How to edit your photographs with Instagram

I've been wanting to talk about this for ages but 2 things have finally inspired me to sit down and write it, firstly I went to give a talk to the Jesmond WI last Monday about photography and Instagram and the ladies were so lovely and very receptive and I feel I gave them something solid they could go away and experiment with as well as telling them some stories of my life and travels including the infamous story of Wakefield, if you've not heard about how I accidentally ended up in a hotel which was being used as a brothel do ask me about it the next time you see me!  Secondly I read Lucy's post about Instagram this morning, I love her blog and her Instagram, I find her inspiring, her style of photography is so different to mine and I am overawed by the way that she sees life through her lens.

I see the world in photographs, something has happened to my brain I think because it wasn't always the way, I see every light change as an opportunity, just ask my friends, no one gets quite so excited about changes in the light as I do, I walk around constantly stupefied by the beauty I find which surrounds me everywhere I go, no matter how many times I take the same dog walk I can always find something different and beautiful to photograph.

I use three cameras for the photography you'll find on my Instagram, A Canon DSLR, a Fuji CSC and my iPhone6s and often no one can tell the difference which is quite interesting but it's maybe because for the most part I am sharing travel photos and panoramas or Holly out on a walk in her surroundings.  Mostly if I want to share a portrait it will be something I've captured with my DSLR because I'll need to use that depth of field, something an iPhone really can't capture due to the teeny weeny sensor, on the whole though it does a pretty good job.

For editing big projects, weddings and portraits it's all DSLR and it's all edited in Photoshop and Lightroom but sometimes if I'm travelling I have no issues with using the wifi on my camera, and then doing a simple edit in Instagram, after all, my images pretty much look as they should when they come out of my camera after 10 years, I'm also not that good at Photoshop, haha!

So, I want to give you an example of an image which was taken with my iPhone6s in low light and then I'll show you what you can do with Instagram, it's all sliders so it's so easy to use and you can make beautiful images using just an iPhone and Instagram, I think especially with the 6 and 6S models as with each new iPhone the camera has just got better and better.

It astounds me, firstly that the recent models of iPhone really are as good as they are at low light photography, it has definitely not always been that way!  Instagram though, not using any filters just knowing what to do to manipulate an image so that you can bring the most out in it, usually to get a shot in the city in the evening you would have had to go along with your big DSLR, set up your tripod and then edit in Photoshop or Lightroom or both but now you can take it and share it within minutes something which has proved to be invaluable if you are taking travel photos on assignment, people love to be immersed in the places you share because they want to feel like they're there with you.

So here's the down low on Instagram editing and I hope that you can use the tips here to take better instant photographs on the go.

Of course there's still the old adage, you can't make a bad photograph look good with excessive editing so try to take something which looks not unpleasant before you pop it into Instagram.

There are other simple editing apps but I wanted to go with the most popular and easily accessible, it's also super simple because it's a combination of sliders, just remember to try and achieve these effects on your own, don't be temped to use filters if you can because ultimately you will be able to define your own style on Instagram.  I was delighted to discover that I now have over 4000 people happily following and commenting on my Instagram, it's been a pretty fast growth once I finally had it all figured out but I adore Instagram because I love sharing images of beautiful places and people and things and making other people happy when they see them and really that's what it's all about for me, creating images which make people smile, which make me smile, which add some quality to life and future history and memories.

Now go on, get out there, take photos, edit sympathetically and then share with me what you've been up to.