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I think it would be very safe to say that I am slightly obsessed with Instagram. I decided at the beginning of the year that I wanted to try and grow my following and spend more time creating a more cohesive feed. Since January, I have gained just over 3,000 new followers (which is probably not a lot compared to larger accounts, but for me, it’s a huge achievement – slow and steady right?!).

Anyway, I get a lot of questions and DMs about how I edit my photos and what apps I use, so I thought it was about time for me to share my 5 most used Instagram Apps.

[1] Planning

MOSAICO

If you want your feed to look great at a glance, it’s so important that you plan ahead which photos you’re going to post. That way, when you click post, you know it’s going to fit right in with the look you’re trying to achieve. There are heaps of planning apps out there, but my favourite is Mosaico.

I love this app because

  • You can easily shuffle photos

This is perfect to shift things around and to see what photos look good together or if you should move things around. It’s a simple drag and drop as well, and it’s very seamless (aka not clunky!)

  • You can pre-write your captions

I love this, because captions is something that I really struggle with. So it’s great to be able to write them in advance. So that when I’m ready to post my caption is already written! (the app also copies your caption to your clipboard automatically when you’re ready to post!)

  • you can save hashtag groups

Instagram maxes hashtags out at 30; Mosaico, lets you save groups of hashtags up to 30. So you can save certain groups of hashtags together. For example, if I’m just posting a photo of J, then I’ll just use baby hashtags, but if I’m in it as well, then I’ll include both baby and motherhood related hashtags. This is a super cool feature that makes your hashtag strategy a little bit easier.

  • You can schedule posts (and post to Instagram directly through the app)

The app won’t automatically post to Instagram for you, but you can set a reminder and it’ll send you a notification to post. So, if 7pm is when your engagement is highest, you can set a reminder to post at 7pm and Mosaico will send you a reminder.

  • You can add mulitple Instagram accounts (paid version)

If you have multiple instagram accounts, then you can upgrade the app to sync mulitple accounts. I love this because we have a couple of other businesses that we use Instagram for, so I can make sure that I plan and stay ontop of content for all of them.

[2] Editing

VSCO

I have a few different apps that I use for editing, depending on what I want to do/achieve. The first app, my go to, for basic editing is VSCO. It’s a free app, but I have upgraded to the subscription, because you get full access to all of their presets as well as the ability to edit video. I mainly use the presets: AL1, AL5, A2 and A6. I find to get a cohesive feed, it’s good to use the same preset so that all your images have the same look and feel.

At first, I found VSCO quite confusing to use, but I watched a few tutorials and had a little play and now I think I’ve got the general gist of it.

SNAPSEED

I love snapseed for retouching certain parts of images. There are a few different things that you can do in this app, the main tools I use are the Selective Tool, Brush tool, and Healing tool.

  1. Selective Tool

This tool is great for selecting parts of an image and then brightening/darkening them. I use this tool to make my pictures look a lot whiter/brighter

2.  Brush Tool

The Brush tool lets you manually brush edits over certain parts of the image. I use this (with the dodge + burn tool) to get rid of any unwanted shadows

3. Healing Tool

This is great to get rid of any unwanted blemishes in images (like if I forgot to put away something in the background, or if I wanted to get rid of a mark on a wall) in the below example it’s the black in the background)

[3] Colorpop

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know that my feed is a monochrome feed. But what if I’ve been at the park, or the beach, and I really want to share a snap of it, without jeopardising my chosen style? Insert Colorpop. So this is an app that grayscale a picture and then lets you colour back in the parts that you want in colour (eg people) You can also pinch to zoom in to ensure complete accuracy in your recoloring.

I love this app! See guys, it’s all an illusion, my world is not completely monochrome – bhahah!

[3] Stories

UNFOLD

I often get asked what app I use to create my stories, it’s called Unfold. And it can help you create gorgeous collages with images and videos. It also allows you to add text to your images which is really nice. They have heaps of templates for you to choose from (some are free, others are paid for)

I love the interface of this app – it’s really beautifully designed, super easy to use and they’re constantly updating it and adding new templates (be sure to turn on notifications)!

What are your favourite Instagram apps? Let me know in the comments below!

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