20 Instagram Apps to Enhance Your Photos and Videos

Does your business use Instagram?

Are you looking for apps to help you create unique images and video for your Instagram feed?

In this article, you’ll find 20 apps that make it easy to create and edit outstanding images and videos for Instagram.

Why Instagram Apps?

Instagram recently passed 150 million active users.

To create lasting engagement with those users, you need to share beautiful and targeted content that resonates with your audience.

If you’re not a professional photographer, this can present some difficulties. That’s where image and video apps come in.

Finding the Apps

Most of these apps are available for both iOS and Android. When they aren’t, a link to a similar Android app is listed as a substitute.

#1: Photo Editor by Aviary

Have you ever felt limited by Instagram’s settings? If so, download Photo Editor byAviary for a complete range of effects and color correctors. Its smart “one-tap auto enhance” will help you render a gorgeous photo.

Aviary Photo Editor provides a number of useful tools to edit your photos.

Aviary makes it easy to crop images.

Aviary helps you easily crop images—a feature that Instagram does not currently have.

iPhone | Android

#2: Image Editing With Afterlight

Remember light leaks? Thanks to the Afterlight app’s vintage filters, you can easilyrecreate those old-timey effects on photos taken with your mobile device.

Afterlight adds light leaks to your photos.

With filters that complete the package, it’s definitely an app worth buying.

With Afterlight, you can combine light leaks with original frames.

iPhone | Android (XN Light)

#3: Create Artistic Images With Snapseed

Whether you’re already a mobile photo pro or completely new to it, Snapseedprobably sounds familiar. That’s because from redeye reduction and tilt shift to textured filters and straightening, its ranges of tools have long been the best addition to Instagram’s built-in filters.

Snapseed is a favorite of many professional photographers.

Here's a photo of the @Colettestore logo, heightened with Snapseed

Snapseed is a must when you need to make elements of a photo pop, especially when showcasing products or logos in a real-life setting.

iPhone | Android

#4: Slow Camera Shutter Plus

Have you ever wanted to create one of those amazing photos where glowing letters and shapes float in the air at night?

Grab a couple of glow sticks and use the Slow Shutter Cam app to take long-exposure images with your mobile device.

Get around the limitations of your smartphone lens with Slow Camera Shutter.

The app takes a bit of practice, but once you get the hang of it, you can produce amazing images.

Here’s an example from Mission Bicycle.

A long-exposure mobile image from Mission Bicycle.

iPhone | Android (LE Cam)

#5: Bokehful

Bokeh is a classic photo effect defined as “the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light” and Bokehful imitates the effect with your smartphone.

Add a bokeh effect to your photo in two taps.

Photo by @burberry with a heart-shaped bokeh effect.

While a smartphone lens can’t create a bokeh effect, Bokehful will do the trick. It also comes with more whimsical patterns, like the heart-shaped ones used by Burberryabove.

iPhone | Android (Delicious Bokeh)

#6: Tiny Planet Photos App

Tiny Planet has an out-of-nowhere, extreme fisheye–looking effect that turns any mobile image into, well, a tiny planet. The rounded images provide an appreciable dose of originality to your business’ Instagram feed.

Tiny Planet creates round images of a landscape.

The Doha Harbor capture by @baffaa.

With Tiny Planet, you can capture landscapes in their entirety, as Baffaa did in the above image of Doha Harbor.

iPhone | Android (Planet Camera)

#7: Add Typography to Your Instagram Photos With Overgram

Do you sometimes wish you could add text to your Instagram photos? Overgram‘s text overlay feature comes with a variety of fonts that match or complement your business image.

Add text to any photo with Overgram.

Photo by @trynitrogram with a text overlay.

Use Overgram to annotate your photos and provide useful information to your followers.

iPhone | Android (PicLab)

#8: Shoot, Tune and Share With Facetune

Does your business show shots of employees and customers in its Instagram feed? Use the Facetune toolbox to correct portraits like a pro photographer and make sure to show everyone in their best light!

Retouch skin imperfections and details with Facetune.

Blemish removal using Facetune.

Facetune helps correct tiny skin imperfections in two swaps and taps.

iPhone | Android (Perfect365)

#9: Combine Multiple Photos With PicFrame

Sometimes the context one image provides for another is important and you’d like to post them next to each other. PicFrame lets you select multiple photos and organize them into a patchwork that posts as a single collage image on Instagram.

Show several photos at once using PicFrame.

Here’s how the NBA used a patchwork collage.

Example of a patchwork image collage.

iPhone | Android

#10: CrossProcess

You can never have too many filters. CrossProcess filters let you mimic the color and burned effects of old-school Polaroid cameras.

Bring back effects from a bygone era with CrossProcess.

An image edited with CrossProcess.

iPhone | Android (Little Photo)

#11: Vintagio

In the same category as CrossProcess, Vintagio gives you a range of video filters to tinker with. If you are looking to add a simple sepia effect or 70′s glamour to your video, Vintagio is the answer.

Vintagio provides the simple sepia effect that Instagram does not.

iPhone | Android (Retro Photo Camera)

#12: 8mm Vintage Camera

A bundle of effects for shooting vintage videos, 8mm Vintage Camera lets you add dust, scratches, flickering frames, light leaks and more vintage effects to your films.

A welcome feature is the Instagram import feature. Use it to edit your video outside of the app, and when you’re satisfied with the result, upload it for your Instagram fans.

The 8mm Vintage Camera app adds video filters.

iPhone | Android (Vintage 8mm Video Camera)

#13: Everlapse

Ever wanted to repurpose your Instagrams? Make a cool video collection of your best Instagram photos and share it on your Instagram feed. Everlapse turns your best Instagram images into a cool video!

Create photo montages of your past Instagrams with Everlapse.

Check out how Nike uses Everlapse on Instagram.

Nike—Just do it.

iPhone | Android users: create yours from the website

#14: Average Camera Pro

Have you ever been frustrated to find that a photo taken in the dark isn’t usable? Next time you’re shooting in low light, try Average Camera Pro. This app takes several pictures at once and analyzes them to boost luminosity.

Do not hesitate to shoot photos in the dark with Average Camera Pro.

Here’s Keith Tharp on Instagram with a Mystic Martini.

Here is an Instagram photo made with Average Camera Pro.

Average Camera Pro is particularly well-suited for nightlife photography and shooting in dimly lit environments.

iPhone | Android (Pro HDR Camera)

#15: Tilt Shift Generator

If Instagram’s tilt shift isn’t enough for your taste, this app will come in handy. Tilt Shift Generator gives a “miniature” effect to your photos, which works especially well on landscapes.

Tilt Shift Generator is a nice addition to the Instagram tilt shift feature.

In the image below, James Conn captures a KFC restaurant.

Photo of a KFC restaurant by @jamesconn79.

Tilt Shift Generator is useful for sharing outside views—a shop’s entrance, for example.

iPhone | Android (Awesome Miniature – Tilt Shift)

#16: DXP Free

If you’re looking to give a dreamy, double-exposure vibe to your photos, DXP is the answer. Its 18 compositions and other effects make blending and mixing images a breeze.

Combine two photos into one with DXP Free.

Instagram by @freepeople combining two shots.

Like clothing brand Free People, give a mystical feeling to your photos using DXP.

iPhone | Android (Double Photo)

#17: Superimpose

Ever wish your smartphone could get around all the masking and color processing involved in swapping someone’s face onto another body? Wish granted!

Superimpose lets you easily change the background of an image, swap faces and blend images—your imagination is the limit.

Manage professional-looking edits with Superimpose.

Here is what you can do with Superimpose.

For businesses, this app is a good replacement for a green screen. It’ll let you apply a new background in a few touches.

iPhone | Android (Photo Editor)

#18: Tangent App

Does your Instagram feed need a break from the monotony of traditional images?Tangent lets you choose from 39 shapes and 43 fill patterns to create all kinds of overlays that make your photos more interesting.

Tangent transforms your iPhone snaps into trippy works of art – The Next Web.

Tangent allows you to create a variety of overlays.

Add geometrical shapes to your photos to please your creative-minded followers.

iPhone

#19: pxl

Break down your images, literally, with pxl. You can choose from 11 pixelation filters or just shake your phone to let the app choose a filter for you!

Pixelate your photos for an uncommon look.

An Instagram of a Coca-Cola bottle modified with pxl.

You can use pxl to blur a product on a photo.

iPhone | Android (Pixelot)

#20: LensFlare

Do your images need a light adjustment? LensFlare comes with over 50 effects to let you create an image that looks like it was shot under the bright sun.

Add lens flare to your mobile photos.

Here is a selection of uses of the LensFlare app.

LensFlare lets you add a sometimes much-needed bloom effect to your photos.

iPhone | Android (PhotoJus Lens Flare)

Conclusion

This is only a small selection of the free and low-cost image and video apps that are available for Instagram users today. You may not be a professional photographer, but using one or two of them will help you post like one.

What do you think? Which of these apps do you find most interesting? Are you using an app that isn’t listed here? Leave your questions and comments in the box below.

Become a social media leader - 5 top tips!

Thinking of becoming a social media 'leader'? Need ideas and help as to help launch your business or your blog into the public domain? So how do you keep a happy and successful online presence? Whatever you are using it for, there have been 5 top tips created to help you out.

Image: http://us.123rf.com

Twitter is one of the biggest and most influential sites social media has to offer. But shockingly, a third of users that are registered do not even use it. This is very likely down to the fact that they don't know how. This is not uncommon.

Now, once you are set up and have the basic idea of how the site works it really is about getting out what you put in. The 5 top tips for successful social media are below:

Filter what you say online. We’ve all heard the stories about how a few keystrokes can end a career. To avoid foot-in-mouth on Twitter, I filter all my tweets through this rule: Would I be comfortable if The New York Times attributed what I’m tweeting to me? I never approached Twitter with the idea that it would be an ultra-confessional stream of consciousness. Treating my Twitter stream as if I’m on the record with a journalist gives me a good guide about what is and is not appropriate to share. It’s not to say I don’t have fun and share personal stories, but putting each tweet through that filter helps me assess before hitting the tweet button.

Set aside some time. Let’s be honest: we all are incredibly busy. So how do I find the time? Every day, several times a day, I set aside a few minutes to check on Twitter. Some days it’s three minutes and some days, when big events happen, it can be a lot more, but if Warren Buffett and Bill Gates can find the time that certainly says a lot. With the app on my phone, I can do a quick scan between meetings or respond to a message while waiting in line. When you invest time in Twitter, you quickly start to see the rewards, mostly in real-time conversations happening all over the world. No one expects you to be Nick Kristof or Lady Gaga overnight.

To what end? Know why you are getting on Twitter first. Do you want to be seen as a subject-matter expert? Have a strong voice in your industry? Gain a million followers? Keep up on the latest news and trends? With your goal in mind, cultivate a stream full of people and content you find interesting. Mix and match your passions. Make sure you participate in other conversations to help better understand your audience and the medium. One of my favorite organizations is TED; it has started so many incredible conversations. Link to other people, add value to their conversations with your thoughts and opinions. Read what they talk about, click through to the articles, track the conversations and share with your followers. Having a goal or a reason for being there will help you organize your time.

Ask for help. When I was ramping up, I realized some of the best and the brightest social media minds (many of whom are in universities or are interns) were around me, so I asked them for advice. They gave me great context, questions and dialogue. Even on Twitter, tell your followers that you are still learning; you will get more than a few expert opinions.

Use it as an internal communications tool. Twitter allows me to hear from colleagues all over the world every day. I hear about everything from their challenges and triumphs to their commutes. I get a chance to learn directly from them what they think with no filter. And they know that I’m listening. It’s one of the best internal communication tools that I have.

Image: https://www.google.co.uk

These top tips are indeed useful and will get you on your way if you want to make some headway in the social media world. But please remember they are not short cuts and only work if you tailor them to your own cause.

Do you find these top 5 helpful? Any more you could suggest?

Blog to Book to Business: How to Live Your Dream

Do you dream of writing a book?

Are you wondering how publishing a book can help you grow your business?

To learn how you can combine your passion with your business, I interview Jeff Goins for this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast.

More About This Show

The Social Media Marketing podcast is a show from Social Media Examiner.

It’s designed to help busy marketers and business owners discover what works with social media marketing.

The show format is on-demand talk radio (also known as podcasting).

In this episode, I interview Jeff Goins, a blogger who followed his passion and amassed 200,000 monthly followers and published three books—all very quickly. His books include You Are a Writer, Wrecked and The In-Between.

Jeff shares how he achieved his dream of becoming a writer, while building a successful business.

You’ll learn what it takes to jump from blog to book and why you should start now.

Share your feedback, read the show notes and get the links mentioned in this episode below!

Listen Now

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

You can also subscribe via iTunes, RSS, Stitcher or Blackberry.

Here are some of the things you’ll discover in this show:

Blog to Book to Business

What do you tell people you do for a living?

Jeff typically tells people he’s a writer, although he does a lot of other things. He finds it easier to tell people that, and it allows him to own his identity.

Jeff called himself a writer well before he was writing. It allowed him to step into the title and it reminds him of how far he has come.

Listen to the show to hear why many aspiring authors don’t own their dreams.

The story of dreams and fears

Jeff explains that he went solo about 8-9 months ago, but it has taken him about 3 years to get to this stage.

He originally started with a blog, which turned into a side business. It wasn’t until the end of last year that he realized he was making enough money that his wife didn’t have to work anymore. He eventually quit his job at the beginning of this year to become a full-time writer, blogger and speaker.

Jeff’s blog, Goins Writer, isn’t his first blog. Up to this point, he had attempted eight other blogs, all of which failed.

The Goins Writer blog.

It was these failures that prepared Jeff to persevere. He eventually set up his personal blog, where he talks about writing and his own struggles. This was an attempt to learn how to build a platform so he could get published and share his journey with others.

You’ll hear why Jeff forced himself into writing a personal blog and why he made the decision to give it two years.

Listen to the show to find out what fuels Jeff’s writing.

The importance of writing for more popular blogs

When he started a blog, Jeff did the relationship thing first. You’ll discover what he did to reach out to the people he admired and why they were a huge influence when it came to the launch of the Goins Writer blog.

Once he had seen the power of this in action, he was able to partner with communicators who had audiences that he wanted to connect with.

Within the first year of his blog’s launch, Jeff wrote over 100 articles on 100 websites. He believes it was the single best strategy for building his audience.

Guest blogging is one of the best strategies for building your audience.

Every multi-author blog out there constantly looks for exceptional talent and it’s a win-win for both parties. It was one of the keys to Jeff’s success.

Jeff had listened to people like Jon Morrow, who had essentially done the same thing. Jon didn’t have a blog for years. Instead he established himself first as a guest author for other blogs, including CopyBlogger and ProBlogger. So before he even wrote a single post on his own blog, he already had an email list of about 13,000 subscribers.

Listen to the show to hear what Jeff discovered when he gave away his best content.

Making money

When Jeff launched his blog, he had a day job working for a nonprofit organization. His blog at the time was not making any money.

He’d read articles by Darren Rowse of ProBlogger, talking about how hard it was to monetize a blog, so Jeff had low expectations.

About 6-8 months into the process, Jeff got the idea that it would be cool if he could figure out a way to make money from his blog. So he decided to build an email list. A year later, he sent out his first email to invite people to buy something from him. It was a very short eBook that he put together himself over the course of a couple of weeks.

You’ll hear where Jeff invested his time, which enabled him to quit his day job.

Listen to the show to find out what happened to Jeff that made him realize he had something others were willing to pay for.

How to jump from blog to book

Jeff noticed that a lot of bloggers sold eBooks to monetize their platforms and he had already taken an article from his blog and turned it into an eBook.

Although Jeff knew that a great way to get email subscribers was to give an eBook away, he wanted to know if people would pay for it.

The Writer's Manifesto was the first eBook that Jeff gave away to build his subscriber list.

You’ll hear the advice from Jeff’s friend that gave him the confidence to charge people for his next eBook. He sold it for $1.99 and hundreds of people bought it. Jeff couldn’t believe how much money he made from it.

After a couple of weeks, he took the offer down and decided to invest time in the project to make it a lot better and expand it into a legitimate book called You Are a Writer. A few months later, it was republished and turned into an Amazon bestseller.

You Are a Writer became an Amazon bestseller.

Listen to the show to discover what else Jeff created at the time of publication of You Are a Writer, which allowed him to triple his income.

How the first traditional book deal came about

About 8 months into building his platform, a publisher approached Jeff to see if he would consider publishing a book. This was the reason he had started his blog in the first place. At this stage, he hadn’t even written an eBook.

Jeff couldn’t believe that he was on the cusp of his dream so soon. The reason this deal came about was because years ago, Jeff had written a short manifesto for the website ChangeThis and the editor had found it buried in the archives.

His first physical book was called Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life. The basic idea is the “purpose of your life is not just about you; that we are most alive when we are serving others.”

Jeff's first physical book, Wrecked.

Listen to the show to hear the inspirational story behind the idea for You Are a Writer.

Tips for bloggers who want to write a book

Jeff says the first thing he learned was that it’s a marathon. It’s not just about the past two years of his life—it’s actually a story of six or seven years of hard work, perseverance and figuring out a way for it to work.

There are moments when you are in the spotlight and you feel great, then there are many times when you aren’t. What you see on the surface is just a small percentage of the stuff that is happening underneath.

The second thing that he has learned is to have an idea of what it would mean toarrive. Jeff has discovered that even though he has achieved and exceeded his dreams, he still wants a little bit more.

Listen to the show to hear why everything after this point is just gravy.

The right move

Jeff explains how he had a conversation with an older friend about his fears of leaving his job.

Although it was his dream to become a writer, he felt like he was about to abandon all of the people who had helped him get to where he was. It was Jeff’s friend who made him realize that the opportunity he had was rare, and not taking it would be an act of disobedience.

This made him realize that there was a deeper story going on. It was an opportunity for him to do something big and he needed to take it.

Listen to the show to find out why Jeff thought it was about him, not something bigger than him.

Follow your passion

Although most people would say that you should just go for it and have faith in yourself, Jeff explains how he didn’t want to hear those words. His answer is to start now.

If you want to follow your passion, then start now. Image source: iStockphoto

You should start to build something on the side. It took Jeff two years to build his business before it competed with his job.

Listen to the show to find out why you need to build a bridge, rather than take a leap.

Discovery of the Week

I’ve discovered a really cool tool called Canva. It’s a web-based design platform that allows you to drag and drop pre-designed templates and customize them.

It supports a huge array of things. One in particular is you can create impressive Facebook cover photos for your pages.

You can also do graphics for your blog, photo collages, presentations, posters, invitations and business cards.

Canva has one of the best designer user interface experiences I’ve ever seen on any website. When you log in, you’ll notice that when you move your mouse around, it reveals incredible artwork.

Once you have chosen one of their templates, you can then choose the text and alter it. Some are free and some you have to pay for. You can also upload your own images.

I think you will love this. Right now they are in beta, so you need to have a friend with a Canva account to give you access, or you can sign up to get on their waiting list.

Call in and leave your social media–related questions for us and we may include them in a future show.

Listen to the show to learn more and let us know how this works for you.

Other Show Mentions

Social Media Marketing World 2014 is our physical mega-conference, which is set to return to San Diego, California on March 26, 27 and 28.

Social Media Marketing World 2014.

We have put together more than 60 sessions that include social media marketing, blogging, podcasting and video marketing.

We’ve invited the top experts in the world. Some of the bloggers attending include Michael Hyatt, Chris Brogan, Jay Baer, John Jantsch, Mark Schaefer, Marcus Sheridan, Gini Dietrich, Brian Clark, Denise Wakeman, Lee Odden, Stan Smith, Kim Garst, Pat Flynn, Ian Cleary and tons of others.

The line-up for this conference is like nothing we have ever done before.

If you want to improve your social media marketing, are wanting some professional development or you just need to know a lot more about social media and how it can impact your business, then check it out.

I would love to meet you in person.

Key takeaways mentioned in this episode:

• Connect with Jeff Goins on his blog, Facebook and Twitter.
• Check out these three gifts from Jeff, especially for Social Media Examiner readers.
• Read Jeff’s eBooks: The Writer’s Manifesto and You Are a Writer.
• Check out Jeff’s books: The In-Between: Embracing the Tension Between Now and the Next Big Thing and Wrecked: When a Broken World Slams into Your Comfortable Life.
• Take a look at Jon Morrow’s articles over at CopyBlogger and ProBlogger.
• Learn more about Darren Rowse of ProBlogger.
• Check out Eric Ries from The Lean Startup.
• Download Jeff’s short manifesto for the website ChangeThis.
• Try Canva for simple graphic design.
• Learn more about Social Media Marketing World 2014.

Help Us Spread the Word!

Please let your Twitter followers know about this podcast. Simply click here now to post a tweet.

If you enjoyed this episode of the Social Media Marketing podcast, please head over to iTunes, leave a rating, write a review and subscribe.

Ways to subscribe to the Social Media Marketing podcast:

• Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
• Click here to subscribe via RSS (non-iTunes feed).
• You can also subscribe via Stitcher and Blackberry.

What do you think? What are your thoughts on going from blog to book?Please leave your comments below.