Best practices for editing photos for Instagram

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Video Transcript | Intro

Instagram offers a suite of in-app editing tools to enhance your image. In this video, we’ll show you a few best practices for using them.

Make it Cohesive  

Instagram power users curate feeds with a distinct look and feel that reflects their brand, and attracts new followers. One way to do this is by editing all your content in the same style. For example, you could keep a consistent color scheme throughout all of your photos. The consistency makes your photos more recognizable as part of your brand.

Make sure you work with your photo’s natural colors. If it’s mostly blue, use edits that enhance the blue, instead of trying to force it to change.

Editing 

When it comes to uploading multiple images in a carousel post, you can apply a blanket edit, or edit each one individually. If the photos you’ve selected are quite different from one another, then it’s a best practice to edit them individually.

To do this, swipe to select the image you want to edit.

Now you can ensure the lighting, color, and alignment of each photo is consistent.

Another thing to consider in a carousel post is orientation. The first photo in the series will determine the shape of the rest. If the first is a portrait, the rest should be portrait too. Use all the same style to avoid cropping by Instagram.

Keep it Natural

While editing supports a visual content strategy, the best edits are the ones that your audience doesn’t notice. Focus on accentuating the qualities of your photo, rather than showing off your photo editing skills. Always keep this in mind, and scale down the intensity of the edits when in doubt.

Pause before posting

Another way to avoid over-editing is to check your progress as you go. Do this by pressing down on the photo to see the original. Release it to see the edited version. If the photo is too far removed from its original form, consider backtracking.

If you’re unsure about the end result, click the back arrow to save it as a draft. Then look at it with fresh eyes later on. You can always re-edit a draft post by clicking Edit in the caption area.

Don’t be afraid to cut bait

Another tactic is to create several edited variations of a photo, using the Drafts feature. Not only will this give you several photo options to choose from - but sometimes just the act of starting fresh with edits can be beneficial. For each iteration, try applying your edits in different sequences as this can create different visual effects.

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