Some argue that aesthetics is everything, beauty is an absolute, and style should be valued more than substance. One of the most iconic beauty connoisseurs, Oscar Wilde, who once famously wrote that the “artist is the creator of beautiful things,” would definitely be an Instagram influencer if he were around these days!

Even if you’re no match for Wilde’s style, you’re probably one of the billion active users that are looking for ways to make your posts and stories more pleasing to the eye. In these chaotic times, beauty and aesthetic pleasure, and creation and wonder, are what humanity turns to in search of strength and inspiration.

In this article, we’ll discuss how to use some of the most popular aesthetic editing apps to create amazing Instagram edits for both photos and videos that your followers will love.    

How Do You Edit an Aesthetic Photo? 

While there are no universal rules about editing an aesthetic photo, the process typically begins with opening any Instagram photo editor — we especially love PicsArt’s all-in-one app — and opening the photo you want to edit. 

  1. The first step is to crop out any unnecessary elements. You can do so by tapping on Tools and then Crop and selecting the area you want to keep. 
  2. Click Apply when you’re done cropping. You can also tap on Adjust and play around with brightness, contrast, saturation, and other parameters. 
  3. If it’s a photo with people in it, you can click Retouch to enhance features. Tap on Face to change the face proportions a bit, use Wrinkle and Eye Bag to turn back time and cancel tiredness, change skin tone, hair or eye color, whiten teeth, etc. 
  4. The final step is making use of the vast array of trendy filters and effects to make your photo even more stunning. Some of the best filters in the PicsArt app are Glitch, which will distort the photo ever so slightly, 1996, which will turn the photo black and white and give it a vintage feel, and WAVE, which will turn the pic grainy, as if it’s a screenshot from a movie. We’ll talk about filters and effects in more detail down the line. 

And finally, don’t forget that with PicsArt you can also add all sorts of stickers and frames, texts in different styles and colors, and even overlay other images. You can even draw on the image or add a lens flare. 

How Do Instagrammers Create Aesthetic Photos?

We have gone over some of the key tools used for Instagram edits. Now here are some pro tips that’ll help you on your way to better and better edits.

Develop Your Visual Taste. We’re all born with certain likes and dislikes, but our visual taste develops through what we’ve seen. You have to choose beautiful images to feed your eyes. You can find them everywhere: in paintings and blogs, nature and outer space. Knowing what colors mean and what they inspire is key to understanding this. 

Learn About the Color Wheel. A big part of being good at creating aesthetic photos is knowing how to combine colors and hues. Learning more about the color wheel will help you achieve just that. 

Pay Attention To Lyrics and Typography. Text is important. And with so many amazing poets and songwriters, endlessly citing John Green’s “she was a hurricane” line just won’t cut it. How about throwing in some Rodriguez lyrics or bell hooks’ “Love is an action”? Also, pay attention to typography: Where do spindly fonts work? Where is italicizing or bolding just too much?

Check Out Other Artists’ Edits and Tutorials for Inspiration. Nothing motivates like a virtual community of artists. Go ahead and ask people about their edits and aesthetic style, encourage and praise them, follow each other’s guidelines. Walking the path together as artists and/or Instagrammers is a unique and magical experience. 

Know What You Want To End up With. Define for yourself what you want to achieve before you begin editing. What’s the mood? What’s the purpose of the Insta post you’re editing for? Who’s the ideal viewer? 

Keep Your Instagram Feed Somewhat Consistent. You’ve all seen those feeds that seem perfectly orchestrated. They may even use the same effect or filter over and over again. While that may be overkill, followers like your feed to be at least somewhat consistent. Decide on your profile’s purpose, color scheme, and general style before making your next Instagram post.

Don’t Be Afraid To Experiment. All those aesthetic editing apps with their extensive tools and effects may seem intimidating at first, but no matter which filter you apply, no matter how much you mess a photo up, the Go back button is always there waiting to be tapped on. Be bold in your experiments, you’ll never know what idea pops into your head in the process.

Practice, Practice, Practice. With aesthetic apps’ edits, just like with most things, practice does make perfect. Besides, photo editing is just so fun, you won’t want to stop. 

If you want to find out how people edit on PicsArt, just open the app on your phone and you’ll immediately see a bunch of different before/afters. If you tap on Try below any of the edits, you can then go through the edit steps yourself with a different photo. Easy!

What Are the Best Filters for Instagram?

Filters and effects are super popular ways to achieve those trendy Instagram edits. If you open the PicsArt app, you’ll find all available filters if you tap on Effects. Some of the most popular filters are in these groups: 

Vintage & Grainy 

Editing a photo to look like it was taken in the olden times, back when cameras were harder to come by, gives it an enchanting air of a truly cherished memory. PicsArt has a lot of filters that’ll make your photos look as if they were shot on film. Definitely try GRNG for that grainy texture, PLRD for a Polaroid effect, and 1992 to make it seem like the photo has suffered some damage.  

Psychedelic

This effect is all about bright contrasting colors, distortion, and a hint at the absurd. Try the PicsArt filter BRN from the FLTR section, Polygon from the Artistic section, and the whole Distort section.

Artistic

These filters will turn any photo into a sketch or illustration. There are a lot of different artistic styles to choose from. You can transform into a pop art heroine or have AI replace your eyes or mouth with painted ones. Some popular PicsArt ones to check out are Sketchy and Shades of Gray from the Magic section of effects, Holga 2 from the Pop Art section, Halftone Dots from the Artistic section, and all the filters in the Canvas and Sketch sections.

Black and White

It may not be obvious at first, but there are so many ways to convert colors into shades of gray, and black and white filters let you control that. B&W effects are famous for turning any pic artsier, adding thematic depth and definition of light. Some black and white PicsArt effects to check out are Glitch2 from the FLTR section and MNCH2 and Film B&W from the FX section. 

How Do You Edit an Aesthetic Video?

Great news for all amateur filmmakers out there: With PicsArt’s integrated aesthetic video editor, you can just as easily add cool filters to your videos. Just follow these steps to start:  

  1. Open the PicsArt app on your smartphone. 
  2. Tap on the + at the bottom. If you want to edit an already existing video, choose it from the Videos section. If you want to shoot a new video, scroll down and tap on the Video camera in the Cameras section. 
  3. Tap on Effects if you’re editing a video and if you’re shooting a new video, try the different camera styles from the Filters, Effects, Old Camera, and other sections. 
  4. As soon as you’re happy with the edited video, tap Apply, then click the arrow in the upper right corner, choose the number of frames per second and resolution, and click Save or if you want to immediately share the video on Instagram tap on Share.

As for the best filters, pay special attention to the great variety of old school filters, like 1991 to 1996. Isn’t it amazing how they immediately make any video look so cinematic? Definitely try BRN for that bright psychedelic look. 

If you’re editing a video from your camera roll, you can also click Adjust and experiment with brightness, contrast, saturation, and other parameters. 


PicsArt’s aesthetic video editor also lets you easily crop and trim videos, add stickers, photos, and text, as well as edit the sound or generate a fitting sound via AI. No doubt these features will not only impress any Instagrammer’s followers, but also enable the creation of numerous short movies, music videos, and vlogs. 

It is also super easy to make the edited video fit Instagram’s story ratio perfectly. For that you just need to click Square Fit, then Ratio, and tap on Story.  

What Is the Best Aesthetic Editing App for Instagram?

PicsArt, an all-in-one photo and video editor, available for both phones and PC, is currently the best aesthetic editing app for Instagram on the market. Why? For these five major reasons: 

  • It’s super easy to use. You don’t need to know anything at all about design. The interface is super intuitive. You can immediately start creating. As you saw in this article, most of the editing takes just a click or two.
  • It’s well suited for Instagram. PicsArt was built with social media in mind. That’s why getting a video or image to fit the ratio of an Insta story is so easy and sharing takes just a tap.   
  • It has an active community of artists. Having a huge community of artists and Instagrammers using a tool has so many benefits. Not only does it give you access to a myriad of beautiful templates and tutorials authored by different users, it also makes learning photo and video editing so much more exciting.  
  • It has extensive tools & features. No other Instagram photo editor has such a comprehensive set of tools. Are you thinking of blurring a photo or changing its background? Or maybe you want to create a new template or add text in a unique font? The sky’s the limit. 
  • It allows you to focus on aesthetics. In contrast to photo editing, you can never learn aesthetics. One’s perception of beauty and ability to create it is endlessly in flux. A true lover of beauty is voracious, endlessly feeding one’s eyes and mind, mixing and matching approaches and ideas. You’ll never know when inspiration will strike. As Lorca put it, “the true struggle is with the Duende,” that is with expression, passion, and authenticity. Well, PicsArt makes sure you can only focus on the creative spark; everything else is taken care of.

Make Awesome

PicsArt all-in-one Photo and Video Editor, Collage, and Sticker Maker is the world’s largest creative platform with over 150 million monthly active creators and influencers. PicsArt has collaborated with major artists and brands like Taylor Swift, The Jonas Brothers, Gwen Stefani, Maroon 5, Lizzo, Meghan Trainor, One Direction, MONSTA X, Warner Bros. Entertainment, iHeartMedia, Condé Nast, and more. Download the app today to level-up your photos and videos with thousands of quick & easy editing tools, trendy filters, fun stickers, and brilliant backgrounds. Unleash your creativity with PicsArt and upgrade to Gold for awesome premium perks!