The Home That Made Me

How I Edit My Instagram Pictures

I use my trusty slightly battered Iphone 5C to take every single one of my Instagram photo’s – I do own a camera however to be honest, I don’t have a clue what I’m doing with it….something i’d love to learn though.

We’re all guilty of a good old Instagram filter to make my photo’s look better. Usually it’s to make those bags under our eyes disappear or that mountain of a spot fade in to the background however I rarely post selfies, so for me, it’s just to make my home look a lighter, brighter & a bit more ‘Instagram-worthy’.



So, I’m going to guide you through what I do with every single picture. I do normally follow this exact procedure & it takes about 10 seconds to make a picture go from a bit glum to bright & beautiful. I know a few of you have requested this post!

Here’s my original photo – nothing that wrong with it BUT it could look a whole lot better

First of all I apply the Valencia filter. To me, it’s by FAR the nicest filter & i’ve even removed all the others off the page because I never use them. I only use this one or no filter at all depending on the lighting.

Secondly I click on the spanner icon on the right hand side, this is more ‘advanced’ filtering.



1. Increase (move to the right) the brightness (usually to around 18)



2. Decrease the contrast (usually to around -20)


3. Increase warmth (usually to about 35 as I quite like the yellowy look) 


4. Decrease the saturation (to around -25)


Occasionally I increase the shadows & play with the sharpen tool. Most of it is done by the individual picture & how it looks so have a play around with all the different features until you find your individual style.

Finally I go through & post it as well as writing a description & hashtagging depending on the contents of the picture.



Love, Charlotte x