HOW I EDIT INSTAGRAM PHOTOS

Hello, my name is Karen and I’m an Instagram addict.

I must confess that I’m one step closer to divorce, as Instagram is the first and last thing I see on a daily basis (Snapchat is a close second, btw: add me? clumsy.chic). I’m known to let my food go cold just to get that perfect bird’s eye view shot. And I may or may not be influenced into buying something knowing it would make a good addition to my #flatlay photos.

As if obsessing over getting the perfect shot isn’t enough to drive my husband crazy, I also go into somewhat of a trance when it comes to editing my photos.

There’s a whole science behind it all, and I’m here to reveal how I edit Instagram photos.

SNAPSEED

Once I’ve narrowed down one photo I’m happy with (out of 60), Snapseed is the first and usually the last app I use to edit my Instagram photos. Here are the general steps I follow:

Brightness and Contrast: First thing I do is adjust the brightness and contrast of the photo. Sometimes my adjustment stops there.

Saturation: When you increase the contrast, it will increase the saturation of the photo as well. I decrease the saturation until it looks more natural.

Warmth: I tend to lean towards a more neutral photo with high contrast; therefore I lower my warmth until any white color becomes a crisper white.

Selective Adjustment: This is my favorite feature as I can really control and adjust my photo. You can change the brightness, contrast and saturation of a particular area of a photo.

Sharpen: The last step is to sharpen the photo to make it look crisp and give the effect of DLSR photo quality.

 AFTERLIGHT

Afterlight is another app I use when I want to really manipulate the color tone of my photo without making it look severe. It’s a great app to use if you’re after a certain image aesthetic like a vintage-feel or a dreamy photo. Here are the general steps I follow:

Adjustments: Following the same steps as above, I go to the Adjustment option to correct my brightness and contrast, clarity, temperature and sharpen. I don’t touch the rest.

Filter: Afterlight is amazing for its natural looking effect filters. My favorite is Captain, Olive, and I use Relic if I want to neutralize a really sunny photo.

Frame: Adding a frame is a nice little addition to a photo. I use a border frame to get a horizontal photo into a square format without cropping. A circular photo is great if I want the photo to be a bit more designed and add some fancy text.

OVER

If you see those hipster looking #instaquotes, it’s very likely that they use Over app. I use it to create a photo layout, meaning with text that has more designed quality to it.

Once I’ve edited my photo, I go to Over to add text to it. There’s an option to change font, color, size, opacity and even alignment. The best part about this app is you can purchase bundle packages or text art that will make your photo extra #hipster.

Now for the fun part: time to put your Instagram skills to the test! One lucky chicken can win this very cool 4-in-1 Ollo Clip lenses for iPhone 6 or iPhone 6 Plus.

The rules are simple:

1. Edit your photo using the above tips.
2. Upload your best photo on Instagram by tagging me (clumsyandchic)using the hashtag #clumsyinstachic
3. You have to be clumsyandchic Instagram followers to qualify for this competition
4. This competition is only open to Qatar residents.

Closing Date & Time:

Thursday, 27 August 2015. Winner will be announced on Instagram.

Now, get ‘gramming hard!