How to Enhance Your Instagram Stories (+ Free Minimalist Filter)

This time I would like to share with you some quick ways to enhance your Instagram stories. Basically, you won't need a camera or laptop, everything will be done solely on your phone. Whether you will edit your stories in your bed or while waiting in a big line for Christmas gifts, will not matter. The main point of this article is to help you create interesting Instagram stories quickly and easily. 

Start asking questions. Instagram stories with stickers, especially, the poll sticker has a higher chance to appear on the explore page. The reason behind that is simple, it asks for a reaction. The more people react to your stories, the more people will see them. You can also ask your followers to ask questions. I know it is intimidating at first, but it is a lot of fun as well. 

After you feel a little more comfortable with answering the questions, start making videos. Sharing your everyday life is great, but it is even better if you could give some tips to the people watching. It could be anything that actually interests you. From photography to skincare routines, recipes or workouts. Just imagine that you are giving advice to your best friend. What would you tell her/him? 

There are so many mobile apps out there that can help you with that. They make it so easy to create a minimalist design for an Instagram story. However, if you want a more custom design, Canva will be your best friend. You can even buy designs from professional designers and upload them to Canva. Honestly, I only use Lightroom and Canva at the moment (that saves so much phone space for RAW photos). 

Video editor: 

• Lumafusion (Ios)
• Powerdirector (Android)
• YouCut (for editing the footage, e.g. cutting, trimming or even applying a color filter) 
• Spark Camera (filming multiple clips at different location for one Instagram story)

Photo editor: 

• Lightroom (for cropping, pretty tones, and unique style) 
• Canva (for graphic design help) 

Scheduler: 

• Later (schedule your posts upfront for easier and higher quality workflow)

You probably know this already but just so you always remember: all of your photos and videos should be done in portrait. This way they use more space and are more noticeable on Instagram. On top of that, it simply looks better on the phone. Landscape videos will have to be cropped and lose quality in the process. 

If you crop your photo before posting to your story, you'll be able to use all of the space that Instagram story has to offer. Having your photo cut by Instagram is annoying. Enlarging it to fit isn't the best either because that could possibly reduce the quality of your photo. For best results crop your photo to 9:16 (1080px by 1920px). 

Mix the shots of you talking with the shots from your environment and you transiting to different places. What I mean by that is that you will create more interesting Instagram story videos simply by shifting the things you are filming. For example, you could show an Instagram story of you talking for 5 seconds, then walking to a different place for 1 second, and then showing the place that you like for 2 seconds. All of this can be smoothly connected when filming with an app called Spark Camera or editing via Youcut. Either way, filming other things in the same video besides yourself definitely makes it more interesting. Just make sure they are not distracting, but short and sweet. 

Instagram has a new feature that makes your Instagram stories look even better with just one click. Our clients love Minimal presets. Hence, we have created an Instagram story filter that will match your feed photos! All you need to do is to click on a smiley face on our Instagram account and try it out. 

The best part about this filter is that it works both on images and videos! 

The best way to describe this look is less is more. It creates a minimalist look by desaturating multiple colors, e.g. yellow. All the green tones are darkened and less saturated as well. As for the skin - forget orange tones. Minimalist presets make sure that your skin tones are on point. This look will work really well for fashion lovers, bloggers, and influencers. It creates a magazine feel with stunning colors.