Instagram has always been about the filters. The ability to alter a photo with one simple click and make it look a million times better is one of the main reason people use the app. Sure, it’s now a busting community of users that care about it as a pure social network–but in order for it all to work, amateur smartphone photographers have to be able to slap on a filter in order to make the experience work.
Today, Instagram launched version 6.0 for both iOS and Android, and it comes with a new suite of creative tools to make your photos look even better with minimal effort.
Yes, it’s all about the filters–but sometimes those filters can be just a little too much. Instagram now allows you to adjust how much of any single filter you apply to your photos–just double tap the filter icon.
Alongside the ability to choose your filter strength, Instagram has rolled out nine other photo-editing tools with version 6.0:
Adjust, crop and straighten your photo at the same time; Brightness, make your photo brighter or darker; Contrast, make the bright areas of your photo brighter, and the dark areas darker; Warmth, shift the colors of your photo towards either warmer orange tones or cooler blue tones; Saturation, increase or decrease the color intensity of the image (e.g. red becomes redder); Highlights, adjust the brightness focusing on the bright areas of the image; Shadows, adjust the brightness focusing on the dark areas of the image; Vignette, darken the edges of the photo and direct the attention away from the edges towards the center of the photo; and Sharpen, add a subtle crispness to your photo and make photo clearer
All of these rest behind a new wrench icon on the photo editing page.
“You take a photo to capture a moment, but often what you see in the photograph doesn’t feel the same as what you remember. From brightening up a photo of your dinner party to better capturing the warmth of a sunset portrait, these new creative tools help you bring out and share the beauty of the moment as you remember it—right inside the same simple Instagram you already know,” says Instagram.
Image via Instagram