As much as I hate to admit it, but I spend way too much time on Instagram. I feel like I'm either always editing a photo, planning out my feed or just scrolling through it in general. But hey, we all have our hobbies, am I right? I think one of the things I love the most about Instagram is that it's like an online scrapbook and when you scroll down my feed it's kind of like looking at the story of my life. Today I'm spilling the beans on how exactly I edit my Instagram photos along with my tips and tricks for getting a more cohesive theme!
Happy Wednesday friends!
I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately on how I edit my Instagram photos / how I get my “theme” and today I thought it’d be fun to break it down for ya! Instagram has been one of my favorite apps because it is kind of like a digital scrapbook in a way that you can layout photos that go together and tell a story.
If you do a quick scroll down my Instagram you’ll see that I have a “light and bright” theme going on. I feel like it fits in best with my brand and I overall just like the look of a lighter and airier feed.
I have actually put together a post of my favorite apps I like to use to edit my Insagram photos which breaks down what apps I use and what I use each for. Today I’ll just touch through some of them and explain exactly what I do to get the photos that end up in my feed.
VSCO Cam - For the everyday basic editing
VSCO Cam has been my A1 Day 1 photo editing app. I love this app because you can actually copy the edits of your previous photos to create a more cohesive look and just go into each photo and do little touch-ups if needed. VSCO Cam also has great filters to help create what ever theme you are going for.
I do recommend sticking with the same filter for every photo you use to help make everything go together. I typically go back in forth with the A series and the HB series on VSCO CAM and recently I have just been exclusively using HB1 filter. I don’t always use the same intensity for each photo, I tweak it based on what looks best, but I do make sure to use the same filter for every photo.
After I have the filter on I go through the minor adjustments based on each photo’s needs. I typically just up the brightness, contrast, and saturation. I don’t really do anything too crazy to my photos.
Snapseed - For the photos that don’t quite fit into your theme
You know when you find a picture worthy table for your #foodporn photo and you realize the bright yellow doesn’t go with your theme? Been there, done that. Snapseed is my go to help color correct all of my photos that don’t quite fit into my light and bright theme.
I love going into the brush feature and lowering the saturation and taking out the colors that don’t go with my theme. This can be a little tedious, but it works! From there I’ll tweak it with either the brighten brush to help brighten things up or bring it over to VSCO Cam for some further editing.
I don’t really do this that often because I do try to take my photos that look with my theme, but sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do!
Air Brush - When your whites aren’t quite white enough
I had mentioned that I love a good light and bright theme and that mainly consists of pastels and lots of white. Sometimes my whites just don’t come out bright enough on camera and that could be due to the reflection of something, the lighting or if it’s just plain o’le dirty.
I typically take my photos into the AirBrush app and use the teeth whitening tool and lighten up things such as walls, plats and tables to help brighten things up.
Editing wise, those are the main 3 apps I use and how I use them! I do have to say, 97% of the time I will use VSCO Cam and do further editing in the Instagram app with the little sun feature that’s on the very top. Now I’m just going to dive into some further tips on how to put together the perfect Instagram feed!
Get yourself a planning app!
Post a variety of photos
I believe a variety of photos is the key of having a good theme. Instead of having every photo being you standing dead center, one hand on the tip and smiling dead on the camera, try having it off centered, or cropped a different way. Having a variety of different photos adds interest to your feed and just overall looks better in my opinion.
You don’t have to just limit yourself to just photos of yourself either. Try shooting a flat lay of your outfit or a point of view perspective shot of your coffee. Now with the “save” feature on Instagram I sometimes like to save photos of other bloggers to gather inspiration from so I’m not in a rut of posting the same pose and type of photo over and over again.
Think in terms of 3.
Since the grid of Instagram is laid out 3 x 3 it’s helpful to think in terms of 3 when planning out your photos. For instance, I try not to post a full body on top of another full body photo when I’m planning out my theme so I have to keep in mind how many photos in between it’ll take so that won’t happen… if that makes sense.
Those are a couple of my tips on creating a cohesive theme, but I’d love to know your tips in the comments down below! As frustrating as Instagram can be, at the end of the day it still a fun photo sharing app where you can express yourself! Be sure to follow me on Instagram to keep up to date on what I've been up to and be sure to leave your handles down below so I can check yours out as well!
I hope you all have a wonderful day, and as always, thank you for reading!
xoxo,
Amy
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