Instagram

I know that this is a book blog, but as a book blogger, we don’t really make any money or get a ton of traffic (except for you wonderful people who stuck with me over the years). The new way to drive traffic to your site is to use Instagram. It takes a bit of work…okay, a lot of work, but it’s fun.

Sometimes I’m convinced that it is a time waster with changes to Instagram, but it’s a good way to exercise a creative part of your brain.

But how do you make your photo look good?

Well, first off, you need to get a good photo.

Some people like lots of colors, others choose a type of color to focus around (giving their Instagram feed a ‘theme’). But, generally, you can’t just post a photo with no photo editing. Generally it’s due to lighting.

Over the year or more that I’ve been using Instagram in relation to this blog, I’ve learnt a lot and have finally found a fantastic bunch of apps that I swear are the best!

1. Lightroom CC [Free]

This free editing app literally has everything you need. It’s free, which is a plus, and lets you choose from a handful of preset options and then customize it more, or lets you completely choose what you want to do with your photo. So simple to use!

2. Snapseed [Free]

Another fantastic free app which I love to use to add some ‘drama’ to photos. It allows you to do a lot more to the photos than Lightroom, but I use it after I use Lightroom. (I use most of the apps in this post together). Best thing, it’s easy to use!

3. Enlight [Free w/ Subscription Option]

This is a free app, but you can pay a ridiculous fee to get extra parts. I highly don’t suggest purchasing it, as it is either a monthly subscription or a one time fee, that is really high. The bits that you go to buy you can get from other free apps. It works like a photo shop and great for adding features into photos or mixing photos. It’s a little tricky to use at first but great, once you learn.

4. Photofox [Free w/ Subscription Option]

This is the newer version of Enlight and it’s the same deal. It’s updated, works a little better and lets you more easily add layers. You can pay the subscription fee to get more layers…but I just add layers, save, upload the photo and keep adding. It works fine. You just can’t go back and edit a layer later. But, not a big deal. Once again, love it and it is a little tricky. But once you learn, it’s easy. Don’t purchase the extra bits though, not worth it.

5. RNI Films [Free]

This app is great for getting a vintage look to your photos. I use it for the dust filter, which adds a wonderful vintage effect. For the photo editing, it is very simple and there aren’t tons of options, but still, it’s good to combine with other apps.

6. WordSwag [$4.99]

Yes, this app does cost money but it’s fantastic. This is really only for adding text to photos, but it’s fantastic! There’s a great selection of options for adding some nice fonts to your photo. You can choose from selected photo options, for a plain background, or you can use your own photos. I find $4.99 a little high, but I use it enough to make it worth it. If you make a lot of photos with word text, it’s good. But you can also do similar things on Canva and such. But the font options are pretty good and I really like it.

Overall these are some of my favorite apps and they are all great. I use a lot of them with each others, pulling what I want from each app. I try and keep everything free as, since I don’t make money, I don’t want to spend it. I highly recommend these all!

Do you have any photo editing apps that you suggest and really like?