Choosing the right Instagram filter can completely transform your photos, but with so many options, it’s easy to get stuck experimenting endlessly. Over time, I’ve figured out which Instagram filters work best for different kinds of photos—whether I’m capturing bold, vibrant landscapes or aiming for a soft, polished portrait.
1 Color Leak: For a Film-Style Aesthetic
Instagram released Color Leak in November 2023, and it’s a great option if you’re into vintage and film-style photography. The filter resembles what you may sometimes see after developing photos from film cameras, with subtle tinges of red, yellow, and orange.
Color Leak is one of the best Instagram filters for images with a lot of brightness or light colors in the background. It’s a bit tricky to use on images where the background is quite dark, though, as it can look sloppy, and the reds can become too obvious.
2 Ludwig: A Versatile Option
Ludwig is one of the oldest and most popular Instagram filters. It’s also one of the more versatile options on this list. When you use this filter, you’ll get warmer tones and a sharper contrast. It’s better than Color Leak for photos involving darker backgrounds, as its effects are more subtle.
Furthermore, you can also use it for portraits and selfies. The reason why it works well with images of people is that the changes are subtle, and it can also reduce a bit of clarity if your image was too sharp before.
3 Oslo: For Subtle Enhancements
The Oslo Instagram filter is another great option if you want to add subtle changes to your picture. When using this filter, you’ll increase the contrast in your picture and reduce the shadows. But at the same time, the exposure will go up.
Oslo is a fantastic Instagram filter for architectural, urban, and street photos. Compared to Ludwig, you’ll get a moodier look—which is perfect if that suits your style better. You can also use this filter if you want something simple that will make the features on your face shine through better.
4 Soft Light: Perfect for Golden Hour Shots
Soft Light is one of Instagram’s many November 2023 filter introductions. It significantly reduces your picture’s clarity, so you get more of a hazy look, and the contrast also goes down.
If you’re interested in golden hour photography, Soft Light is a great choice. It’ll enhance the warm tones in your image, especially compared to an overcast day—where using this filter can make your photo look quite bland. And before publishing your image, why not use one of these perfect golden hour captions.
5 Simple: Enhance Your Selfies and Portraits
The Simple filter does exactly what the name suggests; it adds simple edits to your image. For this reason, it’s one of the best Instagram filters and also one of the most versatile.
When you use this filter, your image will increase in contrast. If you want to take portrait photos where a person is wearing dark clothes, and you want them to stand out, this is a fantastic option. Besides more contrast, Simple will also slightly boost the exposure and brightness in your photo. It’s a fantastic choice for enhancing your portrait shots and selfies on an overcast day.
6 Melbourne: A Good Option for Sunny-Day Photos
Melbourne is very similar to Oslo, but the filter will significantly boost your exposure compared to Oslo. Moreover, this filter doesn’t enhance the contrast as much as its counterpart.
When you use the Melbourne filter, your image won’t have much additional saturation and it’ll look a bit flatter. For this reason, Melbourne is a better choice than Oslo for photos of people and landscapes on sunny days. Moreover, it’s a good option for golden hour images—whether those are of people or locations.
7 Lo-Fi: Amplify the Saturation and Contrast
Lo-Fi is a high-saturation, high-contrast filter. It’s a very good choice for images that already include several bright colors, but you’d like to make them stand out even more. And if you’re looking to take better photos in harsh lighting, this filter will more often than not make your picture look much better on a sunny day.
The Lo-Fi filter is quite hard to use in portraits because it can add too much saturation and contrast, resulting in an unnatural look. Nonetheless, it’s a good choice for architectural and plant photography if you’d like to make your subjects look more imposing.
8 Fade: Tone It Down
Fade is another one of the best Instagram filters if you want something more subtle. The filter will reduce the contrast in your pictures, making it a good choice if you want to take a bit of punchiness out of your photos—including images that have more saturation than you would normally want.
When using the Fade filter, it works better on photos that already have a lot of brightness added to them. If you use it on darker images, it can sometimes look a bit too moody for many people’s tastes.
9 Valencia: For Everyday Shots
Valencia is one of the oldest Instagram filters, and to this day, it remains a popular choice with many users. The filter boosts the exposure in your photos, makes more of the picture’s shadows visible, and you’ll also get a bit more of a desaturated look.
You can use Valencia in multiple situations, but it’s very popular for selfies and street-style photos in particular.
10 Aden: Perfect for Nature Photography
Aden is another of the most popular Instagram filters that has been around for a while. It’ll boost the saturation in your image and give you more of a faded look. It’s sometimes a better choice for nature photos than the likes of Oslo and Lo-Fi—Lo-Fi has too much contrast for many nature shots, whereas Oslo is sometimes too subdued.
If you want to make your scene look more lively rather than dramatic, Aden is a good choice. For this reason, it can also work with some indoor photoshoots.
11 Slumber: For Subtle Radiance
Slumber is comparable to Ludwig, but this filter has a few key differences. It adds more warmth and reduces the contrast in your photo, imparting a cozy, inviting ambiance.
You can use the Slumber filter for nature shots, and it can also work well for some portraits and selfies. However, it’s better to use the filter for these kinds of photos in situations where there isn’t much sunlight. It’s also a better choice than Oslo if you want something less subtle without compromising on elegance.
12 Wide Angle: Bring Your Subject to the Front
Did you forget to crop your image as you would have liked during post-production? Don’t worry; you can still make subtle adjustments before uploading your image to Instagram. The Wide Angle filter doesn’t change any of the colors or lighting in your photo, but it will zoom your picture in a little bit.
After applying this filter, your main subject will become more prominent. However, don’t go too heavy-handed, or the middle part of your photo could end up looking bloated.
13 Paris: For Subtle Edits
Paris is one of the oldest Instagram filters, and in my opinion, it’s the best for subtle adjustments. When you use this filter, you’ll notice almost nothing at first glance. However, it will slightly increase the amount of lighting in your image.
I normally use Paris when I’ve already edited my pictures elsewhere and don’t want to alter a huge amount.
14 Aden: Flattening the Picture
Another classic Instagram filter worth using is Aden. Doing so will bring up your shadows and add a flat look to the picture, but not on the same level as the fade-specific ones will. I find that it works particularly well on images with a lot of color.
15 Simple Cool: As the Name Suggests
I don’t use Simple Cool very often, but it’s a great choice when I want to make my images more blue. So, if I’ve overdone the white balance when editing, this is an easy way to bring the photo back to a decent enough level.
In my opinion, Simple Cool works particularly well with mist and fog photography (as you can see above). I also think that it would work really well if you want to edit photos you took on a snowy day.
You can access all of these Instagram filters for free, and it’s very easy to experiment with all of them before sharing your images with the world. Different filters are best suited for different scenarios, and over time you’ll know when to use each, which will elevate your profile above the rest.
