allow you to adjust color vibrancy and saturation. You can swipe through different options until you find one that looks good in your photo.
When you’re happy with how your photo looks, tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen. You’ll see your changes take effect on your image, so you can double-check that everything looks good.
This tool can make subtle adjustments to your photo’s colors. This is a great step if you’re unsure how to make more drastic changes.
You can use any color adjustment tool to change your photos’ whites, blacks, and grays, but if you want the colors in your photo to pop, use this tool.
Step 5: Adjust Sharpness
Next, you should adjust the sharpness.
This tool is similar to the White Balance because it gets rid of the uninteresting parts of your photo and boosts the details. You can adjust this using a slider on the screen that allows you to boost or reduce sharpness.
When you’re happy with how your photo looks, tap Done in the upper right corner of the screen to save it. The Sharpness tool can be used in a variety of ways to improve an image. You can use it to make your images clearer, sharper, and more realistic. There are many different presets that you can use, so you can find one that looks the best in your photo.
Once you’re finished editing your photos, you’ll want to select the pictures that you’ve edited. When you’re done, tap “Post” in the upper right corner of your screen. You should see your image appear on the screen and a countdown timer begin until your post is live.
Once it’s live, all of your friends will be able to see it. You can include hashtags in your post so people can find them when they search for those specific subjects or places in their Instagram feed.
Final Words
You can use many different tools on Instagram to edit and improve the appearance of your images. These steps are a great place to start, but you can make more advanced changes using more advanced tools.
Our 5 steps will improve the look of your photos, but you should continue practicing and learning how to edit photos for Instagram. There are many different tools that you can use to edit your photos, so make sure you’re familiar with them all.
