I’ve learned over the many years of blogging that curating an Instagram feed to reflect your personality and a certain theme takes a lot of meticulous work and dedication! Achieving consistency is another story, and something I’m still working on these days. While I have my ups and downs, I think I’ve finally found a style that speaks to me. Using certain phone applications have helped make planning and creating consistent content much easier. Since I get so many questions about photography and the tools I use to create my content, I’ll start by sharing which phone apps I use often!
Snapseed
David isn’t a big fan of editing apps because he always prefers editing on the computer, but this one gets his approval. He even uses it when we travel and want to quickly get a photo up. Unfortunately, editing on a computer usually takes more time and effort, and isn’t convenient when you just want to post something on-the-go. Some of my favorite tools on Snapseed include “Tune Image,” “Selective,” and “Grainy Film.”
Tune Image – Use this to bring up or tone down brightness, contrast, saturation, highlight, shadow, warmth, and ambiance. I wish I had a special recipe to share with you guys, but I really just play with the dials until I reach something I like. In my older days, I loved saturation, contrast, and cooler tones a lot. These days I prefer a softer look, but not too muted to the point where there is no color. I’m also no longer afraid of experimenting with warmer tones. I generally prefer brightness over darkness, but am always careful about not brightening my skin because… well, that million dollar tan though. π
Selective – This tool is useful when there’s a specific part of a photo that’s too dark that you want to brighten. Whenever I take pictures with our pugs, I use this tool to brighten their faces specifically because otherwise they just look like black blobs (lol literally). You can also play around with contrast and saturation, but I personally mostly use this for upping the exposure on a darker part of a photo.
Grainy Film – Lately, I’ve been obsessed with that grainy film look. It’s like what they say – film is not dead, right? Snapseed surprisingly has a good variety of presets available and I love using the B and X series the most. I don’t have a particular one that I use across all my photos, because depending on the lighting conditions and what kind of photo it is, a certain filter may look better than another. It’s all about experimenting until you come up with something you’re content with. I love that I can adjust the amount of grain and the filter strength on the photo too. For grain, I usually keep it around 10-15 and filter strength at around 50-70 on average.
VSCO
This was the first app I ever downloaded for filtering photos. It has similar features to Snapseed where you can tune the image but I prefer to use Snapseed for that. I mainly use VSCO for its filters, if none of the Snapseed filters seem to do it for any given photo. VSCO comes with a fair amount of free presets, and some available for purchase. I’ve done pretty well just using the free ones available. Sometimes if you’re lucky, they’ll have a special where you can download certain presets for free, that usually otherwise cost a few bucks. I pretty much use VSCO interchangeably with Snapseed.
Afterlight
Unlike Snapseed and VSCO, Afterlight is not a free app, but it is reasonably priced at $2.99. I mostly use this app to add special effects to my photos after editing on Snapseed or VSCO. That “dusty” look has really become popular on Instagram and I like using it on some of my photos, especially landscapes. David doesn’t like me adding this overlay to photos he edits of me because there’s no way to isolate the dust to only hit certain areas of the photo (or at least this is the case for the version I have). So, for photos with me in it, he adds dust in Photoshop where he feels makes sense. Otherwise, this app is great if you’re looking to add that dusty look to your photo on-the-go.
Facetune
Ahhh, look what we have here. David’s most frowned upon app — Facetune. I have to admit that when I first downloaded it, I definitely had my days of overdoing it. It’s so easy to go overboard, so you definitely want to learn how to use this one wisely. If you aren’t familiar with this app yet, it also costs $2.99 but I’d say that it’s totally worth it for flawless skin and pearly whites. There are plenty of features on this app that others rave about, but I stick with two. Just trying to keep it simple because you know, gotta keep it real to an extent — without sacrificing aesthetic!
Whiten – Use this tool to whiten teeth, blonde hair, or any white area in a photo that you want whiter. It works wonders getting rid of yellowish tones!
Smooth – If I’m editing a rare photo I got of myself on my phone, I’ll lightly smooth over troubled areas of my skin. Like I said, it’s super easy to overdo it and takes practice for your eye to finally adjust to what’s enough. Looking back at older photos from late 2016-early 2017, I definitely overdid it. When did I think that plastic, 100% poreless skin was ever attractive?! Yes, my boyfriend told me so but I refused to believe it. Luckily, people who have met me in person say I look just like how I do in photos, so I think it’s safe to say that I’ve gotten better about keeping things realistic (lol!).
UNUM
Now that we have all my favorite editing apps out of the way, let’s talk about my favorite app for planning my Instagram feed! This one is a GAME CHANGER. UNUM is really similar to Planoly which I know many others love to use. However, I like that UNUM is free and easy to navigate. I haven’t had any complaints or a reason to pay monthly for an app just for planning my feed, so I’ve stuck around on the free plan. Long story short, you can pre-upload photos onto what would look like your feed on this app. This way, you can see what your feed would look like ahead of time, and you can move photos around like a puzzle until you find a happy medium. You can even write your captions out in advance, but I use it for feed planning purposes only.
Do you use any editing or planning apps? Which ones do you love or hate? I’d love to hear about them π XO
Natalie
April 13, 2018Definitely going to check some of these apps out! Love VSCO and I also really like the A Color Story app!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Ohh! I will have to give A Color Story a try. I’ve heard about it and seen it around but haven’t tried it for myself. Thanks for the rec!
Mariann Yip
April 13, 2018I am obsessed with unum! I also use snapseed a lot. My other two go to apps are Lightroom and photoshop π
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018I love Photoshop and Lightroom too but I use those on the computer! I find that the functions on the mobile versions aren’t as extensive. Glad you also enjoy UNUM and Snapseed!
Eileen
April 13, 2018I love the dust feature on Afterlight too! And βa color storyβ is another fave π great shares darling!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Yayyy! I’m glad you Afterlight’s dust feature too. I just wish I could isolate the dust in certain parts of a photo!
Kileen
April 14, 2018These are all great apps for editing! & will definitely need to check out the UNUM app, it sounds like an awesome tool!
Kileen
cute & little
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Thanks! UNUM is a game changer for sure π
Cassidy
April 14, 2018I Struggle with this so I really appreciate this info! I will have to try UNUM as it would help tremendously for me to visualize my feed. Thanks so much!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Ohh! UNUM will definitely help you visualize your feed! Hope you’ll like it xx
the eye traveler
April 14, 2018I love this post! As a blogger editing photos are key. I literally use all of those apps.
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Couldn’t agree more darling!
Briana
April 14, 2018I so love these! I have to try these new ones!
Briana
https://beyoutifulbrunette.com/
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Let me know which ones you love most! xo
Stephanie
April 14, 2018I literally use all of these except for Facetune! Though I mostly use Lightroom to edit my photos now, I still sometimes pop them into Afterlight for the dust effect and I use UNUM for my photography page! These are all great suggestions!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Haha you don’t need Facetune! π Your photos lately have all been so on point girl, I also love how they have a consistent theme/feel to them too. Keep up the awesome work!
Kenzi || Life of a Sister
April 14, 2018I have loved using VSCO for so long, it’s great for when I want a certain look. I’ve been looking at Afterlight and for only $2.99 it’s not bad for the app!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Yesss! I love VSCO π And totally agree that Afterlight is worth the money!
Christina
April 14, 2018These are great! I’m always looking for great apps to use for social.
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Hope you’ll love these!
Nicole
April 14, 2018Ok! Heading to the App Store now to download UNUM!! I have been wondering about this, thank you!!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018Yayyy! I think you’d love it!
Gita
April 15, 2018I live by Snapseed and VSCO!
Sharon Wu
April 15, 2018YES! I’m glad you love those!
Taylor Mobley
April 15, 2018I love this! I use VSCO and Lightroom Mobile and love them for making my feed look cohesive.
Jenn Linds
April 16, 2018i love snapseed, but haven’t tried unum yet. going to give it a try right now!
Suzanne Cox
April 16, 2018Wow, hadn’t thought about doing any of these things with my photos. Tend to just keep it natural, but will bear it in mind.
Megan Elliott
April 16, 2018Snapseed and Afterlight are definitely two of my go-tos! Love this.
Deborah
April 16, 2018I use all of these! UNUM is seriously my favorite!
Helen
April 16, 2018These are great apps. Will definitely check these out. This is very helpful. Thanks for sharing this to us!
Emily
April 17, 2018I’ve only heard or two of these apps before so I’ll have to check out the others!
Jasmine Vargas
April 17, 2018FaceTune and Snapseed are my favorite. I use to use UNUM but I use PLANN now.
Jessi Malay
April 18, 2018Such a great post babe! I use a few of these and they’re great!!
XO, Jessi
https://jmalay.com/coachella-2018-recap/
Samantha Mariko
April 19, 2018I also use Afterlight and Unum as well!! Really great apps for Instagram photos and planning π Thanks for sharing your picks!