
And over-processing causes some permanent damage, too-for example, when you increase the saturation or over-sharpen a photo, you may increase noise, or muddy the transitions between colors. An over-processed image may look interesting at first glance, but when you over-process too many images in the same way it can start to look a little tacky. In most cases, subtle is good, over-processed is bad. So it’s important to evaluate every image before you apply a filter, so you’ll have a good idea of what you’ll be adding and, more importantly, what you’ll be taking away. By muting colors and adding a faded look, you’re actually making the image less stunning and therefore less compelling than the original. And you should also keep in mind that sometimes the use of those filters can obscure the finer points of a great image, detracting from some of it’s already positive qualities.įor example, if you apply that 1970s filter to a landscape photo, you may wind up with a photo that looks like something out of your childhood travel photo album, without so much of the modern beauty that you captured in the original.

Generally speaking, you can make an OK photo look good if you apply an Instagram filter to it, and you can make good photos look great the same way, but you can’t cure a bad photo simply by applying a filter. If you've ever heard the expression "less is more," you can use that as a mantra for the application of Instagram filters, or any other filters that might be built-in to your smart phone, point-and-shoot camera, or post processing software. But how much filtering is too much, and what’s the best way to apply those filters? Keep reading to find out. You can apply a simple Instagram filter to your photograph and make it look like a photo that was shot in the 1970s, or like something that Andy Warhol painted when he was done with that Campbell’s soup thing. Now, here’s the thing about Instagram filters and the like: there’s no doubt that they’re cool. If you ask the more youthful members of the photography community what “photo filter” means, they’re just as likely to say “Instagram” as they are to say “polarizer.”


But today, “photo filter” doesn’t exclusively refer to those physical, screw-on filters.
