How to process photos for Instagram: learning how to make beautiful. Esquire photo editing

In the style of Rarindra Prakarsa is characterized by interesting lighting effects and post-processing. This Indonesian photo artist gained worldwide fame thanks to his own photographs and individual style: textures woven from light, haze and trees, light in the spirit of the Italian Renaissance from the time of Leonardo da Vinci.

Using simple tricks artistic processing of photos in graphic editors like Photoshop, we can also give our own photos similar effects, making them speak in a new way.

Unusual processing of photographs by photographer Rarindra Prakarsa and analysis of his technique

Rarindra Prakarsa's favorite filming locations are close to his home as he shows up on the "set" in the early morning. These places are in Jakarta and West Java: Serpong, Kividei and Sukabumi. In West Java, high humidity and fog, which often plays into his hands. Although he still prefers to shoot in good weather. When it's clear outside, he always wants to get out of the house, due to the fact that he is obsessed with beautiful light. For a long time, he seizes the moment, choosing the ideal angle of incidence of light on objects. He always selects a suitable entourage, trees in this sense are his favorites.

"The golden moment"

This photo was taken near my house, located near a small lake in the western part of Jakarta. The weather was very nice and I thought it would be great if the net was golden and the background dark. But in fact the background was not as dark as you see in the photo.

I set the shutter speed to 1/500 second and the white balance to "shade".

I then edited the image in Photoshop using the Burn tool so that the upper right part stays bright. I used Selective Color (Blue) on his clothes to get a more intense blue and remove the yellow. Then I took the Dodge Tool to lighten some of the clothing. I tried to create a contrast of blue and yellow in this photo. All the elements of this photo are natural, all I did was basically highlight / darken some areas.

"Togetherness #2"

This photo was taken with Canon Digital Rebel XT and Tamron 28-75. In Popular Photography magazine, Rarindra shares the steps he used in artistic processing of photography in photoshop:

If you are shooting in RAW, then use a warm white balance setting (White Balance) before transferring the image to Photoshop.

Using your favorite selection method, select your main subjects (in this case, the people) and save the selection for later use. While the shapes are still selected, create a new adjustment layer of the Levels type. Don't change anything, just click OK, then change the blend mode to Soft Light and lower the layer's Opacity to 50%.

Make a new Solid Color Fill Layer.

Choose Color: None and click Ok. In the color selection dialog, enter the following values: R84, G66, B4. Click OK, then change the blend mode to Hue.

Create a new adjustment layer of type Selective Color. Select Colors:Neutrals and set Yellow to 39% and Cyan to -8%.

Create a new adjustment layer of type Color Balance. Set midtones to 0, -7, -13. Then set highlights to 0, 0, -3.

Create a new adjustment layer of type Levels, select the blue channel (Blue), and change the output level from 255 to 200.

Create a new empty layer and load the shape selection saved in step 2. Fill the selection with black, change the blend mode to Color, and reduce the opacity to 50%. This will make your shapes stand out better against the golden background.

If the gold tone is too strong, reduce the opacity of your layers until the image starts to look more natural.

There's a lot going on in Rarindra's work, and it's painstaking, intense work. That's probably why he doesn't post new work every week.

His work contains notable characteristic features. It separates the image into the foreground, the main subject of the image and the background, almost like on a theater stage. In this particular example, I suspect that he cut out the foreground with the children and the tree and pasted it into another image with the background. Why do I think so? The sun shines very brightly, so much so that the boys' backs are almost overexposed. At the same time, the background is illuminated with a completely different light. If the light in the background were the same, we would see overexposed branches, leaves and tree trunks.

It also uses contrast, sharpness and color to further separate the foreground from the background. In the same image, for example, the background is slightly blurred and the contrast is reduced - this places the background on a completely separate plane. It looks almost like a fake theatrical backdrop.

For backgrounds, it uses color gradients in Normal and Multiply modes and reduces opacity. These modes are important because they don't increase the contrast, they just dampen the brightness a bit, leaving the contrast low.

I've used some of these techniques in this example image:

First, start with an image that is heavily backlit or side-lit - it will be easier to work with and the result will be more natural.

Secondly, clipping is very important to separate the foreground from the background. In this example, we only need to worry about creating a mask for the little girl:

I believe gradients are the key to getting images like Rarindra's. The gradations in his work are very smooth, they don't look like brush work. So in this example, I only used gradients and didn't use brushes on everything, including masks.

When you use gradients on masks, don't forget to set your colors to the standard black for the foreground and white for the background (press the D key to set them that way). Also don't forget to change the gradient mode to "foreground to transparent". Click on the gradient in the toolbar and select the following settings:

I used linear gradients for large areas:

And round gradients for small areas:

So, let's move on to the image. We'll start by adding some haze to separate the foreground from the background. Here is the initial image for comparison:

A little more for more depth. This layer was added in Multiply mode, with a lower opacity:

Add some contrast using Levels:

Now let's make the rays. I have a separate tutorial on this topic, but this time I tried a new approach, because I wanted to get wider beams, but at the same time randomly placed. Here's how I did it:

First, I selected a small part of the tree. I then copied and pasted it into a separate image. I switched it to black and white, then used Levels to get more whites and some dark greys. Then I used the Motion Blur filter.

http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1006&message=24825869

The next step I pasted the resulting rays into a new layer in the initial image and transformed them using the Transform tool. Once you've shaped them the way you want and placed them in the right place, change the blend mode of this layer to Overlay (or whichever mode you prefer more). Now use Gaussian Blur to blur them out and adjust the layer's opacity to your liking:

A more natural result is obtained by adding a second layer with rays and slightly moving it. Try other blend modes and blur settings. Sometimes soft light on one layer and overlay on another will work best. Experiment to get the best result for your image:

Final result:

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The quality of photos on Instagram is the main advantage of any blogger. If you take great pictures and process them well, then more subscribers will want to join you. It does not always take a lot of time and a professional camera and software to process photos for Instagram.

Some bloggers make high-quality material only with the help of a smartphone and a free application, and some share their knowledge in their courses and webinars. You can learn how filters work in the native app and then apply them to specific types of photos. Consider Instagram filters and VSCO, additional programs and applications for editing.

Start with a great photo

No amount of editing will fix a photo that wasn't well taken from the start. You don't have to be a professional photographer to create great Instagram shots: turn on your phone's camera and learn all the photography tips. We wrote more in

Processing is divided into two stages: basic and with special effects.
Basic involves selective correction and includes three components:

Retouch: remove pimples, unnecessary objects and people accidentally caught in the frame.
Smoothing: make skin smoother without bumps or harsh lighting.
Selective light correction.

First, all the details are worked out in the photo. The next step is general color correction, and only after that you can apply filters and complete editing.
This is the essence of editing photos for Instagram in one style: you match the colors in the picture to those that you use in your profile. After editing several images, the ribbon will look harmonious.
In addition, you need to decide what tasks are worth:

improve the photo while maintaining a natural look;
give an unrealistic atmosphere.

The two options cannot be combined together, so you need to decide in advance. You must clearly understand what result you need to achieve in order not to spend hours in photo editors on unnecessary actions.

What not to do during processing

Use all the tools in a row on one photo without the need. A beautiful shot will show your professionalism.
Wasting time on bad shots.
Make faces in a portrait unrecognizable (for example, by high contrast and darkening), if such an idea is not worth it.

Watch your exposure. Strongly overexposed images are overexposed, dark ones are underexposed. Keep the balance and adjust the light in moderation. If you lower the exposure, then later you need to equalize the colors and contrast.
Do not sharpen blurred areas of the image. In some cases, it is simply not needed: during rain or fog, when objects blur.
Use the brush to work on specific areas that need lightening / darkening, changing temperature and saturation.
The horizon in the photo should not be "littered". Use Photoshop to correct it.
Choose the right composition. If the picture was taken with the participation of people, you do not need to place them far away and make them barely noticeable.
Adjust the white balance. This will give you the best color reproduction.
Suppress noise. You should not remove them until the end, so as not to give the picture a polished effect.
For overexposed photos, increase the contrast. It saturates the colors. But its excessive use leads to an unnatural look.
Do the right framing. The subject in the center of the frame is boring. Position it according to the rule of thirds, and the picture will become pleasantly natural.

Follow successful bloggers and note the details. Over time, you will learn to avoid mistakes and emphasize the beauty of photographs.

How Instagram bloggers edit photos with VSCO

Here are examples of well-known bloggers and filters that can be used to get a similar style.

Lydia Elisse Emilen @lydiaemillen. HB1: +8, Exposure: +1, Contrast: +1.

Cher Bai (@chermycloset): SE3: +8, exposure: +0.5, contrast: +1.

Blogger acta.acta processes her shots with her favorite C7 filter, which works great with skin tones. She uses Lightroom for color correction, Facetune for detailing objects.

And Elina Fedorova (@elinafedorova) uses filters from category A: A4, A5 and A6. The blogger advises using one for all photos and having 1-2 more for a reserve, in case the color setting does not fit well on some picture. In Snapseed, the girl adjusts the brightness without exceeding +25, changes the color balance for greater color intensity. In the same application, using the Spot tool, removes specks from the skin.

Look for information on how your favorite blogger handles photos. If he doesn't reveal secrets in the public domain, study his photos and experiment with VSCO and some other programs. You may not be able to completely copy your favorite style, but you will find your own that will be just as good.

How to edit photos in VSCO for Instagram: style examples

VSCO allows you to process photos in a single style. Now there are many options, and everyone will find an acceptable one for themselves.

Pink style shots by Nina Tailles:
Filter J3: +7.
Exposure: -1.2;
Saturation: +1;
Temperature: -1.3;
Hues: +1.6.
Beige shades:
HB2: +3;
Contrast: +1;
Saturation: +1.
Blue shades:
J1;
Exposure: -1;
Contrast: +2;
Temperature: -2.
Romantic red:
E3;
Exposure: -1;
Saturation: -1;
Temperature +1.
Black and Gold Theme:
C1: +1;
Exposure: +1;
Contrast: +1;
Saturation: +2.

More settings in VSCO can be found in thematic publics and groups, including on Instagram. Lots of collections on Pinterest.

How to beautifully edit photos on Instagram using built-in filters

Filters are color settings. Why is it important? Choose the right preset and the profile will be in the same style. Otherwise, color settings and photos will conflict.
See how the pictures change under the influence of each of them.

normal. This is the original photo without processing. Subtle changes are made. The result will remain the same - without additional effects.

Lark. From English - "Lark". Lightens the image and enhances all colors in the photo except red. It is used to edit pictures taken outdoors: nature or portrait. It fits perfectly in photographs with tanned skin, green trees, blue skies, although its result is sometimes invisible.

Clarendon. Translated from English as "Bold font". Originally created for video only, but now available for snapshots. It enhances shadows and brightens colors. Perfect for pets and minimalist photos where you want to make a splash of color.

Gingham. "Umbrella". Blurs the photo. Gives dark pictures a yellowish tint. Light - a bright look. Reminds me of some popular VSCO filters. Photos become vintage. Every fashionista needs it.

Moon. "Moon". A black and white filter with intense shadows that will give photos a vibrant, vintage look. Like the Clarendon, it was originally created for video only and named after the dog of one of the members of the Instagram team. It's sort of a black and white version of Gingham, with slightly more intense shadows. For portraits.

Valencia. A filter with warm undertones and a retro vibe does not wash out the colors completely. Photos become from the 80s, a little brightened. Used for any images.

Nashville. The pink tint increases the temperature of the image while brightening it. Similar to Valencia: the same retro effect, but more pronounced. This is another cool setting to create a vintage vibe.

earlybird. It has a sepia effect - it imposes on photographs a special brown color used in the 19th century, and slightly discolors, washes out the shades. Needed for a retro vibe.

Aden. Filter with low softening contrast. Lightly desaturates the photo and gives it a pastel effect. Increases the temperature of cool colors. Smoothes the skin, useful when processing portraits. Works with highlights and autumn photos.

Sutro. Adds a very noticeable vignette, darkens the photo, gives a hazy effect with a special emphasis on purple and brown colors to achieve the effect. Use with everything except portraits (if natural processing is the goal). Landscapes add mystery and ominousness

Crema. Blurs and smoothes skin tones, reduces saturation. Vintage filter. Popular for filming food, to convey the atmosphere of a cafe. Works well with pictures of nature (green, blue shades) and the city.

Reyes. Discolors, increases brightness. An excellent color setting for portraits as it works on the skin and hides any blemishes. In some cases, photos processed in another editor may turn yellow under the influence of Reyes.

lo-fi. Brightens colors, adds shadows, greatly increases saturation. Needed for food and nature shots with lots of trees and grass.

Toaster. Adds a strong red tint. Sends a lot of light to the center, thickens the shadows at the edges. Works well with shots taken during the day outdoors. But night work will be unsuccessful in this processing.

Juno. Increases the saturation of colors. Lightens yellows, oranges and reds. Texture appears in the pictures. Suitable for outdoor material.

Rise. Adds a soft yellow glow to photos, making it a great filter for portraits. It smoothes the skin and removes excess spots on the face.

Slumber. Translated from English, it translates as a dream, a nap. The color setting corresponds to the name, filling the photo with an atmosphere of romance and antiquity. Works well with street lighting and nature.

Brannan. High contrast filter works with exposure, adds light. A yellow tint appears. Ideal for portraits and landscapes.

Inkwell. Classic universal black and white Instagram filter.

Stinson. Lightweight versatile. Brightens and slightly blurs colors.

X Pro II. Adds strong contrast and vignetting. Colors take on warmer tones. Avoid it in close-up portraits: it has an unpleasant effect on the skin. But it works well with images of nature, cities, clothes.

dog patch. Blurs light shades, increases contrast. Recommended for shots with good lighting: it does not work with night.

Ludwig. Adds temperature to warm colors, makes cool colors darker, shadows and dark areas are noticeable. Works with black and white photos, cityscapes, ideal for buildings.

1977. The name says it all: the filter adds pinks and reds for a faded look. Works well with water and highlights.

Hudson. Fills the photo with cold shades, adds a light vignette. Works with open space, especially with winter landscapes.

Kelvin. The filtered image receives a lot of sunlight. Bright, rich, golden. It raises the temperature and brightens the picture. Suitable for photos with a lot of natural or artificial light.

Sierra. Similar to Rise, but darker and adds vignetting to the edges. The center becomes brighter. Works well with nature and objects.

skyline. Use for any image that needs to lighten up a bit and change colors to brighter ones.

walden. Corrects the center and adds a cool blue tint to the photo. Looks good in portraits.

Perpetua. The filter does not fit well on portraits, giving the skin unnatural tones. However, it works well with beach photos, adjusting the greens and yellows.

Brooklyn. One of the popular filters that works with yellow tints. Photos taken outdoors benefit noticeably when using it.

Amaro. Adds brightness to the center of the image and vignetting to the edges. Works well with autumn photos.

Hefe. Increases color saturation, temperature and imposes vignetting. Great for landscapes.

Maven. The filter darkens images, enhances shadows, and overlays yellow tints. Used for architecture and does not fit well in portraits.

Ginza. Universal filter that brightens the photo.

Willow. Black and white, great for beaches and portraits.

Charmes. Raises the temperature of the image, adds red tones and increases contrast. Suitable for poorly lit images and urban photos.

Mayfair. Applies vignetting, increases the temperature of colors. Instagram recommends using it in conjunction with the Lux feature (the sun icon at the top) to add light to underexposed images.

Vesper. Portrait Filter: Smoothes the skin, adds a yellow tint.

Ashby. Adds a golden glow. Unlike Sierra and Rise, it does not darken shadows. For portraits.

Helena. Adds warmth to portraits and works great with orange tones in photos.

Processing photos in the same filter allows you to organize the material and create it in a single style for Instagram.

Apps for editing photos on your phone for Instagram

Bloggers also use mobile applications or computer programs to process photos. Everyone has their own list of tools. Below we will list all the editors that allow you to put almost any photo in order.

Lightroom CC. Available platforms: iOS, Android. Free app from Adobe. The main advantage of the application is color correction. With its help, you can easily change the shades to more successful ones. Works with exposure, contrast, highlights and shadows. Able to add effects: clarity, getting rid of haze, vignetting, feathering, rounding, graininess and much more. Works with details, reduces noise.
VSCO. A popular application with a huge number of filters that even bloggers use. Color adjustments are applied after removing all defects or adding items, when the main part of the processing is finished.
Adobe Photoshop Express. Another completely free offer from Adobe for iOS and Android mobile devices. Additional tools can be obtained at the entrance to your personal account. Intuitive interface. There are features not included in other editors. Contains about fifty filters, can crop, adjust clarity and sharpness, eliminate fog. Works with hues and temperatures. Not the whole list of tools, but inferior to the computer version.
Adobe Photoshop Mix. Supported platforms: iOS, Android. Opens PSD files and works with layers. Available: correction, exposure, saturation. Far from the computer version, but some tools are taken from it: architecture correction, jitter reduction, content-aware fill.
Adobe Photoshop Fix. Free application from Adobe. The main feature is the "Plastic" tool, which allows you to "pull up" a smile, change the size of the eyes and much, much more. The application scans the face and highlights areas. Tools: frame, correction, restoration, smoothing, light, color, paint, defocus, vignette. There are no filters.
handy photo. Supports tonal adjustments, removes unnecessary objects from the photo. Functionality: general and selective adjustment of tone and color, retouching, moving objects between shots, selective application of filters, adding textures and much more. It costs 189 rubles.
Facetune. The application works with portraits. Whiten tool for white and bright teeth, Soften for selective light blurring. "Details" increases the contrast of the selected areas, thus highlighting the details, texture. With the help of "Contour" you can make a smile, add volume to your hair, and "Patch" is useful if you need to remove extra spots on your face. And even objects.
snapseed. Free powerful application from Google without ads and pop-ups. In the "Styles" section, you can choose a filter, and in the "Tools" there are more functions. General correction for brightness, contrast, saturation. With the help of curves, you can change the primary colors, and correct poor lighting in the white balance. It can selectively process an area, work with graininess, and the HRD effect. Changes incorrect perspective and expands photos by automatically filling empty areas. It has four types of brushes: darkening and highlighting, exposure, temperature, saturation. Their strength can be controlled. Contains templates with beautiful captions.
Canva. The application has collected many designs for different social networks. A great tool if you need to put text on a picture, a cloud with an inscription. Transparency settings to create a muted look. It can blur photos, apply a vignette to create a retro atmosphere and much more.
Spring effects. A simple body shaping app. Facetune will not be able to edit photos with patterns on the background. For example, if it is striped, then any attempts to reduce the figure will immediately be displayed with irregular outlines. Spring Effects easily solves this problem. The application has only two modes: for weight loss and for increasing growth. After selection, two lines will appear on the screen: they need to designate the boundaries of the stretched or compressed area. Click on the green button and scale the photo to the desired view. In the "Slim" section, you need to enclose the head in a circle to avoid stretching it.
Zoetropuc free. Applications for moving photos. Mark static areas (ground, people, mountains) and areas in motion (water, hair, leaf). Using the arrows, you can easily create the effect of a live shot.

Programs for a computer for editing photos on Instagram

Photoshop CC and Adobe Lightroom CC are classic programs from Adobe that can fix everything from skin blemishes to serious imperfections. Available platforms: Windows, MacOS.

You can try Luminar 2018. The new version of the program is much faster than the previous ones and is positioned as a competitor to Adobe Lightroom CC. Many functions are similar: layers, brushes, masks, distortion removal, vignetting, perspective correction. Advantages: support for color tables (LUT), flexible color and light settings.

We do not list many computer programs or services here, because Instagram is more about mobile photography and applications are quite capable of this task.
Processing is critical to conveying the unique atmosphere of an image. See how others do it, be inspired by the selections, try it yourself. You will definitely learn how to process photos, achieving the intended effect.

In this tutorial we will create a futuristic fashion portrait. Instead of using ready-made filters, pictures or brushes, we will draw all the details by hand. It may sound intimidating, but trust me, you don't have to be a digital artist to incorporate digital painting techniques into photo manipulation!

Also, with the help of adjustment layers, we will perform color correction and see how changing colors can turn a flat and boring picture into a bright illustration.

Last but not least are smart objects. I'll tell you why you should start using them and how they help you to better control your work with effects, respecting the so-called principles of non-destructive editing.

Note: Some images are missing from the tutorial source. The author also used paid materials. In the archive you will find an alternative version of the materials for the lesson

1. Create a pixelated background

First, we will create a pixelated night sky background. I don't like to overload the background with details in portraits so that the main focus is on the main character.

Before we get started, I want to tell you why we use Smart Objects. In the course of the lesson, we will create several of these layers, and I would like to interest other artists to use them. So if you have already learned the beauty of smart objects, then skip this section of the tutorial!

What are smart objects?

If you right-click on the layer, then in the menu you will find the command ConverttoSmartObject(Convert to Smart Object). Essentially, this command disables permanent pixel editing. You can reduce the object, then stretch it and the picture will not be blurry. All filters that we add to smart objects become smart filters, and you can adjust their settings, turn off visibility or delete them at any time without affecting the main layer. Also, each such filter has its own mask, which can be edited.

As you already understood, smart objects are the most powerful and functional tool for non-destructive editing. Its essence lies in the fact that you either do not change the contents of the original layer at all, or very little. In this case, as mentioned above, at any time you can change the settings of the applied effects or delete them, while the original layer will remain untouched.

Pros and cons

Sounds great, but why not make all layers smart objects by default? There are two reasons. First, they greatly increase the file size. If you insert a 3000 x 3000 pixel image into your document and compress it to 500 x 500 pixels, it will still retain the original size data. And this can reduce performance even on a good computer.

Secondly, some filters and layer settings cannot be applied to Smart Objects. For example, you cannot apply a filter Vanishingpoint(Correction of perspective). Smart objects are quite limited in this.

When to Use Smart Objects

Most often I use them with blur filters. Sometimes I need to edit the filter mask so that it is only visible in a certain place. Or when adding several different filters and adjustments that I later want to change. Or just experimenting with different effects.

Personally, I don't use them for minor adjustments or to maintain the original size of an inserted image. I only create smart objects when I really need them.

Describing smart objects sounds complicated and can be confusing, so I don't want to overwhelm you with more information. I hope you found this mini-course helpful!

Now let's get to the lesson!

Step 1

Create a 3680 x 5098 px document and paste in the night sky image.

Step 2

Select the night sky layer, right click on it and select ConverttoSmartObject(Convert to Smart Object).

Next, apply filter- Sharpen- SmartSharpen(Filter - Sharpness - Smart Sharpen). Install Amount(Effect) by 500%, Radius(Radius) - by 1.0 pixel and Reducenoise(Reduce noise) - by 10%.

Step 3

Let's brighten up the stars with an adjustment layer. Curves(Curves). Settings below:

Double click on the layer Curves(Curves) to open the window layerstyle(Layer style). Adjusting the bottom black slider Underlyinglayer(Subject layer). To split it in half, hold down the Alt key.

Duplicate (Ctrl+J) layer Curves(Curves) to further increase the brightness of the stars.

Step 4

Now we will add a glow.

Above create a new layer (Ctrl + Shift + N) in blend mode Normal(Normal).

flow(Push) 5% draw translucent white spots at the top of the canvas.

Softlight(Soft light).

We draw the same brush in the same places to increase the brightness.

On the layers panel, hold down the Ctrl key, select all the background layers and group (Ctrl + G) them. We call the group "Background".