At Design Bloggers Conference 2016, stylist and designer Justina Blakeney provided a list of her favorite photo-editing apps for her iPhone. If you’re not following Justina’s accounts on Instagram (@justinablakeny and @thejungalow), you must add them immediately. Her bohemian styled photos, usually full of plants, are bright, colorful and inspiring, even if you’re not a boho kind of person.
One of the apps Justina mentioned was A Color Story, which I downloaded and started using immediately. I have other apps on my phone for editing (I usually use Afterlight), but I really don’t like the filters. I don’t necessarily want my photos to look vintagey. I just want them to look good.
A Color Story makes photos look good. The initial app download is free and comes with several filters that completely transform your photos. You can also pay for additional filters. I’ve already purchased two more sets and will eventually buy all of them.
This is a photo I took of my adorable labrador sleeping on the bed (because where else would he be). The original is on the left. I edited the photo on the right with A Color Story, using some of the basic editing tools like clarity, brightness and sharpness, before applying one of the free filters.
Here’s another example. I took this photo of a donkey during a walk through Serenbe last Sunday. I only applied a filter to this photo – no editing with functions. It was super quick and easy.
I’m sure that I’ve just begun to scratch the surface of what this app can do, but I’m already totally addicted. The free functions and filters are more than enough to get you started with making your iPhone photos look sharper and brighter, perfect for sharing on Instagram.
View the app in the iTunes App Store.