Happy Blogmas day 8! I apologize for the lack of posting on day 7 but you all know how taxing finals week is! Which, by the way, if you are taking finals this week, good luck! Today I will be showing you guys how I personally edit my Instagram photos as well as how to create your own theme for your page that captures you best!

Now, I switch up my themes a lot. Right now I am doing more red/orange tones on a white background but just recently I had a pink aesthetic, before that a forest green, and before that really dark grey. My advice for switching up themes as often as I do would be to make at least two-three rows the same theme on your page and then switch so it looks uniform and intentional.

Here is how I get my current aesthetic (follow me @mxdisonyoug):

1. Take a picture in a similar background tone to the rest of your posts.

If you have a habit of taking pictures at night time or mid-day, try to keep that going in most of your pictures so there aren’t too many stark differences in how the filter applies. It also helps, if you do take a picture with drastically different lighting, to have an aspect of the picture that is darker or lighter than the lighting to tie it all together and look ore uniform in your feed.

2. Open Lightroom.

The Adobe Lightroom app is free and amazing. I use it, right now, to lighten my pictures by

1. Using the light tool and putting exposure up to about +0.75
2. Then I go to the detail tool and usually put up sharpening all if the way
3. Then go to the presets section and either choose vivid if it is a more dark post or high contrast if the post is super bright.
4. Save to camera roll
5. Delete orginals

3. Open Color story.

I open color story next and upload the correct photo from lightroom. Right now I am doing a more orange/red theme and this is exactly how I achieve that!

1. Open filters and go to the “lost stories” album.
2. Use the “IMO” filter and drag saturation to about 60.
3. Save and go back to filter albums.
4. Open the “essentials” album.
5. Use the “POP” filter and drag it down to about 16.
6. Use the “HOT TODDY” filter and drag it down to about 50.
7. save and post to Instagram!

Note: The saturation points for each post are different for each picture but it is almost always in the ballpark of those estimates!

Here is how to find your own aesthetic:

Things to think about:

1. How do you use Instagram? Do you want to grow your account or is it just for friends and family?
2. If you have a personal brand, what is it? How do you want people to feel when they are looking at your page?
3. What is your favorite color?
4. What time of day do you usually take your pictures?

A Color Story:

There are many different ways to portray yourself on Instagram by just having a theme. If you want to be a serious business or fashion account: blacks, dark tones/lighting, and stark neutrals along with a lot of gold accents in your posts will give it a deep feeling and more serious, sultry overtones.

If you have a more soft aesthetic then pastels will be your friend. Add more grain to your pictures or maybe some soft blurs and portrait mode photos to really sell the soft aesthetic.

If you are a travel blogger or just travel a lot then choose the main color for each place you are in and make that your theme for the destination, then switch it up at your next destination. For example, choose deep greens for trips to the woods, burnt oranges for your retreat ina cabin, and obviously lots of blue for the ocean.

But most importantly, do what makes you the happiest and looks best to you!