3 Instagram Business Tricks Your Competitors Use to Enhance Photos
Instagram is one of the biggest social media networks in the world, and without a doubt, the most popular photo-sharing platform on the planet. To help you make the most of it, we bring you tips on how to salvage the photos you may deem unworthy.
For those not so familiar with Instagram, here’s IG in a nutshell.
While on many other social media giants have photographs to complement the textual message, IG has this logic in reverse, and the text is either a small component of the post – or completely non-existent. It’s all about the images!
That’s why it’s essential to present your visual work in the best possible light, and this is what we are focusing on today!
First, let’s start with some short but important points to have in mind if you are looking at your image thinking, “There’s nothing I can do with this one” or if you are overwhelmed by desperation because other profiles present “much better work”.
The likely fact is, that they had to go the extra mile to get that final result. In other words, the post-processing is the thing they do better than you, and the good news is – you can learn to be as good as them – or better!
So remember:
- If there’s a framing issue, more than likely you can fix it.
- If there’s a color issue, in most cases, you can correct it
What is the most important thing to realize?
You don’t necessarily need to have all the techniques in your back pocket, but having an awareness of them lets you re-examine the photos with a different set of eyes.
Here’s a quick overview of the tips that can help you delight your audience on this powerful digital platform.
1. Fixing the washed-out images
2. Rearranging your captured work
3. Using the artificial blur
Let’s begin with the first important point – with something that can slide under the radar to the untrained eye.
Tip 1: Fixing the washed-out images
What is a “washed out” image, anyway? Simply put, images we call “washed out” are usually desaturated, often overexposed – and in desperate need of some color correction and contrast.
Here’s one example (washed out photo versus the image with minor but important adjustments):


What about an overexposed photo?
For this issue, you can manipulate the global light with the “exposure” slider, which can be found on many tools, not only in Photoshop. You would, obviously, drag that slider down accordingly.
However, If you pay attention more closely while doing this, even on simple mobile phone apps, you will notice the Highlights and Lights sliders, as well. This can then help you bring back some life that the “overarching” method like taking down the exposure took away when you made that initial move. It’s all about balancing different adjustments.
Make sure you manipulate shadows separately too if this is something your image needs. You can continue by adding some contrast to your image, if necessary.
Pro tip: Don’t hesitate to play and go overboard (and back and forth) with the sliders, because that’s the best road to understanding what they actually do.
Remember: When dealing with the saturation of the image, the Vibrance option often works great here, because, unlike Saturation, Vibrance stays away from skin tones and already (over)saturated pixels.
Also, keep in mind, if you are using presets, for example for a cinematic look, make sure to finish your color correcting first before applying any of them.
Tip 2: Rearranging your captured work
To less experienced photographers who are yet to fully immerse themself in this extremely fun and seemingly complicated game, the subject of the picture is a centerpiece in an overly literal way.
For pictures that are not classical portraits, but there is still a clear subject in the frame, a natural reaction is to place a person or an object dead in the middle. However, there’s something called “the rule of thirds” and if you never used it and don’t have experience with it – it’s a game-changer.
The most commonly used set of guides – or grid – is the one with two horizontal and two vertical lines intersecting each other. The points where they intersect – which are either on the right or the left side of the image, are a good pointer for the placement of your subject.
Tip: You can activate these guides on most of the smartphones (camera apps) too.

What do you gain by shifting the subject to the side?
Placing something off-center gives better insight into the entire composition, it can bring the dynamics and a sense of motion to the image, and you can also present a beautiful background without losing sight of the main subject.
Remember: The result is often richer and people love the feel of the properly composed picture even if they can’t necessarily pinpoint the reason for it.
Learn more about nature photography in our Social Media Photography Business Workshops.
Tip 3: Using the artificial blur with paid and free Adobe tool
Blur is a part of nature, it happens in our field of vision, in our camera, and it’s a feature, not a bug.
If you have experience with photography, you recognize a shallow depth of field when you see one. Blur is there to give focus to our subject and to place everything else in a secondary position. Blur is also something that happens when we capture movement, depending on the camera settings.
All these blurs have something in common – sometimes we need to artificially introduce them – either because we didn’t get the satisfying result when we were shooting, or if we want to add artistic touch and some extra motion and dynamics to our work.
What are some of the blurring options?
Blurring images is a subject on its own, so here we are going to narrow it down to a single tool as it provides free and paid options, and that tool is Photoshop.
Five or ten years back, Photoshop may not be the first on the list as far as convenience goes, but small monthly subscription fees these days make it almost inexcusable for a business to not have one.


Paid Photoshop software on your PC or Mac
We will mention two options here inside the beloved Adobe tool. One is Neural Filters – a relatively new feature – where you can choose Field blur and let the artificial intelligence do the rest (the tool is manually customizable, too), and the other is Tilt-shif. This method can be found under Filter/Blur gallery, and here you can completely manipulate blur and distortion.
For mobile, Adobe has a free app – Adobe Express!
Adobe’s amazing library of tools makes it irresistible to create a free account on their Cloud, as it houses everything you will ever need for image enhancement – on PC, Mobile, and Tablet devices.
Once you register for free (if you haven’t already), you can simply download the app on your phone and cut out areas of the images with a few clicks, and add blur effects behind in your composition. Find out more about this tool on the Adobe page.
Get to know our Business Workshop – we teach companies how to make great visuals for themselves. No need to hire a photographer every time – your smartphone is enough. Learn how to make such beautiful pictures for your business yourself in our Social Media Photography Business Workshop.
Conclusion
How important is visual content marketing to a company? Words can hardly describe it – you would need one thousand of them for just one amazing pixel cluster.
In the blog you learned 3 ways of fixing your issues with pictures and make them instagramable fast.
1. Fixing the washed-out images
2. Rearranging your captured work
3. Using the artificial blur
A well processed and beautiful image can easily bring you 100 or even 1000% more attention to your images due to the nature of the Insta algorithm.
If you want to learn how to create consistently well-made images, we are happy to discuss your specific weaknesses. See our options for a business photography workshop – online and offline.
So keep these tips in mind and check out our other related blogs to make your Insta-game more complete.

Hi, i am Marius, i love exploring the mountains and nature. Friends say, i know the mountains better than most locals, but actually i get lost all the time while photographing ;). Read more about the Mountain Moments Team.
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