hi guys :) one question i get asked often is how i edit my photos on instagram so i thought i would do a little post breaking it down. first- i have an iPhone 6 and it’s pretty much all i use to take my pictures. lately since i have been carrying my camera around for blogging i will sometimes download those photos to my phone but 99.999% of my pictures are from my phone because it’s way easier.

how i shoot and edit photos for instagram

turn your iphone camera on HDR

my main tip for shooting on an iPhone is to turn the HDR on - HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and what it basically does is shoot three photos super quickly and combines the properly exposed parts of all three photos to create one well-exposed photo. i don’t always use the HDR version, but I tend to favor it in photos of sunrises, sunsets, or concerts because it helps the sun or stage lights from being too blown out:

download VSCO for filters

next, I use VSCO and occasionally Snapseed to edit my pictures. that’s it.

usually I just upload the photo into VSCO and make sure all the lines are straight - it is my pet peeve when things are crooked in photos (like the horizon of the ocean in the background) because it’s a simple fix.

the filter i use for ALL of my photos (minus black and white) is A6. that is literally it.. hope this is not disappointing anyone haha. i stick to one filter for everything because it’s easy. it also helps things stay cohesive.

if i need to adjust brightness, i’ll do that in VSCO but i never touch contrast or other tools because A6 usually fixes anything else.

use snapseed to adjust details

if i have a photo that is really colorful, i will go into Snapseed before VSCO and turn down the saturation - not a lot, i usually don’t go below -25 (that number will make sense when you open the app). once the saturation is done, then I just add the A6 filter like usual. there is a tool on Snapseed that lets you selectively edit portions of your photo (making the background desaturated while leaving you colorful, etc.) - i will sometimes do that if my background is especially neon, like with a painted mural.

for black and white photos - i don’t like too high of a contrast so I will usually use B1 on VSCO. If i want the shadows smoked out more, I will darken the shadows in Snapseed. other than that, black and white is pretty straight-forward so i don’t mess with much.

to be honest, there is no right or wrong way to edit but i personally don’t like to put too much thought or time into it so i just do the same thing over and over :) i hope this helps!