How I edit my Instagram feed and story photos using apps on my phone

I often get asked what process I go through when editing photos for my Instagram feed and my Instagram Stories. I use two tools for a majority of my photo editing, VSCO and Preview. I’ll be talking to you about my process using both to edit my content images.

Using VSCO for my Instagram feed photos

I searched for a while to find a filter that fit the image I had in my head, a low saturated, brown overlay. I had seen many accounts that I loved with a filter like this and wanted to try and create my own feed to be similar. In the end, though whilst trying to make this filter I came up with something a little different.

My current filter is a customisation of the M5 filter on VSCO. I have then played about with the exposure, contrast, saturation and skin tone to create the yellow/orange feed I have today.

I find it really helps my feed to add in familiar flecks of yellows and oranges to keep the photos all working together to create my overall theme. Sometimes I’ll dip in other colours, as you can see here from the reds I included over Christmas. But ultimately my filter is complemented by the yellow tones, so I will always use these.

If you want to test your photos out before adding them to your feed, to see if they fit, there are some great apps to help. My favourite is Planoly, which allows you to preview your image in your gride and plan out your caption in advance. There’s also Preview that does the same thing, so it’s a case of picking your favourite. These apps are a major help when it comes to organising your Instagram.

Using Preview for my Instagram story photos

I really love the orange and teal filters you see on Instagram Stories such as Zoë Sugg’s so I wanted to use something similar on my own. I went down many routes to try and create the filter I now use, from investing in several different apps to trying to create my own preset in Lightroom. None of this gave me the response I wanted from a filter.

In the end, I turned to the Preview app and now pay a monthly subscription of just under £8. For this, I have access to the whole scheduling tool, but also the filters that are included within my plan. One of which is a set of Orange and Teal filters that I now use for my Instagram Story, specifically the U2 filter.

I will also use features within Instagram itself, such as the ability to add text and GIFs to my stories. Overall though, I love this filter and I think it makes my story uploads feel warm and cosy, but also give them a unified look.