Weekly Chat: My Favorite Instagram Editing Apps

Hello there! I hope you all had a wonderful weekend and are strolling into Monday feeling refreshed and motivated to take on the week! We are in the midst of a new site design rollout (eek, can’t wait to share this with y’all in the next few days – Blake has been hard at work creating something really magical!), thus the past few days were spent getting content re-tagged (I’m adding a few new categories to my new site) and all that good stuff. Stay tuned for the big reveal!

I love asking my readers what type of content they want to see from me, and one of my biggest requests lately has been to share my Instagram editing tools, tricks, “secrets,” etc. It makes me so happy that folks enjoy my Instagram posts and are interested in this topic! I am a sucker for iPhone photography and editing apps (they’re seriously sooooo fun for me), so let’s get to it!

VSCO

BEFORE

AFTER
VSCO is my absolute faaaavorite editing app! I like the more trendy/hipster/muted/cool vibe when it comes to my Instagram photos, so playing around with hundreds of really awesome presets is basically my happy place. As you can see in the before/after photos above, a good filter and playing around with exposure/contrast/shadows/highlights can really do wonders for a very “meh” photo to start. This top is from J.Crew and as you can see, the “before” photo didn’t quite do it justice! In person, it’s really vibrant and sooo lovely, so I used a warm filter to bring out the rich colors and keep it all very soft and whimsical.

**VSCO has a ton of free presets to work with, but I bought the entire set just to have plenty of editing options! You can definitely play around with the free ones and see how you like the app before investing in the rest.

SNAPSEED

BEFORE

AFTER
Snapseed is seriously SO GOOD for giving your photos little touchups (…like taking out awkward holes in walls and nasty old gum on the sidewalk!). I mostly use Snapseed for the “healing” capability (which as you can see above, it heals the imperfections!) or to brighten certain areas in my Instagram shots (like my face if I was in a weird sun shadow, etc.), but this app has it all and could even be the sole app used to edit images…I am a huge fan!

FACETUNE 

BEFORE

AFTER
(The first image has no edits, the second image has been filtered with VSCO – so now I am onto fix those little hiccups remaining in the image). Facetune is one of those apps that, when overused, can make normal people look like an airbrushed doll (…I enjoy editing apps, but not when they are used to drastically change someones appearance!) – so when using Facetune, I am always careful not to go too far and only use a couple of the tools within this app. For the photos above, I used Facetune to “smooth” out the wrinkles in my top (notice around the stomach area from the first to second image, the wrinkles are gone!) and sharpen the look of my earrings and sunglasses (sometimes the filters I use add a little too much “fog,” so I go in and sharpen certain things before uploading to my Instagram feed!).

Alrighty gals, that’s it! These are my must-have apps that I use daily! If you have more questions about Instagram posts or any blogging tips you’d like in general, please leave a comment below!!

Enjoyed this post? Feel free to scope out a few other topics I’ve covered!

1. Weekly Chat: How I Started Blogging

2. Weekly Chat: 5 Tips To Grow Your Blog

 3. Weekly Chat: 5 Things No One Tells You Before Starting A Blog