How to Add Instagram-like Photo Filters in WordPress (Step by Step)

Images play an important role in engaging your audience, and enhancing these pictures with filters can add a professional, creative touch to your website.

Editing the photos on your WordPress site using Instagram-like filters can transform their look and help your content stand out.

At WPBeginner, we often add screenshots to our blog posts since we write a lot of tutorials. However, we’ve noticed other websites using filters on their images. That’s why we thoroughly researched and tested different solutions to help you easily add Instagram-style filters to your WordPress images.

In this article, we will cover how to add Instagram-like photo filters in WordPress.

Why Add Instagram-Like Photo Filters in WordPress?

An Instagram filter is a feature in the social media platform that lets you edit your photo with a single click. You simply choose from a library of pre-set edits for the image, and Instagram automatically applies those changes.

You can choose how much of the filter to apply to each photo, ranging from 0 to 100%.

So why should you use Instagram filters? Here are a few key reasons:

• Edit your photos more easily and quickly: We all want to post beautiful images on our WordPress sites. Unless your photos are already stunning or you are a master of Adobe Photoshop, you probably want an easier way to retouch your photos.
• Create a consistent brand image: Branding is everything. It tells a story about the type of company you are and the message you want to send to your audience. Using on-brand filters will increase your website’s visual appeal and create a more cohesive look.
• Get creative: Filters can add variety to your content, allowing you to make images stand out. This can be helpful for showcasing products or portfolio items.

That being said, let’s go over how to add Instagram-like photo filters to your WordPress site. Here are the steps we will cover:

How to Add Instagram Photo Effects With Easy Image Filters

The good news is that you can add image filters in WordPress for free. You don’t need to go through the hassle of using a separate platform like Instagram or photo-editing software to do it.

To get started, you need to install and activate the Easy Image Filters plugin.

If you need step-by-step instructions, then just check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Once activated, go ahead and upload the photos you’d like to edit to your WordPress Media library.

To do so, head over to Media » Add New Media File. From there, choose the image files you want to add and select ‘Upload.’

Now, simply upload all the photos you’d like to add filters to.

Next, you must head over to the Media » Library tab and then select the photo you want to edit.

The attachment details of the image should open up, where you’ll see a full preview of the photo.

In the bottom right corner, go ahead and click on ‘Edit more details.’

Under the Description field, you’ll see the ‘Add Image effects’ feature, where you can apply various filters to your selected image.

Click on ‘Add.’

In this screen, you will see the image on the top of the screen, followed by available adjustments and presets you can make.

Some of the important adjustments you can make are changes to the photo include:

• Brightness
• Contrast
• Vibrance
• Saturation
• Exposure
• Hue
• And more

You are also given 25 different presets to choose from. A preset is a configuration of settings designed to achieve a certain look. It automatically adjusts certain colors and lighting in the photo, so you don’t need to do it manually.

Go ahead and toggle the adjustments, or select any preset that fits your preference.

Once you are happy with the filter enhancements, click on ‘Save.’ If you’d like to restore the image to its original state, you can select ‘Reset’ instead.

Once you’ve saved your edits, the updated image will automatically appear in your Media library.

Just head back to the Media » Library tab, and you will find the updated image with the Instagram-like filter added.

Now, you are able to upload that photo anywhere on your site.

For example, you can add the image to a WordPress page or post, and it should look like this.

If you need help uploading your filtered images, you can check out our guide on how to properly add images in WordPress.

How to Add Your Filtered Photos to a Gallery

Adding photo effects to your images is a great way to make them stand out. But in some cases, you might want also to add your filtered pictures to an image gallery.

Here are a few examples where this might be useful:

• You are a photographer and want to showcase your portfolio.
• If you run a real estate company and are looking to highlight photos of your residential homes.
• You are a digital agency that wants to show potential clients a preview of the type of work you can do.

But galleries are not limited to these businesses either. Almost any website could use an image gallery to visually showcase their products or services.

To create an image gallery for your filtered photos, you will need to install and activate the Envira Gallery plugin.

Envira Gallery is the best image gallery plugin for WordPress. It allows you to create beautiful mobile responsive photo and video galleries using its drag-and-drop builder.

Several of our partner brands have used this tool to successfully create attractive galleries. For details, see our Envira Gallery review.

The first thing you’ll need to do is install and activate the Envira Gallery plugin. If you need step-by-step instructions, check out our guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

Upon activation, you’ll need to go to the Envira Gallery » Add New page to create a new gallery. Give it a title so you can easily refer to it later.

Then click on ‘Select Files from Your Computer.’

Then, you need to choose the images from your computer.

Once the photos are uploaded, you can scroll down to see all the images added in the ‘Gallery’ tab.

In the ‘Configurations’ tab, you can choose the gallery layout, image size, image dimensions, and more.

That way, you can customize the gallery appearance to fit your needs.

From there, just hit the ‘Publish’ button in the right-side panel.

You can then use the Envira Gallery block to add your gallery to any post or page.

Here’s what it looks like on our demo website.

For more details, just check out our guide on how to create an image gallery in WordPress.

Bonus: Embed Your Instagram Feed in WordPress

Apart from adding Instagram-like filters, you can also add your whole Instagram feed to your website. This will allow users to see your content on social media, boosting engagement and retaining customers longer.

To do this, you can use Smash Balloon’s Instagram Feed Pro. It is the best Instagram plugin on the market that comes with a visual builder, easy integration with the social media platform, and lets you create shoppable feeds.

We have personally tested the tool and have found it to be super beginner-friendly and scalable. To learn more, see our Smash Balloon review.

You can choose a feed layout and add ‘Load More’ and ‘Follow’ buttons.

Other than that, you can enable the lightbox, change the color scheme, and optimize your feed for mobile devices. For details, see our tutorial on how to easily embed Instagram in WordPress.

We hope this article helped you learn how to add Instagram-like photo filters in WordPress. You may also want to check out our expert picks of the best web design software or our guide on how to add a background image in WordPress.

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