Posting a photo on Instagram may seem seem easy, but most of us would beg to differ. Filters are stressful. Choosing the right picture with the right people and the right pose is only the half of it. Then comes the real struggle. How does one choose between Valencia and Amaro? Or Nashville and Brannan? Ugh, it’s such a tough decision. Filters can make or break a photo and most certainly affect the amount of likes you get, which is why it is so difficult. Here are some hardships you face while Instagramming, and how to tackle them.
1. The LightingFilters are essentially just additions of lighting and shadows of different colors and strengths. They make the picture appear darker, lighter, sadder, happier, or prettier. But be careful because this light can have an extremely detrimental effect as well. If the saturation is too intense, you are almost guaranteed to look like you’ve been baking in a tanning bed for three days straight! Not good! Or you may look like you just saw a ghost or haven’t seen sunlight your whole life, also not good!
2. “Which one makes me look tanner?”It’s a universal truth that all people look better tan. And with filters, you can exaggerate and enhance your ‘tanness’. “Which filter makes me look the tannest without being too tan?” Motto of filter world: Look tan, look good.
3. ShadowsShadowing is a girl’s best friend. Shadows create illusions and cause people to look either slimmer or larger. If you don’t particularly like the way your leg looks in a pic, add some shadows and BOOM all fixed. Vignette is especially helpful to fade flaws into the darkness.
4. “When in doubt, Valencia it out”There are 19 filter choices on Instagram, and most of them drastically change your photo. The effects are drastic and sometimes overwhelming. So as a rule of thumb, which I would like to share with all of you, is that if you just cannot decide, go with Valencia. Valencia is subtle enough to make people think that you just took a really great pic, but also drastic enough to see the difference from the original. It adds just the right amount of filter.
5. Inkwell > WillowAnd if you just can’t deal with all of the colors and lights, there is always the option to go with a black and white filter. Usually this is only used for emotional and memorable pictures and to make them more dramatic to emphasis the posed love. Or as a last resort. But there are still decisions for b&w; you can either choose Inkwell or Willow. Willow is just too light and boring in my opinion but Inkwell is dark enough to still capture someone’s attention.
6. Don’t SharpenWhat is “sharpening”? Like does anyone really see the point? It’s just there to confuse us I think so we get more stressed out then we already are. But what I do know about sharpening is that you shouldn’t do it. Mostly because it adds more stress to the process, but also because it makes your picture look weird. It makes it look grainy and worse than the original. I thought the point of filters was to hide the flaws in a picture not enhance them? Just steer clear, trust me…
It’s all about the likes, the picture you post has to be perfect and so the filter needs to be perfect too. So choose wisely!