How to edit photographs for Instagram

When I first got on the Instagram train I was intimated by all the incredible images on my feed. Never in a million years did I think I would ever get more than one like (thanks hubby!) and never did I think people would comment and tell me they loved my feed. 
I'm still learning as I go, but here are a few tips that I hope you'll find useful. 
The best piece of advice anyone ever gave me was this: "If you're feeling uninspired, find images that you feel drawn to and try and recreate them". You'll stimulate your creativity and learn just how to create the images that you enjoy looking at. Then use that knowledge to create your own original material.  I recreate images I love for my own personal use, I don't want to infringe on anyones copy write, but at the same time we all have to start somewhere, and thats a pretty good place to start.
Here are a few tips of how to take your photographs and what apps I use to edit. The photograph on the left is the original image, and the one on the right is the 'after' product.
All of the photos below were taken with my iPhone 4s.

Think carefully about what you want to photograph. Think about the different angles you can take the photograph. Think about using/not using props, as well as your background. Some of the most beautiful images I have seen have plain, white backgrounds that don't distract.

Then snap, snap snap. Take 2 photo's of the same thing, heavens go ahead and take 100! Each time try change one thing and then look at which ones you like the best.

Natural light works wonders! Try placing objects near a window for soft, natural looking images. Bright natural light when enhanced with Instagram effects, for example Valencia, will give you a similar look and feel to these two images below. 

I mainly use the wonderful A Beautiful Mess app when editing for Instagram. It's one of my favourite apps for adding text, frames and cute doodles onto photographs. A lot of the images in my Instagram feed have been edited in the A Beautiful Mess app, and then uploaded to Instagram and run through different effects until I am happy

A Beautiful Mess app can be found on the Itunes store (click here). The app itself costs $.99 and is packed full of features. You can purchase additional effects/doodles/borders/text easily through the app itself. I have the basic $.99 version and its perfect for what I need.

To see more of my photographs on Instagram, follow along @roxypearce. I hope you've found this helpful, if you have any questions please pop me a comment below.

Happy snapping! xxx