Last Updated on 06/03/2014 by Felix Esser
Instagram has just announced version 6.0 of its mobile photo editing and sharing app, which brings a huge redesign not only in terms of looks but also (and more importantly) in terms of functionality. Following close on the heels of yesterday’s iOS 8 announcement, which also saw huge improvements to the Photos app including lots of advanced editing options, Instagram now gives its users more editing choices to tweak individual parameters of an image before sharing it.
Chiefly, basic parameters that were previously inaccessible through the Instagram app–such as brightness, contrast, color temperature, saturation, etc.–can now be tweaked through individual sliders. Upon editing one of these parameters, just like the new iOS 8 Photos app, Instagram not simply alters the parameter itself in a linear way, but takes into account other parameters as well to achieve a balanced look.
This is something that more advanced users have been waiting for for a long time, and that will be greatly appreciated. In addition to altering the basic parameters of an image, the new version of Instagram also allows to manually tweak the strength of a filter, giving the user even more power to achieve results to their personal liking. The overall speed of the app has also been improved, according to PetaPixel.
In an interview with the website, Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom claims that the update has been long in the making, and that it was redesigned to offer functionality known from high-end editing softwares such as Photoshop and Lightroom. If you’re uncertain whether you want to upgrade to the new version or rather keep the previous version installed on your device, the demo video below might help you make a choice. Instagram 6.0 is available for iOS and Android devices now.
Update: We just received the press release, and it states in detail which editing options are availabel now.
The 10 new creative tools include:
- Adjust: crop and straighten your photo at the same time
- Brightness: make your photo brighter or darker
- Contrast: make the bright areas of your photo brighter, and the dark areas darker
- Warmth: shift the colors of your photo towards either warmer orange tones or cooler blue tones
- Saturation: increase or decrease the color intensity of the image (e.g. red becomes redder)
- Highlights: adjust the brightness focusing on the bright areas of the image
- Shadows: adjust the brightness focusing on the dark areas of the image
- Vignette: darken the edges of the photo and direct the attention away from the edges towards the center of the photo
- Sharpen: add a subtle crispness to your photo and make photo clearer
- Filter Strength: tap on a filter to adjust the filter strength (Border is now within Filter Strength; tap on a filter to add a border)