So far in this 3 part series we’ve covered VSCO and SNAPSEED.  Today, I’ll be editing my pictures in PICTAPGO.  At first, I was a bit hesitant to do a tutorial on this app because it’s SO easy to use, but I just had to share because it’s my go-to app when I’m in a rush.  You can layer as many filters as you like and adjust the strength of each filter.  Everything is done in 3 simple steps: 1. Pic: pick the photo you want to use.  2. Tap:  tap the filter(s) you want to apply.   3.  Go:  save your work.  PIC-TAP-GO!  Both these edits were done in about half a minute.

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Edit #1:

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1.  Open Pictapgo and select the image you want to edit.  Once your photo is uploaded, simply scroll down on the screen and choose one of their 55 filters.  That may seem like an overwhelming amount of choices, but because the previews are large there’s no need to “try” each filter out to see what it looks like.  You can clearly see what each filter does to your image without clicking through. My personal favorites are Lights On, High Fives,  Air, Get Faded Neutral, and Flirt.

2.  My image is too dark so I apply the Lights On filter to brighten up my picture.

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3.   You can adjust the strength of each filter by moving the slider on the bottom of the screen.  At its maximum strength, my photo is still too dark so I scroll down and reapply the same filter.

4.  Because my image was really underexposed, I keep the second layer of the Lights On filter at maximum strength as well.

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5.  Brightening up my image caused a loss in contrast between my subjects and the background so I apply  the Auto Contrast filter.  This will deepen the difference between the lights and darks of my image.

6.  I decrease the Auto Contrast filter until I’m satisfied at around 30%.

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7.  Next, I want my picture to have a washed out/dreamy/faded look, so I scroll down and choose the Get Faded Neutral filter.

8.  I decrease the strength of the filter by moving the slider to around 70% and I’m done!

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9.  You can always view your Original image by tapping anywhere over the left side of your picture.

10.   And you can view your Previous edit by tapping anywhere over the right side of your picture.

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11.  To save, click on GO on the top right of your screen.

12.  If you like your combination of filters, you have the option to save it as a recipe to use later.  Just click on SAVE RECIPE and it will be saved into your RECIPES tab.  Pictapgo also remembers your most used filters and places them in the MY STYLE tap for easy access.

before  //  after

Edit #2:

For this example, I chose a photo that I was going to delete off my phone because it was way too dark and my subjects were not in focus.  There’s not much you can do about an unfocused picture, but I converted it to black and white and that fixed it enough to make this one a keeper!

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1.  Open Pictapgo and upload picture.

2.  To brighten my image I scroll down and apply the Lights On filter at maximum strength.

3.  My photo is still too dark so I run it through the Lights On filter again.

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4.  My original image was so underexposed that brightening up my photo has made it really orange/yellow and scrolling down through all the different filters I notice that none of them fix this problem.  I decide going black and white will be best.

5.  But first, I apply the Auto Contrast filter to darken the darks and lighten the lights.   This will prevent my subjects from becoming washed out or blurred out when layering on another filter.

6.  I decrease the Auto Contrast filter to about 50%.

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7.  Now I’m ready to choose a black and white filter.  I scroll down to the way bottom and apply the Powder filter.  This one makes my image soft and not too harsh.

8.  I keep the strength at 100% because with the black and white filters decreasing the slider will bring color back into my photo.

9.  And we’re done so I click GO and save to my photo library.  You can also choose to send it directly to Instagram,  Facebook,  Twitter, etc.

Hope these were helpful and happy Pictapgoing!