Pearls Before Swine: What app do I use to edit my Instagram photos?

Whether you want to admit it or not, we all from time to time have used a photo editing app. Maybe not for complete Photoshop overhauls like the Celebs use, but a little adjustment to lighting can really make all the difference between a so-so photo and one that stands out from the rest.

I'd like to think of myself as a pretty okay photographer. Self Photos are by far my specialty! I believe I have perfected them over the years and now I am ready to divulge my secrets.

Knowing your face is a critical step in a good selfie. What side is your best side? Do you look better with your hair up or down? Hat or no hat? Another step that can't be overlooked is background and lighting.

We have all seen the fail selfie pictures that make us all say "Dang, did you not check your surrounding before snapping that picture?" It happens far too often!

Now, I know you have heard that you should stand near a window that has good lighting, which is an excellent tip. However, if the light is too direct, it may leave you looking washed out and haggard. LOL!

I normally always use my back door window that leads to my back patio. The light is an East to West lighting. The perfect time of day to take the pictures is early morning or mid-afternoon. The later the afternoon, the light tends to be too harsh. So I suggest searching your home for the perfect window lighting.

Next, is the background. Okay great, you found the perfect lighting but a weird lamp is showings or you can see something in the background that will draw your viewers eyes away from the subject and what you want them to notice. It truly can be a daunting task! Don't loose hope, it does exist. You just have to find it.

For the examples I'll be using, I stood in my kitchen near our big sliding back window. The lighting, as you will notice is not the best but I'll show you how to fix that!

A little disclaimer first** Just because these techniques work for me and my photos does not mean it will work for you. I do believe if the stock photo is good but the lighting is off or you have a big pimple that needs to be erased, this app can do the trick and more! It is by far my favorite and I have tried them all.

So, what is the app already?

Photo Wonder is my number one all time favorite photo editing app of all time. If you are now disappointed, thinking "oh man!, I have tried that before." Don't leave just yet. Maybe I can show you a trick or tip that you haven't tried before.

I love it the most because it for one is free. You don't have to upgrade to use any of the special edits. I'm sure there are upgrades you can make with the app but over the many years of me using it, I have never needed to upgrade anything.

Second, it is super easy to use. Editing my photos takes me, maybe five minutes. I don't spend countless hours removing every blemish or fixing every imperfection.

For my examples, I'll be using these three photos. LOL! No laughing! I know they aren't the best. The lighting is not that great but they will work for my demonstration. I wanted to show my hair for an Instagram post.

When you first open up the app and have chosen the photo you'd like to edit. There are a number of options available. Edit, Beautify, Decorate, Effect and Frame.

The Edit features things like the mosaic, tone, crop, rotate, reflection, sharpen and vignette options.

The Beautify has a one click beauty fix, slim, fair skin, anti-acne, makeup, enlarge eye, intel-beauty, smile, shape leg, bright eye, dark rim, breast enlarger (upgrade), teeth whitening and red eye removal.

The Decorate is really fun with stickers, a brush and stamp tool and the text bubble tool.

The Effects tool is my favorite. It has all your filters. The Profile which has eleven filters. LOMO has twenty-two, Vide eleven and Art with thirteen.

The Frame tab has different frames you can add to your photo if you want it to look even more professional.

For the picture below. I wasn't happy with the lighting, that and I am super obsessed with the Vivid and Lomo options. Almost every picture gets it.

So to start, I opened the picture. Went to the Effects tab. Clicked on LOMO filter and scrolled to the filter called Vivid. I adjust the amount down to about half. Any more and the picture can look weird.

Then, I go back to the Effects tab and this time I choose LOMO filter, and the filter called LOMO. It adds a nice darkened background which makes the Vivid filter appears brighter.

LOMO-Vivid

LOMO-Lomo

After

Another fun effect is the stickers. They can be really fun to play with. As you can see I got a tad bit carried away but I wanted to show you some options.

Makeup is fun to dress up your photos as well. They have a number of different options available. Including eye contacts, foundation, hair dye, lip gloss, eyelashes, and blush.