The Ultimate Guide To Photo Editing Apps for Instagram

Hey Friends! So now that you have my Free Lightroom Preset (and if you don’t yet, you can get it here), I want to run through – MY Ultimate Guide to Photo Editing Apps for Instagram, showcasing my top 10 apps and how they will help you transform your photos! 

When you throw a filter or preset on a photo, it doesn’t always just stop there. These apps will help you step up your game when it comes to editing photos on your mobile phone, and some have some pretty amazing tricks for transforming your photos in ways you might not have even considered to set your pictures aside from the everyday Instagram post.

So lets dive in:

Lightroom CC – #1

Obviously this one takes the cake because if your using mobile presets on your phone your applying them through this app. This app also has so many capabilities for color correction and specific color editing, to your basic editing settings of temperature adjustment, exposure, contrast, etc. Another great function is being able to adjust specific colors within a photo through the color sliders, as seen below.

Facetune – #2

I use Facetune pretty much for every post that I will be posting to Instagram, even after applying presets. My favorite tools that Facetune provides for you is:

The Patch Tool – Gets rid of breakouts, skin spots, particles in photos. Simply select the area you want to patch and a similar surrounding area that isn’t affected. See below as I patch out a scratch on Shae’s little arm. 

The Detail Tool – Enhances different spots of a photo that you want to bring out or make “POP” just a bit more. I use this on eyes, outfit details, anything you want to emphasize and bring more attention too. Slide back and forth below to see the difference after I brushed the detail tool over the shoes.  [image-comparator left=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/F3DFEE02-CB94-4F24-A327-4BA50AFED39B.jpg” right=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/DCDE6B3C-1506-4288-868C-CBDC233E5EA0.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]

The Smooth Tool – Say you get a photo that’s a bit to grainy and is making someones skin look harsh, or your skin just isn’t looking its best and needs that almost -airbrushed/photoshop retouch a bit. Smooth it out with the smooth tool. Play with both options to see if you can get away with a little bit of smoothing or use the double dropper when you need a bit more. (*TIP: lightly tap on the screen instead of brushing all over on areas that will look unnatural to smoothed out) Slide between the pics below to see how the skin changes after I smoothed it out.

[image-comparator left=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/1548883791701.jpg” right=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/IMG_4103.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]

TouchRetouch – #3

This app is an amazing app for getting rid of objects/people/ or anything that is adding “noise” to your photo that you would otherwise wish wasn’t there. For example your in a crowded room and want a solo shot but there are people all around. Use this app to edit them out. Or say you need to erase your feet from a shot you took looking down..this app works for that again. Heres an example how I used the Quick Repair tool to get rid of the people walking in front of this frame. It literally took me two seconds to paint over them and the app to magically erases them. 

VSCO – #4

This is the app that I used to use to add a filter to all my photos before I started using Lightroom. It is an amazing app that has so many filters to choose from for your photos and has tools that I still use. The crop and sharpen are my favorite. I like to crop all my photos to either a 1×1 or 5×4 to fit Instagram’s standards. Check out my Editing Photos with VSCO video tutorial to see first hand how it’s done. Below is an example of how I added the filter A6 (which used to be my favorite) to the before and after of this shot.

Snapseed – #5

Snapseed is a great editing app for so many things! But my favorite things to use it for is spot correcting certain areas of a photo that are to bright or dark and making a photo look larger with a black or white background (in the photo below I brightened up only the sky with the selective tool):

Here is how I used a photo that I had to crop to hide cords and photos nearby on a white wall, but I wanted the negative space around us to be a larger area, so again in Snapseed I used the “EXPAND” tool to resize the picture:

Juxtaposer – #6

NOW this app is soooo cool! It’s like a bit of photoshop capabilities on your phone. Say you took multiple shoots of your kids in the same setting but in each picture they are all looking at different times. This app lets you combine two photos to fix these types of issues. Here I combined two pictures I had taken of my girls. I wanted Shaes writing hand to be lower so I could write later on their Christmas wish list, but the picture I liked of her the other girls weren’t looking. So this is how I combined them:[image-comparator left=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/xmas-11.jpg” right=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/IMG_4195.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]

A Color Story – #7

This is a another app that has many filter options but also some pretty fun capabilities under the Effects tab like light leaks, flare & bokeh, color fog and so much more! If you want to be completely inspired by all this app can do make sure to check out my girl @ariellevey on Instagram. You’ll be swooning. She has has a Youtube Channel that you can watch her edit extensively with the app. I like to use the app just too add some light leaks to pictures every now and then to give it a lil something-something. See below how I added a light flare in the sky to make the sun look like it was shining down on me. 

Tezza App – #8

Now this app is super fun for when your on the go and want to edit a photo quick and easy. The creators behind the app @tezza and her husband @cole_herrm, also have inside guides on photo gear, posing, and other fun things! The filters that are included in here are super pretty with a very vintage vibe to them. There is also the option to add grit and grain to your photos within the app which I use quite often! Here’s how I edited my selfie moment with the app using the filter “Crisp”:

Update: 6/10/19 - Now you can edit VIDEOS with the Tezza App! How amazing is that? You can use the filters and still control the exposure/contrast/etc. while still adding grain to a video! It’s a game changer for your IG stories!

PicsArt – #9

Alright, this app has so many functions it’s kinda hard to know how to use them all, lol. But I made most of my collage templates for this post within the app. It’s basically like a mobile version of photoshop. The possibilities with the app are endless. I like to use it to add birds flying in an outdoor shot, or for this picture below I added the writing with the text tool for the girl’s xmas wish list 🙂

Adobe Photoshop Express – #10

Another great app for adjusting photos. But because of all the other apps for editing photos I really only use this app for one feature and that’s the “Reduce Luminance Noise” slider. Say you have a super grainy phone shot and wish you could fix it just a bit. This app will do that for you. Here is an example of how I brought in a photo of my little one sleeping and because the shot was taken while the room was kinda dark it turned out a bit grainy. So I applied the reduce luminance noise slider to a little over half way up (don’t go too far or your picture will look almost fake) and you can tell the subtle difference in the before and after slider below. [image-comparator left=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/302ED3A7-F0AA-4BBC-BB8D-E59E96716E98.jpg” right=”http://www.ventureintothewoods.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/BBF7AABA-7D35-43A3-B61B-7C971B43F50E.jpg” width=”100%” classes=”hover”][/image-comparator]

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That about rounds them up. I like to think of a photo as a piece of art. Have fun with it, capture your favorite moments and don’t be afraid to put your own personality into them. I hope you found this guide helpful! If you did go ahead and save it to your Pinterest board or share with a friend 🙂

XOXO