How to Make Your Picture Fit the Instagram Crop

We’ve all been there. You take a picture you LOVE. Maybe there’s a gorgeous tall building behind you. Your shoes are stunning. You’re prepping to upload to Instagram when…

The dreaded Instagram Crop smacks you in the face {or the shoes}

That’s right. You go to upload and KEY parts of the photo are cut out by Instagram’s 4:5 crop ratio. 

Exhibit A:

But, you’re in luck. In just a few quick moves with the following two apps you can make your picture fit fully in the Instagram crop. Bonus, it’s without adding any frames or whitespace {to mess up your feed} or using Photoshop!

What you need:

1. Snapseed App: This app is a MUST HAVE app for photo editing. I use it in a ton of different ways but it is ESSENTIAL for making your photo fit the Instagram crop. Best of all- it’s FREE!

2.ReTouch App: Another one of my top 5 favorite apps, ReTouch will change your life. Yes, it costs $1.99. JUST DO IT. Trust me. You will use it all. the. time.

By the way, I am not affiliated at all with either of these apps. I JUST LOVE THEM SO MUCH. I legit use them almost every day.

HOW TO USE THEM: 

+ Open Snapseed and upload your photo

+ Select TOOLS Bar

+ Select EXPAND and choose the “smart” expand feature

+ Drag left and right side of your photo to get closer to the 4:5 ratio

+ Export to your camera roll and then crop your photo to 4:5

IF YOUR PICTURE LOOKS GREAT YOU’RE DONE

If you had a simple background this may be all you need to do. If it looks weird at the edges where you expanded:

+ Open Retouch and upload your photo

+ Select the OBJECTS tool and use the BRUSH on AUTO to slowly go through your photo and get it looking how you want it

+ Another useful tool is CLONE STAMP to perfectly mimmic other photo areas

If you’re a visual learner- my video below will show you exactly how to do it

FUN GAME: take a drink every time I use a version of the word “wonky”!

Jk, DON’T do that, you will be very drunk.

How to Make Your Photo Fit the Instagram Crop

So, there it is! Please let me know what you think or if you have any questions! Some photos are harder to edit than others, especially ones with complicated backgrounds. However, practice makes perfect and the more you do it the easier it becomes.

Hope this helps you guys!

Xx,