4 Instagram Editing Tips to Instantly Improve Your Feed

Jun 16

Need some tips on getting your insta posts to that next level? Then check out these four simple tips.

You won’t even need to mess about with downloading other apps, all these tricks utilise features from Instagram’s inbuilt editor. They’re probably things you’ve tried to use in the past but are incredibly useful once you get the hang of them.

This guide will show you how to give your photos a coherent colour scheme, draw your audience’s focus in to what you want them to be looking at and upgrade your image quality - all with a few simple sliders.

This is the image I’m going to be working with for demonstration. A simple, contemporary portrait image of a man looking into the distance.

This photo has already had a basic edit on it, I’ve made simple adjustments to the exposure and contrast.

It’s already a bright, vibrant image, but this puppy ain’t finished yet.

Colour Grade Your Photos Like A Pro

If you want an Instagram feed that pops then you should learn to use the basic colour grading feature inbuilt to Instagram’s editor. It’s probably something you’ve seen but never used.

Colour grading is basically pushing a colour in the lighter parts (highlights) and the darker parts (shadows) of your image. It’ll give your colours a more coherent look, even if you’ve got different colours across your photos. By using the same colours in your shadows and highlights across your posts it’ll tie your Instagram feed look together, making it look more professional. Perfect for making your new partner’s ex jealous when they’re scrolling through your feed.

The best colour grade to give your images that pretty much always works is a cinematic orange/cyan colour grade.

Navigate along to the ‘Colour’ section of Instagram’s editor. There are two tabs, Shadows and Highlights, you’ll be wanting to play with the colours and the amounts you use but you’ll want the orange and the cyan colours. If you push cyan into your shadows, as I have with my image, then you’ll want orange to be pushed into the highlights. Keep the values low, so the effect is subtle. Instagram will default the colour at 50 out of 100, but you should lower this to anywhere in between 5 and 30.

You could also try a purple (or pink) and green colour grade.

2. Don’t Forget to Vignette

Whatever your image, you’ll probably have framed the subject (what you want us to look at) in the centre, or just off centre.

Like many editing tools, if we overuse them it can ruin the image, but putting a slight vignette on your images will make a huge difference in drawing your viewers eye towards the subject.

A vignette creates shadows specifically around the 4 corners of your image that get lighter the further away from the edge they are. The higher the value the more intense the shadows in the corners are, but also the more noticeable the effect.

I’d recommend sticking a vignette on all your images but keep your values low at anywhere between 5 and 30.

3. Tilt Shift

Strangely named, but utilising this in built feature on Instagram’s editor will blur your background around your subject and pull your viewer’s eye in towards what you want them to be looking at.

Unless you have a stunning background behind you and you want the viewer to be taking in both you and the background, you should be utilising the tilt shift feature. If you have an appealing image then one of the reasons will probably be that the background colours compliment your subject, but we don’t need to see the background in full detail.

Depending on your subject you can use a radial (circular) or linear tilt shift, which I’ve opted for.

By pinching the screen with two fingers you’re able to control how much of your image you want to fall out of focus.

The areas in white will be slightly blurred and the rest will remain sharp. I would always, always make sure your subject’s eyes never fall into the white areas. We naturally look at a person’s eyes first when viewing an image so these should stay as sharp as possible.

4. Add Sharpening

This should be your last editing step before moving on to thinking of your witty caption.

Too much sharpening can absolutely ruin your image but if you use it sparingly then it’ll give it an extra pop. If you start seeing small pixelated dots on your image you know you’ve gone too far with it.

If your image was taken at night time or in low light then you won’t be able to push your sharpening as high as if it was taken in daylight.

In daylight you might be able to go as high as 60 - 70 on your sharpening, in lowlight then you should try not to push it past 50.

Using sharpening effectively makes your image look higher quality by adding a mask over the top of it that increases the contrast on the edges and outlines of people or objects in your photo. It’s all a bit complicated but it doesn’t actually improve your image quality, it just looks like it does.

And we’re done. It’ll take 2 minutes to make those final touches and it’ll definitely made a difference. Check out the before and after of my photo below.

You can see how the vignette and tilt shift draw you eye towards the subject, you can see the corners are subtly darker and the background blur is quite visible on the shoulders of his jacket. The orange and blue tint compliment his skin and bring out his eyes. His jacket looks more interesting and the burgundy colour of his jumper stands out less and blends in better with the aesthetic of the image.