Once upon a time, my phone would be at its storage limit due to games. Now, it’s all about the photos and editing apps. I guess that’s what bookstagram does to your life. Over the time I’ve been on Instagram posting about books I’ve come to learn about so many apps.
It’s overwhelming, and at first I was wary of having so many. I was more of a mentality of using just a few that could do a whole lot of things rather than downloading one for each thing I wanted to do. I would still prefer to do that, but the more you play around you realize that some apps give you better results with certain tools than others, even though most editing apps for example offer similar ones.
I’m going to go over some of the apps I use, and tell you about what I use them for the most.
Editing + Design apps
Photoshop Fix
Or, how I keep putting off learning desktop Photoshop.
Nevermind, this handy app lets me make some key adjustments to barely salvageable photos. I’m talking about exposure, sharpness, removing some blemishes here and there, and even making some parts of the photo lighter while leaving others untouched (my favorite).
I prefer using this app to make this adjustments instead of another one because I’ve noticed the photo quality afterwards doesn’t get affected as much. It just looks more natural.
A Color Story
This app is the second stage of my editing process, in which I add filters and effects as needed. This app is free, but I use paid filter packs. I’m mentioning this tool because it’s a key part of my process. It’s where I consider the magic happens. The filters are beautiful and give the pictures amazing moods that fit your aesthetic.
It comes with just a few packs of filters and effects you can use for free. So it’s definited limited if you’re not ready to purchase in-app.
A Design Kit
When I want to get more creative, is when A Design Kit comes in. It’s from the creators of A Color Story. It allows you to add design elements to either a background or any picture you’ve got. I’m talking about shapes, stickers, text, and even draw with their options of brushes.
It’s a fun app that allows your creativity to run wild.
It’s also free, with paid add-ons. But unlike A Color Story, I do feel like you have enough options with the free version without ever having to spend on more.
Focos (iPhone only)
For phones that have Portrait mode, that is the ability to bring into focus an area in the picture, this app is a complete must-have. Once you’ve taken a picture, you can open it here and play around with the Focus.
For example, if it’s you holding a book in front of a bookshelf. There’s three levels of depth. First the book, then you, then the bookshelf as the backdrop. Say you took the picture with the book in focus and the rest blurred. With the app you can tap on yourself, and change the focus, blurring the book instead. Or choose to blur everything except for the bookshelf. It’s amazing.
Apps for IG Stories
These could also classify as design apps, but I wanted to mention it separately since they’re more geared towards editing for a story format.
Mojo
Mojo is such a fun app! You get these animated story templates with some cool effects that really make the message pop. Some templates highlight the text, and others are all about the pictures, but the end result is always super smooth and even professional looking. I’ve even used this app for a brand whose social media I manage for work. I had to create a stories sequence and rush through it, so Mojo was a big help.
This app comes with free templates as well as some paid ones.
Unfold
I feel like this story templates app is quite popular, I just didn’t know about it before. I love that we get these template packs so that you have stories that share the same feel. There are some cool fonts in the app, as well as different design elements you can add.
The downside is that it comes with just one free template pack. It’s great, but you’ll probably be considering purchasing one or two more since they look beautiful.
Video apps
Filmm
Filmm is the third app in my Power Triad along with A Color Story, and A Design Kit. And yes, you guessed it, it’s all about the video. It’s not a video maker, since you can’t take different clips together to make a new video, but you can edit the hell out of one. It comes with nice filters, the option to crop your video, trim it, and even add music if you want to.
Pixaloop
Such a fun app. You can take a photo and add animated elements to it to create a video that looks like a picture brought to life.
Life Lapse
I haven’t used this one much, but the few times I’ve made stop motion videos, it’s been really useful!
Functional apps
Hootsuite
I didn’t use anything to schedule posts until I started working at the agency. It became a must to manage clients’ instagram content. So, I began using it for my own bookstagram as well. I don’t really schedule them, I mostly use Hootsuite this way:
With the picture ready, I save it as a draft in Hootsuite from my phone. Then, I open it in my desktop browser so I can write the caption and then hit the ‘Publish Now’ button. Writing captions on desktop is so much easier, and since it feels more comfortable, even ideas come faster.
Milkshake
Finally, I wanted to highlight Milkshake, the latest app I’ve begun using. It’s awesome. You know how Instagram only lets you have one link in your profile, and most people have been using Link tree or something similar to be able to display links in a sort of dedicated page? Milkshake is like that but takes it one step further.
It’s practically making a website that the user can experiment like an IG Story, since you swipe to the left in order to see the next page. So you have more room for even an ‘about page’, ‘Youtube page’, and anything you want. I love it and have been playing with it until I find something I’m good with.
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And that’s it for now! Hope you can try some of these!
I’d never heard of most of these. Focos seems especially helpful to me. I downloaded it—now I just need to get good at using it! 🙂
Yes! Focos is amazing! I hope you enjoy using it!
I’ve never actually used any of these apps, but they sound really useful! I’m hoping to get back into bookstagram in the New Year (my account has unfortunately been abandoned for months!), so I may have to check some of these out. Great post! 🙂
Laura recently posted this awesome thing…What’s your Christmas routine?
I was afraid it’d be overwhelming to name so many apps, but since you tell me you haven’t used any, I actually feel so happy because you get to play around with the ones that call to you the most! Photoshop Fix is really great because it takes care of a lot of aspects of a photo that a filter could mess up. And Milkshake is another free app that it’s just fun and amazingly useful to link to your blog and anything else you want to call attention to. On their website they even have Instagram tips and other useful stuff. I really just love their style and the idea behind the product they created 😅