Instagram Archives - Cultured Kiwi

How to Create Instagram Filters in Lightroom

Ben Kepka September 23, 2015 0 comments Learn, Photography Instagram, Learn, lightroom

The ease of being able to publish photos has changed the way in which people think about photography. Nowadays it’s all about the likes. Digital photography has always been pushing towards higher resolution images with more megapixels. Unfortunately, the reality is that most of our photography ends up highly compressed and posted online.

Instagram has been a key contributor to the current photography revolution. Apps like Instagram and (originally) Hipsamatic popularised the use of filters in photography. They were created to mimic a “retro” filmic look. However, it has since become so popular that it is hard to find a camera app that comes without filters. The washed out look has gained in popularity rapidly over the past couple of years. Many of the top instagram feeds use this effect liberally. Myself included. Some examples of accounts like this are below:

The aim of this article is to teach you the following:

Where does this look come from?
How can we manually create this look in Lightroom?

A link to the lightroom preset created during this tutorial is available using the link below. You can download it for free if you don’t want to fluff around with all the sliders.

Where does this look come from?

These filters exist because they are replicating the look that different types of film have. These looks were the unique selling points for each type of film. This difference created a loyalty within groups of photographers for the different makes and speeds of film. The filters have expanded on this “filmic look” and pushed it a little further. But, to get where we are going we must know where we came from.

Here are some examples of different film simulations when applied to the same image in Lightroom. VSCO has the most accurate film simulation software on the market. No other post processing has taken place:

Agfa Vista 400 Fuji Provia 400 Fuji Superia 400 Fuji Velvia 100 Kodak Portra 400 Ilford HP5 Kodak TRI-X 400

How can we create the washed out look in lightoom?

Start by shooting in Raw. I prefer Raw + Small JPEG. That way you have all of the image data in the Raw image but also have a quick JPEG to share out on social media. Raw files are named so because they are not yet processed and not ready to be printed or edited. Sometimes it takes weeks to edit a photoshoot to post up on the blog. It is always good to have a small JPG to share in clients/friends the meantime. Take the raw image and open it up in lightroom.

I chose this photo:

Start by checking the boxes for lens correction and to remove chromatic aberrations. This wouldn’t happen back in the day but I always do this as a matter of good practice. Just because we are mimicking a retro look doesn’t need we need to fully turn our nose to modern technology!

Follow along with the following steps to create the look with your photo:

Increase the contrast by + 20 points
Decrease the highlights by – 20 points
Increase the shadows by + 10 points
Decrease the whites by – 20 points
Increase the blacks by + 25 points

Next comes the most important part of the procedure:

Start by clicking the small picture of the curve tool in the bottom right below the curve itself. Next click a point on the curve about 1/4 the way up the curve from the bottom left (shadows). Click the point at the very bottom left of the curve and drag the slider up until you achieve the look that you desire.

From this point you can make any other small adjustment to the image that you like. I always like to add a little clarity, saturation and vibrance to help the image pop. Feel free to tweak it in any way you feel. Sometimes cooling or warming the image can make all the difference.

Finally we can prepare the edit for final export by sharpening the image. Start by draging the sharpening slider to around + 20-30. The most important part of sharpening is to mask the sharpening. You do not want to sharpen the whole image this will lead to noise. Hold the option key on a mac (alt on windows) and drag the masking slider until only the edges are sharpened. If required you can then reduce the noise with the luminance slider but take it easy around + 20.

Just remember that with any edit to an image less is more. It is so easy to get carried away and make an image look crazy. While this may catch people’s eye initially, it will surely not win you any awards. It has the potential to turn people away from your photography all together.

Homework

Download (or make) the preset. Use this preset on some of your images to see how it works. Look at how the blacks become “washed out”. Experiment by playing with the curve to see what you can get the image to look like. Once you have the most “hip” image possible. Post it up on imgur or another image sharing platform and post a link to it below.

If you like this article and are thinking of purchasing anything off Amazon soon please consider using one of my affiliate links from America or United Kingdom. It doesn’t cost you any extra but Amazon will give me a small percentage of the sale to help me keep creating content for you.

How to upload DSLR photos to Instagram

Ben Kepka August 17, 2015 71 comments Learn, Workflows Instagram, Learn

To compete with the best you need to learn how to upload DSLR photos to Instagram. While smart phone cameras are getting better and better each year. While, they are good, there is really no substitute for a camera with a large sensor to capture all that detail.

Instagram is becoming more and more of an artist’s platform than a “daily life” sharing platform. The quality of photos posted to Instagram are improving all the time. As attention spans dwindle, you will be quickly left behind if you aren’t up with the game. This of course excludes celebrities who can pretty much do whatever they like and get rewarded for it, sorry Bieber.

The aim of this article:

To teach you my workflow of how to upload DSLR photos to Instagram. You can check out my Instagram here, or click the image above. Feel free to shout out your Instagram account in the comments below and I will ensure to check you out!

Why is this an issue? Instagram is a unique platform that will only let you upload photos from a mobile platform. You can comment and like images from the web but uploading must be done from a mobile platform. So it requires a little bit of a work-around to get the images uploaded.

What you will need:

Camera
Laptop / Desktop
Smartphone / Tablet
Dropbox / Google Drive

Workflow

Before you begin…

If you don’t have Dropbox or Google Drive then set this up now. Install the apps on both your computer and mobile device. This will ensure all our edited photos are available in both places. Plus they are both free and you will find yourself using them a lot.

Link to download Dropbox Link to download Google Drive

Create an Instagram folder within your new Dropbox or Drive folder. This is where you will store all your final photos ready for publishing.

Step One:

Take your photo. Remember to consider that Instagram is a 1:1 (sqaure) platform natively. So decide now if you want to shoot with the intention of cropping square. This will save you having to make editing sacrifices later. If you don’t want to shoot in a square format then don’t worry we can use those regular photos.

Step Two:

Upload your photo to your computer and import into your photo editing software of choice. I use Lightroom for image cataloging and basic editing.

Step Three:

Edit your photo. This is an important step in the workflow. It is important that you keep a consistent style across your Instagram feed. This will help people recognise that the image is from you. I am currently conducting research into what works on Instagram and what doesn’t. This will lead to a future blog post to help you improve your Instagram performance.

Step Four:

Determine what dimensions you want your photos in. Instagram is a native 1:1 (square) platform but it is possible to use photos at other dimensions. This just involves another step (see below).

Step Five:

Export your photo at a smaller resolution. The largest image size that Instagram will accept is 2048 px on the longest side. I generally output them at 1920 px on the longest side and have not had any troubles to date. Ensure that the final JPG is exported to your Instagram folder on Dropbox or Drive. My lightroom export settings are shown below:

Step Six:

Once the file has synced with the cloud then you can pick up your mobile device and open up the Dropbox or Drive app. With android you can share the image directly to Instagram or the app in step eight. But, with iOS you have to save the image to your camera roll first. If so do this now.

Step Seven:

If you want to use an image that is in another format other than 1:1 (Square) then you will need to add borders to the image. I recommend downloading and installing this app for Android or this app for iPhone. These will allow you to output a square photo with your image nicely centered. Once done click the share button to send this image to Instagram.

Step Eight

Share this image to Instagram, add your sweet, witty comment and your hashtags then you are done.

That is too much work!!!

I bet you have read this article and are thinking, “Ben that is way too much work!”.

I say: don’t be lazy! It really isn’t. While setting it up can be daunting initially, it is simple once you get it going. Ask yourself: What do you do with the images from your camera now? If you already process your photos and store them on your laptop you are halfway there.

Just change the storage location of your final images from your laptop to Dropbox or Google drive. This gives you a backup in the cloud! All major cloud storage options provide easy ways to share through social media. Pretty much no downside!

Sit down and edit a bunch of photos on your laptop. You can walk around with your phone and drip feed the photos to your social networks. This lets you build a following and improve your chances to stand out from the Instagram noise. Even while you are commuting or on the toilet! Don’t lie you do it.

Homework

Once you have tried this workflow add #culturedkiwi to your image. Also drop a link to your Instagram account in the comments below to show off your pictures. This will help you build your following, as these will remain there for the life of this article.

To get in direct contact with me send me a message on Instagram @benkepka or facebook. I answer every question sent to me and love the opportunity to connect with the audience. Thanks for reading!

Ben Kepka – The Cultured Kiwi