• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
Social Media & Influencer Marketing Speaker, Consultant & Author
  • Start Here
  • Speaking
  • Consulting
    • PDCA Social
    • Influencer Marketing Services Provided by Neal Schaffer
  • Group Coaching
  • Podcast
  • Books
  • Blog
  • Contact

Edit Instagram Photos Like a Professional Using These 4 Apps!

by Robert Katai | Last revised on November 12, 2020

Edit Instagram Photos Like a Professional Using These 4 Apps!

If you want to take advantage of a photo-centric social network like Instagram, you need to learn to edit Instagram photos like a professional. And if you don’t realize how HUGE Instagram is, here are some numbers for you to consider taken from this blog’s guide to Instagram statistics:

  • Instagram has more than 1 billion active monthly users
  • Instagram Stories have 500 million active users daily (check out these awesome Instagram Stories examples for inspiration!)
  • In the US, 75.3% of businesses plan to use Instagram in 2020, and post an average of 2.5 stories per week.
  • 80% of Instagrammers are Engaging with Businesses

Well, these are some big numbers that prove the many benefits of Instagram, aren’t they?

This is how big Instagram is!

You should obviously be also focusing on how to promote your Instagram presence, but in this article, I want to show you some apps to edit Instagram photos and help you create beautiful visuals for your feed. It doesn’t matter if you are a marketer, small business owner or just a regular user of the platform.

I’m using some of these apps on my personal account and some of them are used by professionals who work in the content marketing industry.

How to Edit Instagram Photos Like a Professional Using These Four Apps

1. VSCO CAM

vsco-cam

One of my favorite app for editing photos is – VSCO. I’ve started using VSCO a few years ago and now I just love this app. Even when they redesigned their interface and it’s was hard to know how to get back to a menu or what a symbol meant. It still remains in my personal top. If a good app understands the intent of the user, the user will understand how to use it.

If you follow some of the most popular Instagrammers, you will notice they use VSCO CAM.

But what does VSCO mean? It comes from the name of the company that developed it – Visual Supply Company. These are the guys building a series of plugins for Lightroom that show classic film stocks.

The most interesting thing with VSCO CAM are:

  • You can shoot with the app (you can separately define focus and exposure points)
  • Photo Library
  • Filter Library (you can have  free default filters or you can buy the pro ones)
  • VSCO GRID (you can create a gallery experience on specific images created with the app)

If you want more from your photos and to step up your game, you need to start using professional apps.

And VSCO is the app that can help you not only edit Instagram photos or sort them in a library, but see what others shot and how they are doing it with their VSCO GRID.

Also, with VSCO you can easily share the edited photos on Instagram, Facebook, and other social networks if you want to build your online presence.

  • Download iTunes
  • Download GooglePlay

2. Snapseed

snapseed-tutorial-by-your-marketing-bff

Snapseed is a mobile app acquired by Google many years ago.

Snapseed is a great app which can help you edit specific parts of your photos. I saw many Instagrammers using it when they wanted to edit only little parts of their photos.

Also, with Snapseed you can take photos in landscape mode (which you can’t do in VSCO or even in Instagram).

If you want to change the tone of your image, rotate it, crop it or use the brush  you get a manual editing option when you press the circular white editing button on the bottom right. Easy right?

And let’s not forget about the preset filters you get.

Also, if you want to control more the Lens Blur, you can steer a viewer’s focus to a particular part of the photo. You can’t do that easily on Instagram or VSCO.

The interesting thing about this app is it tracks your edits across various tools and let you apply them to other visuals using a simple copy and paste. So, if you want a series of images to match one another, this is the quickest way you can do it, without struggling to remember all your settings.

  • Download iTunes
  • Download GooglePlay

3. PRISMA

prisma-app

You must have heard about this one. It’s a mobile art filter app developed by a Russian programmer and it’s one of the top Apple’s App Store in Russia.

So they are very new in town, but they are doing some great things with there pre-filter apps.

You can add artistic effects to your photos by combining them with works of art. So, if you want to edit some of your photos in a more artistic way, and apply some Picasso style filters, than Prisma is your app.

Even if the style is not new (remember DeepArt.io?) the difference is speed and availability for the mobile platform.

With Prisma you have 20 art filters inside the app including “The Scream” by Edvard Munch, “Go for Baroque” by Roy Lichtenstein, or an abstract artworks like “Transverse Line” by Wassily Kandinsky. And according to TechCrunch they want to have about 40 styles.

  • Download iTunes
  • Download GooglePlay

4. Instagram native edit option

instagram-screens-new2016

The one I use the most is the Instagram native edit option. Sometimes, I don’t add filters to my photos. I just take the photo with my phone camera, import it in the app, and start editing the photo in Instagram.

To make it more realistic I work with Contrast, Brightness, Warmth and sometimes Saturation and Sharpen. There are moments I feel like Lux can make a difference in the photo, and I use it, but sparingly.

What I realized is Instagram invests more in giving users a great platform experience more than it’s editing features.

Instagram is one of the biggest networks  and they want to conquer the industry. They need to keep their head in the game and try to get more followers. With Facebook’s ecosystem and power, I believe they are on the right path.

  • Download iTunes
  • Download GooglePlay

Conclusion

So here are the 4 apps to edit Instagram photos I recommend to every marketer who wants to make the best of their Instagram account.

I’m not saying you need to use them all, but the best way to see which is better for you is to experiment with them. And if you’re looking for more, check out these Instagram marketing apps.

Back to you: What advice do YOU have to edit Instagram photos?

Photo by Joseph Pearson on Unsplash

Edit Instagram photos like a professional using my 4 favorite apps for editing. I recommend these to anyone who wants a stellar Instagram account.

  • Bio
  • Latest Posts
Robert Katai

Robert Katai

Robert Katai is an expert on Instagram. Robert is a Visual Marketer, Blogger and Brand Evangelist Bannersnack. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing and always up to date with the latest trends.
Robert Katai

Latest posts by Robert Katai (see all)

  • How to Create Content for Instagram: Ten Design Tools Social Media Marketers Should Use - January 31, 2018
  • Five of the Best Instagram Stories Ads Examples and What We Can Learn from Them - October 9, 2017
  • 4 Benefits to Advertising on Instagram - July 13, 2017
  • How to Spy On Your Competitors on Instagram In 4 Steps - June 9, 2017
  • 4 Metrics to Measure Your Instagram Marketing Success - January 25, 2017

About Robert Katai

Robert Katai is an expert on Instagram. Robert is a Visual Marketer, Blogger and Brand Evangelist Bannersnack. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing and always up to date with the latest trends.

Previous Post: « 10 Stats That Prove the Importance of Employee Advocacy
Next Post: How Affiliate Marketing for Fashion Brands Helps the Fashion Industry Stay Ahead of the Game »

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Joe Youngblood

    September 17, 2017 at 4:17 pm

    If you take photos of nature, animals, or food the ‘structure’ edit in Instagram Native is often very useful for helping better define the shapes mixed with a little sharpen / contrast or the right filter it can make a big difference.

  2. Riya Sharma

    December 1, 2016 at 2:58 am

    I’ve been using Prisma since a long and its actually very good in photo modifiying..
    But others seem nice also
    I’ll certainly give them a try

Primary Sidebar

ABOUT NEAL

Neal Schaffer is a leader in helping educate executives and professionals on social media as well as in implementing successful social media strategies for businesses. CEO of the social media agency PDCA Social, social media educator at Rutgers University and the Irish Management Institute, social media keynote speaker who has spoken at hundreds of events on four continents, and author of three social media books, Neal is a true innovator and influencer in digital and social media marketing.

FOLLOW ME!

Follows
  • Twitter
    221.8k Followers
  • LinkedIn
    42.1k Followers
  • Pinterest
    36.3k Followers
  • Instagram
    15.4k Followers
  • Facebook
    39.6k Followers
  • YouTube
    359 Followers

USE THE SOCIAL MEDIA DASHBOARD THAT I USE!

RECENT POSTS

  • How to Do A Giveaway On Instagram in 12 Easy Steps
  • The 22 Best WordPress Plugins for Business Blogs in 2021
  • 59 SEO Statistics You Need To See To Believe
  • 15 Influencer Apps for Brand Collaborations and Monetization
  • How to Effectively Record Livestream Video and Repurpose It for Social Media
  • The Top 21 Pinterest Tools You Need to be Successful on Pinterest
  • 55 Compelling Social Media Marketing Statistics You Need To Know For 2021
  • What is a Social Media Influencer? A Definition Explained in Plain English for You
  • When is the Best Time to Send Marketing Emails? (with pre-send checklist)
  • The Top 23 Instagram Tools You Need for Successful Marketing

SEARCH THIS SITE

CATEGORIES

Footer

Neal Schaffer

About Neal Schaffer

Influencer Marketing Services

Social Media Speaker

Social Media Consulting

Social Media Books

Neal’s Marketing Blog Posts

Neal’s Maximize Your Social Influence Podcast

Hire Neal

Write for This Blog

Popular Blog Categories

Instagram Marketing

Twitter Marketing

LinkedIn

Facebook Marketing

Content Marketing

Social Media Tools

Influencer Marketing

YouTube & Video Marketing

WeChat and China Social Media

Blogging

Social Media Marketing

Free Ebooks

The Age of Influence [Free Preview Edition]

Maximizing LinkedIn for Business

How AI is Revolutionizing Influencer Marketing

How to Build an Employee Advocacy Program

Focused Social Selling

The Social Media Tools for Business Guide

More Social Media Resources

Recommended Social Media Books

Recommended Social Media Resources – Apps, Tools & More!

Recommended Social Media Conferences

Recommended WordPress Plugins

SEARCH THIS SITE

FOLLOW ME!

Follows
  • Twitter
    221.8k Followers
  • LinkedIn
    42.1k Followers
  • Pinterest
    36.3k Followers
  • Instagram
    15.4k Followers
  • Facebook
    39.6k Followers
  • YouTube
    359 Followers

Copyright © 2021 ·

Windmills Marketing DBA PDCA Social · Privacy Policy · Terms & Conditions · Contact