How to edit your photos and get more followers on Instagram

We first took note of Ibby’s work on Instagram @i_khan_kapture. His photographs are bright and colourful and his Photoshop skills are remarkable even though he’s never had professional training. There is a rise in young photographers who embrace the possibilities of photo editing software. Editing your photographs can be a great way to enhance your photographs and add a touch of personal style.

Learn more about the Instagram community

Ibby enjoys the support and inspiration he gets from the Instagram community. “We motivate each other and I’ve met some of my closest friends through photography and Instagram.” Guys like @jozigrams and @weexploreZA put a lot of effort into keeping the community alive, giving more photographers the opportunity to improve and network by hosting Instameets.

Followers want to see a colour scheme

Colour can subliminally influence the decisions we make, and the things we like and buy. It can also influence what people like on Instagram. Ibby says that colour-coding your feed gives your profile a unique aesthetic look and consistency that may increase your following. Although he doesn’t have a specific colour scheme, he does like using bright colours, “so my feed pretty much looks like a rainbow with the odd desaturated photo here and there”.

How to increase your Instagram following:

Post only your best work. It’s all about quality, not quantity.
Engage with other Instagrammers. “Make time to engage with those who comment on your photos and I’m not talking about a bunch of flame emojis; be genuine.”
Be consistent. Post as often as you can whilst keeping in mind that it’s all about quality. He posts Monday to Friday between 6-7pm and doesn’t post over the weekends as he wants to enjoy this time shooting and relaxing. Find a rhythm that works for you.
Networking. It’s all about the community. Go out to Instameets near you, hang out with other Instagrammers, go shooting and encourage each other to grow both creatively and on Instagram.
Be yourself! It’s very important to stay true to yourself and refrain from merely following trends.

Ibby Khan shares a beautiful photograph of a girl in a leather jacket on Instagram

Ibby Khan shares a beautiful portrait photograph of a young woman

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Explore photo-editing techniques with Ibby

Bubble image

Ibby took this photo of friend, @VictoriaNaidu, using a bubble gun. Since the photos didn’t quite turn out the way he wanted, he decided to “fix” it.
Using the frequency separation retouching method, he retouched her skin by blending the tones thereby giving the image a smoother look.
To brighten up her face, he used curve adjustment layers. He then downloaded a couple bubble PNG’s from Shutterstock to add in the image. He
used layer masks and lens blur filters to make the bubbles seem more realistic.
To produce the final image, he coloured the image and did basic adjustments using the camera RAW filter in Photoshop.

This edit took about two to three hours.

Split Colour Leaf image

At first he didn’t really like this image. A few months later, he decided to recreate it.
Once again, he used frequency retouching on the model’s face.He used curve layers to brighten up her face.
To add the red flare on the top right corner, he used a red brush (set to soft light blending mode to 50% opacity) on a blank layer.
He then used a hue/saturation layer mask to change the colour of the leaves painting over the parts he wanted red.
Lastly, he used camera RAW to do the final colour and light adjustments.

This edit took around six hours to complete over a period of two days.

before

after

“The possibilities of Photoshop are endless. The only barrier is your imagination. Learning how to use Photoshop is easy and there are tonnes of tutorials on YouTube and Skillshare.” Ibrahim Khan