Being one of the biggest social media platforms today, Instagram has managed to introduce a lot of new trends on the internet. One of the ways they’ve done this is by introducing features like the best Instagram filters. This has led people to experiment and find the top filters for their pictures.
If you’re looking for some preset filters, you’ll find tons of them on various platforms like Snapchat and Facebook. However, there are many websites that are dedicated to providing unique filters for multiple social media sites.
Regardless of whether you want a filter to improve your photos, add an extra touch to them, or just want to memefy them, filters can make your pictures a lot better.
In this article, we’ll go over some of the best Instagram filters has to offer, where you can find them, and see some examples of great filters.
Let’s check them out!
Table of Contents
15 Best Instagram Filters to Up Your Insta Presence
Not everyone is an experienced photographer. But with the help of some filters, you can easily spice up your photos using just your smartphone. There are about 40 native Instagram filters that you can choose from for your Instagram posts.
You have the option to adjust the filter strength if you feel like it’s adding too much or too little to your image. Intensity adjustment is another feature of the filter that you can use until you’ve found a sweet spot. Experimenting with a range of options from filter enhancing brightness to vintage effects is also something worth considering.
Filters can be a great way to upgrade your visual content. You can use these filters to create captivating images and build on compelling brand aesthetics. Or you can use the “Normal” filter, which has zero effects added.
The “Normal” filter is the most widely used option, with more than 89% of pictures uploaded without a filter. However, you can always use some added contrast or a black-and-white effect on some photos.
Below we’ve chosen the top 15 Instagram filters that you can use for both Instagram posts and stories.
1. Clarendon
Clarendon is a popularly used Instagram filter that gives images a natural touch. It brightens the lighter areas of the image and dims the darker tones. It doesn’t burst the saturation or contrast but adds a natural blue-toned filter.
2. Juno
If you want your warm tones to stand out a bit, Juno is the perfect filter for you. It will make colors look more vivid by slightly adding high contrast to them. Juno is great for outdoor nature pictures since it adds more colors to them, making nature seem more lively.
3. Valencia
Valencia is great for brightening pictures or adding the “golden hour” touch. It has a very subtle yellow tone. Furthermore, it works wonders when you want to bring out paler colors to a warmer tone.
All of this makes Valencia an ideal option for daylight pictures.
4. Lark
Lark is yet another great filter for when you want to calm the image down a bit. It will decrease the vibrance and add some red-tone saturation, keeping the blue and green enhanced. This will bring the image to a more natural look.
5. Willow
This filter is for the ones who just love everything in black and white. Willow gives pictures a very subtle dull touch and a fading effect, giving it a vintage feel. It cools down the contrast in the image as well as bringing out a more calm element in the image.
6. Hefe
Hefe is the definition of dramatic. It boosts the saturation and gives images a very sharp and deep aesthetic. Hefe is great for images that have mountains and skyscrapers captured with detailed shadows.
7. Ludwig
Ludwig slightly decreases contrast, highlighting the redder tones and reducing the yellower tones. This filter also decreases saturation, making the image very vibrant.
Ludwig is great for architecture images or portraits.
8. Lo-Fi
Lo-Fi, as the name suggests, gives images a Lo-Fi feel. It adds a color cast with some texture, creating an immense amount of depth to the image while giving it a dramatic look. It adds saturation and shadows, making it more intense.
Lo-Fi is great for models or MUAs wanting to highlight their makeup.
9. Gingham
Gingham is a filter that brings out a vintage look while keeping the effect very subtle at the same time. It still lets you keep the natural colors of the image but adds a slight vignette look by decreasing some saturation.
This filter is great for giving your images a warmer tone or to soften color vibrancy.
The list will now continue with Instagram story filters, that are named after cities for the most part. (Note: these filters don’t have an adjusting bar)
10. Jakarta
Jakarta is considered to be one of the most popular filters used to highlight all areas and objects of the image, giving it a very realistic view. It has a hint of green hues, a very intense tint. This filter is also very good for nature and awe-inspiring landscapes.
11. Rio De Janeiro
Rio De Janeiro is a filter that gives your images a slightly reddish tone. This filter adds a very warm and calm effect. It gives images a purely magical vibe and is more for a daylight selfie.
12. New York
The New York filter is great for autumn pictures as they adjust towards the filter tones. It shades the corners with a darker hue, just like a vignette effect. It’s also very good for outdoor views, like views that include skyscrapers.
13. Jaipur
If you like very bright lighting, Jaipur is the perfect filter for the job. It adds a very strong pink tone to the image, just as the Indian city is called “Jaipur, the pink city”. It’s great for oceanic views but can bring about positive tones in any environment.
14. Oslo
Oslo provides just a bit more light than your original image, keeping it very natural and settling. It increases the exposure and highlights certain elements. Oslo is the go-to filter for food photography.
15. Melbourne
The Melbourne filter has fewer colors going on, making it very elegant. It decreases the tone of every color around it. Furthermore, the filter fades images to perfection but doesn’t make them black and white. Melbourne is perfect for forest and landscape images that you might capture while traveling.
How to Use Instagram Filters
It’s easy to access the built-in Instagram filters. They come up while you’re editing your image. Below are some steps on applying your favorite filter to your Instagram post.
Using Instagram Filters for Instagram Posts
Instagram provides quick and easy access to all their filters while uploading your image or video (use an Instagram video size guide to help you with that). You can use these filters by following a few easy steps mentioned below:
- Open the Instagram App.
- Tap on the “+” sign at the bottom.
- Select the image/video you’d like to upload.
- Choose a filter that you would like to use for your IG post (double tap for filter strengths).
- Tap “Next”.
- Add your caption, location and then tap “Next” or the navigation arrow button.
If you cannot find your desired filter at the list at the bottom, slide to the right, and you will find the option to “Manage”.
By tapping it you’ll be able to see a list of filters to choose from on your filter dashboard. You can adjust where they’re placed, keep your favorites and hide the rest.
If a filter has a checkmark, it means it’s showing on your filter dashboard as shown below:
Make sure your Instagram video thumbnail also showcases the filter.
Using Instagram Filters for Your Instagram Story
Instagram filters are as easy to use as Snapchat filters. Simply swipe on your screen till you find the right one. Below are some steps to apply and find more filters:
- Open the Instagram App.
- Slide right across the screen to get to the story page.
- Select the photo/video you would like to upload.
- Swipe across the screen to see what filter fits best for you.
There are some customizable filters, that users have made and uploaded to the effects gallery. To access them, all you’d have to do is:
- Tap and hold your finger on any filter for 3 seconds.
- Slide right.
- Select “Browse effects”.
- It will appear on the filter dashboard now too.
Once you’re done, go ahead and hit “Upload”. However, make sure you keep the Instagram story dimensions in mind before uploading a story.
Using Instagram Filters for IGTV
Since you can’t do most of the editing on IGTV, Influencers and bloggers use third-party apps like Splice or Videoshop to edit their videos. However, adding filters to your IGTV episodes can be just as easy as applying them to normal Instagram video posts.
Once you have your video all ready to be uploaded:
- Open the Instagram App.
- Select the video you want to upload.
- Tap “Next”.
- Apply the filter, or adjust the filter strength.
- To save your changes tap “Next” or the navigation arrow.
- Add your caption, location and then tap “Next” or the navigation arrow.
- Tap “Share”.
You now have a filter on your IGTV.
Additional Sites and Software for Instagram Filters
If you want to customize your pictures, you have plenty of other options that provide more filters and editing tools. Each third-party software has more filters that are made entirely in-house.
By using these apps, you get a variety of effects, apart from just filters, that you can use to enhance your image. This will help create stunning professional images suitable for marketing.
It’s not just for major edits, but it can also be used to make minor edits such as image masking, reducing shadows, or correcting minor colors.
Below are a few editing tools that you can use to enhance your pictures apart from Instagram:
● Pixelied
Pixelied is the one-in-all editing tool that can help you improve your Instagram game to a professional level. You can create stunning posts, ads, and profile pictures with the recommended Insta profile size.
● Best IG Filters
This site is best for finding the top trending Instagram filters but they don’t let you edit your photos.
● Pixelixe
This site is a relatively simple and straightforward editing tool that lets you preview Instagram filters.
In Conclusion
Now you know exactly what filters are considered to be the best, and what filters would be more suitable for different sorts of images. Using filters isn’t anything new in 2021, but it helps create an environment where you don’t need to work hard on things, such as finding the perfect lighting.
Creating images by adding filters or effects makes it unique in its own way. With the help of this article, you can now edit images more creatively.
Besides, it’s always nice to change things up a bit and experiment with new filters. Better yet, create your own best Instagram filters.
