Magazine | Social Media

How do Influencers Edit Photos?

by Furoore • updated November 6, 2022

How do Influencers Edit Photos

Photo editing is not just something we photographers do every day. Even though it may seem at first that all Influencers do is post reviews of products and selfies, there is much more to it than that.

A clean Instagram feed has both smart marketing and a consistent look.You might be curious about how celebrities and other influential people edit their photos.

I’ll tell you what you need to pay attention to in this post. I will also show you some editing tools and programs that you can use to edit photos. So, you can improve your feed and social media presence on your own in the long run.

No more filters that are overused and color keys that aren’t creative. I’ll show you some tips about apps and programs for editing images, what you need to think about to make your feed useful and also nice, and how important editing images is.

Read also What is an Influencer in Social Media?


How do Influencers edit photos? What programs and apps do they use?

You should know a little bit about image editing programs and apps so that your pictures look not only good but also the same. I’d like to tell you about some apps and programs that you can use to make your photos stand out.

Influencers work with Adobe Lightroom
Image source: Adobe Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom

may already know about Adobe Lightroom from the Adobe Cloud. But you can also get this picture-editing program for free on your phone. So, you don’t have to pay anything to get better pictures, except for some presets.

Most of the time, this app is used by Influencers to fix the light, contrast, and colors in their photos.

More about Adobe Lightroom

Influencers work with Adobe Express
Image source: Adobe Express

Photoshop Express

Like Lightroom, Photoshop is one of the photo-editing apps that Influencers use, both on the computer/laptop and on the phone. Here, you also have the option to touch up and change small things, add fonts, and make your pictures stand out.

As an Influencer, you really can’t do without this app. As a photographer, I also edit photos with Photoshop on my PC with this advanced editing tool, most of the time, even with Lightroom.

More about Photoshop Express

Influencer work with Facetune
Image source: Facetune

Facetune

The Facetune app should be something you know about. This app has a lot of features that go with the theme of portraits. This app’s main goal is to help you look better. Not that I think skin retouching should be required.

I just know that everyone has bad days, that the lighting wasn’t great, or that a pimple needs to be fixed. And this is the best way to use Facetune. You can even put on makeup.

More about Facetune

Influencers work with VOSCO
Image source: VOSCO

VSCO

If you’ve ever looked in the Appstore or Playstore for apps with good photo filters or effects, you know there are a lot to choose from. Here, VSCO Cam is a good option.

You can also use the app as a camera and add filters to the pictures right away. Here, you can also change the strength to make them look more natural or less natural.

You can not only change images, but you can also send them to other people. You can also sync the photos with other devices and edit them there.

More about VOSCO

Influencers work with UNFOLD
Image source: UNFOLD

Unfold

Influencers who work a lot with stories will love the app Unfold. Having a clean feed is not the only thing that makes an Instagram profile work. It’s also important that the style and look of your stories match the rest of your feed. That’s how you make a full picture as a whole.

With Unfold, you can make your own templates and add photos, letters, and stickers to them. There aren’t many free frames, but for a small amount of money, you can get a lot of different ones. One of them is a template for an animated story.

More about Unfold

Influencers also work with PIC COLLAGE
Image source: PIC COLLAGE

Pic Collage

Do you want to show more than one picture at a time to the people who follow you? Pic Collage is a good choice. You can, surprisingly, make collages with this program. You just choose the pictures you want to show together and then choose the layout that works best.

Pic Collage also has templates with the best aspect ratio for Instagram stories and posts. If you can help it, you shouldn’t crop anything, especially if you want to post a portrait.

With Pic Collage, you can change it to Instagram’s 4:5 format and choose a background for the white space.

More about Pic Collage

How do Instagram Influencers edit their feeds when they post?

As a blogger, it makes sense that you want to get a lot of likes since that makes you more valuable on Instagram. Unfortunately, collaboration partners don’t usually want to work with people who have a lot of followers but not much activity on their posts.

This won’t be a problem for you if you pay attention to a few things and don’t just post whatever you feel like. (You can still do that, but you have to put some thought into it.)

A person’s feed is pretty much their portfolio. Businesses, companies, and even possible customers see this first. Most of the time, they go to your profile after seeing a picture they like and coming to you through that picture.

First impressions are important! By looking at the picture you posted, they can get a sense of what your feed or profile will look like, so it should be made in that way.

Influencer sitting on his notebook editing photos
Image source: @christinhumephoto

What do you want to give your clients or businesses? This is a different group to reach. Most of the time, companies don’t want to buy your product, but they do want you to sell theirs.

This is just a sales pitch. Customers, on the other hand, want to know what makes your product better than those of other companies.

Think about being your own customer and seeing your single post. Do you feel addressed? Would you believe in your company and want to learn more?

If you can say “yes” to all of these questions, you can be sure that your customers will at least look at your profile. It also matters that your name means something. This can also be changed later.

But you shouldn’t do this if you already have more than a thousand people following you.

Have you thought about what your feed should look like? Think about a color scheme and an order for the posts. You might have action days that happen often, and that could be interesting to your followers.

Don’t worry, you can easily archive a post instead of deleting it if you make a mistake or do something temporary that changes the way your feed looks as a whole. So, you’ll always remember exactly what you wrote at the time.

Make sure your posts and contributions are in line with your brand, product, or you.

Why do Influencers edit their photos?

Why do Influencers still edit their photos if they have good cameras? I’ve given you a few reasons already. In short, you could say that it’s just a part of marketing.

Most Influencers define themselves by how they use pictures in a world that is mostly digital. It helps if you know about lighting and design, but in the end, it comes down to how well you can sell yourself.

If you have good photos but no idea, you might be successful in the short term. If you have a good idea but bad pictures, it will be harder to get anyone to notice you at all.

Image shoes a collage of good photos
Image source: @jontyson

So, a good idea plus good photos is a good formula for success.

Having a good idea and better, professional photos can’t guarantee success, but it’s a step in the right direction.

When you look at the Instagram profiles of successful Influencers, there is one thing you will always find. They all have a feed that looks the same, so followers and people they work with can tell what kind of quality to expect in the future.

No one wants to follow people who sometimes post bad selfies and other times post things that aren’t even funny. Consensus must be evident.

Professional photos alone won’t give you a consistent style. Because if you just change locations, lighting, and colors, you will end up with a very unbalanced overall picture.

So, you shouldn’t think of image editing as “rescuing” images. Instead, you should see it as a part of your workflow. With the above apps and programs, you can make sure that the colors are all the same, adjust the brightness, and give your photos your own style, bit by bit.

Lightroom is great for this, and you can also save your own presets so you can use the same look over and over. This can be very helpful if you want to make a feed that is always the same.

Tips that safe Influencers photo editing time

Get to know your camera settings

One crucial aspect of photography that you must master is camera settings. The secret to taking fantastic pictures is exposure. An exposure is produced by combining aperture, shutter speed, and ISO.

The quantity of light that reaches the sensor is controlled by the combination of all three settings. Before taking a picture, find the ideal and suitable balance of these settings.

A photography manual that clarifies the fundamentals of aperture, shutter speed, and ISO will help you understand them and apply them creatively in your future endeavors. 

Check out this detailed guide on how to set camera modes.

Adjusting the white balance

You can capture colors more accurately by using white balance. If you don’t adjust the white balance, the colors in your photographs may get blueish, orange, or green “temperature,” as different types of light have different characteristics.

It is recommended to get this setting correct on the camera or smartphone. Automatic White Balance, Daylight, Cloudy, Flash, Shade, Fluorescent, and Tungsten are some of the white balance settings that come with a camera.

Automatic white balance can be useful in some circumstances, but it’s usually preferable to adjust the setting to the type of lighting you’re working with.

Know about the Rule of Thirds

The idea behind the rule of thirds is that pictures tend to be more interesting and well-balanced when they aren’t in the center. Consider overlaying your images with a grid that consists of two vertical and two horizontal lines that split each image into nine equal sections.

Instead of placing your subject or the crucial components of a scene in the center of the photograph, you would do so in accordance with the rule of thirds by placing them along one of the four lines or at the intersections of the lines.

If you’re still learning how to compose your photos, most cameras and smartphones have a grid setting that you can activate.

Photography revolves around creativity and individual expression, so you might occasionally decide to deviate from this rule and place the main subjects of your image somewhere else.

This is completely acceptable, but it’s crucial that you understand it and get into the habit of consciously considering the points of attraction and where you want to place them before you start breaking this rule.

Put your subject in focus

The sharpest portion of an image in photography is called the focus. It is the region where the lens is used to draw attention to a specific thing, person, or circumstance.

Focusing can be done manually or automatically. In automatic mode, the camera and smartphone adjusts the focus to make the subject appear as sharp as possible based on the amount of light entering the lens.

When shooting in manual mode, you must turn the focus wheel on the lens to bring the desired area of the image into focus. To set the focus manually on your smartphone, you have to tap the screen in the area you want to have in focus.

For more info, read this article about camera focus modes!

Remove clutter and distraction

The enemy of any subject in an image is competition. In a photograph, a subject shouldn’t ever have to fight for attention. It isn’t the subject if it doesn’t explicitly state, “I’m the subject.” Clutter accomplishes this. Anything that clogs up an image and causes the viewer’s eye to flick between various areas of the image must go.

When viewing the scene through your viewfinder or display, look around the area to see if anything is encroaching on the edges. The best way to crop an image is in camera, though you can do it on your computer as well.

Hold your gear steady

One of the most crucial aspects of taking great photos in photography is maintaining camera steadiness.

It can significantly enhance the quality of your photos, especially in low light situations, in addition to assisting in the prevention of blurry images.

Interested in more, like how to get sharp photos? Check out how to learn to take good portraits with common light sources here!

Be very careful with build-in flash

If you’re not careful, using the built-in flash of your camera at night or in dim lighting can result in unflattering outcomes like red eyes and harsh shadows. In general, using the on-camera flash and running the risk of completely ruining the shot is preferable to raising the ISO and getting noisier pictures.

When there isn’t enough light, however, you will occasionally be forced to use built-in flash if you don’t have any off-camera lighting. There are a few things you can do if you are in this position and don’t want to lose the shot.

First, locate the flash settings in the menu of your camera, then minimize brightness as much as possible.

Second, you can try wrapping the flash with something to diffuse the light. The light can be diffused and softened, for instance, by covering the flash with paper or plastic bag. Alternately, you could hold a piece of white cardboard at an angle in front of the ceiling to reflect the light.

Learn from your mistakes

It can be frustrating to take photos that are too bright, blurry, or not well put together, but instead of letting them get you down, you could use them to teach others how to take better photos.

Next time you take a bad picture, resist the urge to delete it right away. Instead, take some time to analyze the picture to determine what went horribly wrong as well as how you could make it better.

To avoid common mistakes, read our article about 30 photography tips.

Read to Find Inspiration

Numerous blogs dedicated to photography regularly post resources, articles, guides, and photo stories in an effort to keep readers up-to-date on the latest developments in the field. Check out our list of the top photography articles especially for beginners. 

Frequently asked Questions

Do Instagram Influencers use Instagram filters?

Instagram photo editor apps can take an Instagram post from boring to stunning with just a click of a button. Professional Instagram Influencers do not use the native Instagram filters, simply because they fine-tune their images more than you might think.

Most Influencers use professional presets for Adobe Lightroom; they apply them to photos and manually change settings till the photo looks perfect.

What are the easiest to use and most inexpensive Apps that Influencers use?

VOSCO and Snapseed are both simple to use and inexpensive. In contrast, VSCO excels with beautiful filters that can be installed cheaply or for nothing. Additionally, Snapseed is quite feature-rich and has the ability to readjust perspective, which is particularly useful for city shots. But other than Lightroom, I haven’t yet found “an” all-in-one app that can do it all.

Do Influencers consider color aesthetics when editing photos?

On Instagram, having a color scheme for your page has become crucial. Some of the more popular styles include beige, blue, and pink. It not only looks good, but it also gives your profile personality. If you’re using instant filters, it can be challenging to achieve a color aesthetic.

What is the most professional photo editing App Influencer to work with?

Professional software Influencers who go well beyond standard apps for editing photos use Photoshop and Lightroom. Both are worthwhile, depending on how much you work on the editing of your images and consequently also on the feed of your Instagram account.

Photoshop is actually for fixing or retouching, despite the fact that Adobe Lightroom is probably more well-known than Adobe Photoshop.

More to read about Influencer:

How Has Social Media Impacted Breaking News?
Influencer Marketing: A Comparison of Traditional Celebrity, Social Media Influencer, and AI Influencer
Influencer Marketing Best Practices
Ripple: Social Network Influencers
How Much Does a Shoutout Cost
Virtual Influencers: The New Kids on the Marketing Block Aren’t Actually Real

Conclusion

As you can see, there are some important things to think about if you want to be a successful Influencer. There are, of course, a few more tips, but they would be too much to cover here. As you can see, a lot of it depends on technology, smart marketing, and your own dedication.

In any case, you now know the basics of how and why Influencers edit their photos, so you can come up with your own idea or look for inspiration.

 


What is your opinion on how do Influencers Edit Photos? Let us Know in the comments.

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Your thoughts and questions

10 thoughts on “How do Influencers Edit Photos?

  1. Erin says:

    Some additional thoughts that I had after reading the article. I think it’s important to remember that influencers are not trying to deceive their followers. They are simply trying to make their photos look their best. I also think it’s important to be aware of the editing techniques that influencers use. This way, you can make informed decisions about whether or not you want to follow their lead. Ultimately, it’s up to you to decide how much editing you want to do to your own photos. There is no right or wrong answer. The most important thing is to be happy with the results.

  2. WimadaThao says:

    As someone from Thailand I was so impress by this article!

    The tips for editing photos like influencer are so cool. I don’t know apps like Facetune can make skin so smooth and pretty.

    Is amazing how brightening eyes and white teeth can give photos the wow factor. I learn so much about color grading to set mood and tone. Is talent how influencers have Instragram feeds with style and cohesion. I will absolutely try this tricks on my photos to look stunnig like influencer!

    Now I have new apreciation for work and skill that go in to get perfect photo. Grazie for sharing this clever editing advice and inside look into influencer world!!!

  3. Tan Lip says:

    I never realized how much work went on behind the scenes to create the perfect Instagram photos.

    As someone who has always wondered how influencers get such flawless feeds, this gave me so much insight.

    I’ll never look at an influencer pic the same way again now that I know about subtle tricks like brushing up eyebrows, 250 other changes between pics!

    Really made me appreciate the craft it takes to be an influencer.

    Such clever tips that I can’t wait to try on my own photos.

    Really enjoyed this inside look / Tan

  4. SirDogan says:

    Wow, this article totally opened my eyes! I had no idea how much effort influencers put into their photo editing. The detailed breakdown of apps and techniques is super helpful. Thanks for sharing these insider tips!

  5. Just Blonde says:

    Honestly, I’m not convinced. Sure, influencers use these tools, but doesn’t this just contribute to unrealistic standards of beauty and lifestyle? I think we need to promote more authenticity on social media.

  6. ReiseMann says:

    Interesting read. I’m curious about the balance between authenticity and aesthetic appeal in social media. How do influencers decide what level of editing is appropriate without losing their genuine self?

  7. Community theater says:

    This article provides a comprehensive overview of photo editing techniques used by influencers. It’s a valuable resource for anyone looking to enhance their digital marketing strategy through visually appealing content.

  8. VanGaal says:

    Good info on editing apps. Helpful for beginners.”

    Reflective and Personal: “This piece really made me think about my own social media use. It’s a fine line between creating beautiful content and staying true to real life. Makes me ponder what ‘authenticity’ means in the digital age.”

  9. Katlyn says:

    This article meticulously outlines the tools and methods influencers use to edit their photos, providing a fascinating glimpse into the behind-the-scenes of social media aesthetics. It’s intriguing to consider the impact of such practices on our perception of reality and beauty standards. While the article celebrates the artistry of photo editing, it also raises important questions about authenticity and the ethics of digital manipulation in the age of social media influence.

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