How I Edit My Instagram Photos (Photoshop, VSCO, Facetune) Tutorial | Video

People are always asking how I edit my instagram photos, so today I thought I’d show you how! To see the start to finish, watch the above video- but here are the cliff notes.

I use a Canon Rebel t4i to take most of my photos with the kit 18-135mm lens, or a 50mm lens. To edit, I mostly use a combination of Photoshop + VSCO + Facetune. With how advanced cameras have become (including iPhones), you can take a good photo with pretty much any device- it’s how you edit it that makes the difference! I typically start with Photoshop, edit with VSCO, fine-tune with FaceTun, and wrap things up back in Photoshop if need be. It seems crazy, but it’s how I get the most high quality photos that brands like to see.

• Resize & crop images- I use 2000px x 2000px so it’s a square & is high-res enough that it doesn’t look blurry on IG.
• Brightness/Contrast- if images look too contrasty/dark off the bat, I like to make them look more true-to life by adjusting contrast, or adding brightness.
• Curves- I like using curves to add brightness to an image moreso than brightness/contrast- I typically don’t make an s-curve as it adds too much contrast back in, but by lifting the top right of the diagonal line in Curves, you get a nice amount of brightness.
• Layers- the reason everyone uses photoshop is for the layers. You can add things (like a watermark, which I don’t do), test different styles of edits, all while keeping the integrity of the original image. For instagrams I usually use layers to erase parts of a photo that I don’t want whitened in Facetune, which you can see in action towards the end of the above video.
• Spot Healing Brush- I didn’t demo this in the video, but spot healing is a great way (as is clone stamp) to get rid of any dust or particles that may have made its way into your image that you want gone.

• Edit the photo completely before adding any filters
• Sharpen tool makes images look more crisp
• Exposure to brighten
• Highlights & Shadows Save to fade any harsh lighting
• Filters- I like A6, HB1, & HB2 the most, personally. I almost never use a filter at it’s highest strength. Tap the filter twice to make a slider appear, where you can lower the strength of any filter.

• Whiten- my favorite tool on FaceTune which makes photos minimal & bright. I prefer to white an image entirely & then erase the parts I don’t want whitened on Photoshop instead of the app, because it’s cleaner and much more precise than on your phone, which I show on video!
• Details- I like this tool to sharpen brand names or specific details that should stand out on an image to show texture.
• Patch- this one is like a clone stamp in Photoshop- it’s pretty good at clearing away any lint or specks of anything that you didn’t notice were in your photo but you want to get rid of (and even stray hairs!)

I think that just about covers the basics- if you have any questions on specifics, feel free to comment below and I’ll try to help as best as I can. Also, let me know if you want me to do a video on how I take my photos next! And of course, don’t forget to follow me on instagram @oliviafrescura 😉