How to get a black border on instagram


Editing Photos for Instagram: add borders and avoid cropping

While you can upload your landscape or portrait photos to Instagram, the thumbnail will always be cropped to a square. This isn’t always ideal for photographers. If you want to get around this, just learn a simple trick. Add a border to your photo to avoid cropping. In Zoner Photo Studio X, get your photo ready to share, whether it’s for yourself or a client. This will also keep you from needing to use questionable mobile apps that offer similar functions.

Instagram is an app, developed primarily for mobile phones mainly for the sharing of photographs. Ironically, it can be very unkind to photographs. In recent years, it has tried to adapt and allows you to post photos horizontally or vertically. However, in your gallery, the photo will still appear as a square thumbnail. 

While you can upload a photo to Instagram vertically or horizontally, it will still appear as a square thumbnail in your gallery grid (Zoner Photo Studio X’s Instagram page).

How to upload portrait and landscape photos to Instagram

Portrait and landscape photos continue to be a problem because you cannot upload them without cropping. Here’s an innovative solution. All you have to do is add a border and set Instagram’s required square format. 

You will now see your landscape or portrait photo not only when opening it, but also in the thumbnail. You cannot do this in the Instagram interface, but you can do it using your photo editing software. In Zoner Photo Studio X, you can easily do it with the help of the Batch Filter.

Add borders to your photos

You have options for how you want your borders to look. You can make them different colors, black, or white. The only drawback is that if your followers have a color scheme that is different from yours, this type of border could come off as a bit too much. 

Borders can be different colors or made from a blurry image taken from the original photograph. Photo: Jakub Danihelka

For this reason, we recommend using a border that is made from a blurry version of the original image. You make this using the Batch Filter. You only need to set it up properly. When you save its settings, you can easily edit any number of photos that will all be ready to showcase on Instagram in the future. This is great for those of you who upload to Instagram often. You don’t need to edit each photo separately.

How to add borders

The basic concept is that you make and save fixed settings that are made from two different filters (Resize and Canvas Size): 

Open the photo in the Manager module and click the Batch Filter icon (Ctrl+Q).

Choose your photo and click the Batch Filter icon. Or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Q.

Click the Add Filter button, choose Resize, and confirm by clicking OK.  

Click Add Filter and select Resize.

In the Mode menu, select the option Never increase size. This way you’ll make sure that a photo that is too small won’t be stretched when using filters. Enter the dimensions 2000px into the Height and Width field. This is the size suitable for Instagram. Leave the Keep proportions option checked. By entering the same dimensions in both fields, you’ll find that the filter will work for photos with both portrait and landscape orientation. 

Enter 2000 pixels  for the  longer and shorter side. The filter will then work for both portrait and landscape photos.

The second to last step is to add the second filter – Canvas Size. Click the Add Filter button and choose Canvas Size. Confirm by clicking OK.

Add another filter – Canvas Size.

In the dimensions fields, you will again enter 2000 pixels for each side. Your photo will now be converted to a square format, but without cropping. The gaps are filled with the chosen border.

Again, set 2000 pixels as the dimensions for height and width and choose the border type. Either select color or choose Fill in background using blurred image.

Either select a border of any color or check the box Fill in background using blurred image. Use the Blurring strength, Zoom, and Color blending sliders to fine-tune the final product and create your own unique border. Click the Apply button and your photograph is ready for sharing. 

This is what a completed photo looks like.

TIP: We recommend you export your photos right away for sharing or save them to a special folder. This is a destructive edit and cannot be changed back!

Save your settings for later

You’re done! Click the disc icon in the bottom part of the Batch Filter window to save and name this setting. You can use it in the future in a matter of a few clicks, individually or as a batch.

Do you want to get your photos Instagram ready in a few clicks? Download Zoner Photo Studio X free for 30 days and get right to it.

How to Add Borders to Instagram Photos

Photo EditingMorten ByskovHow to Add a Border Instagram, How to Add a Border Instagram Pics, Border Instagram Photos, Vertical Versus Horizontal Photos on Instagram, Create a Photo for Instagram With a White Border in Photoshop, Using Actions and Batch Processing to Create Photos for Instagram With a White Border, Create an Instagram Photo With a White Border Using the VSCO appComment

Photo EditingMorten ByskovHow to Add a Border Instagram, How to Add a Border Instagram Pics, Border Instagram Photos, Vertical Versus Horizontal Photos on Instagram, Create a Photo for Instagram With a White Border in Photoshop, Using Actions and Batch Processing to Create Photos for Instagram With a White Border, Create an Instagram Photo With a White Border Using the VSCO appComment

A collection of photos with a border posted on my Instagram feed

Instagram is one of the windows to the world for sharing our photos and you have a few choices when it comes to formatting your photos for this platform.

First of all, it is important to know that Instagram currently gives us a rectangular box with a ratio of 4 x 5. Four wide and five tall. In the latest update from Instagram, it is also mentioned that we should be able to post 6 x 19 soon.

This poses a few challenges when it comes to standard 3 x 2 photos from many digital cameras or 4 x 3 photos from either mobile phones, medium format cameras, or micro 4/3 cameras.

Adding a white border to your instagram photos can add aesthetics as it mimics a white matte of a framed print

You can, of course, post your photos without worrying too much about how the end-user will see your photos but it may be of interest to customize your approach to make your photos stand out. Below I will show you how to do so in Photoshop and thereby make the most of the 4 x 5 aspect ratio format while adding a border.

I have chosen to add borders to my photos on Instagram. It mimics a picture frame with a white matte and puts extra emphasis on the photo with this simple little effect and aesthetically I find it quite pleasing.

It is, however, not a straightforward process and does not happen with the click of a magic button. You can however create a smooth smooth workflow.

In the following, I will describe my approach, step-by-step, for the most popular ratios of photos and also how you can create a Photoshop action and batch process in order to speed things up.

Vertical Versus Horizontal Photos on Instagram

My photography buddy, Carl used to tease me as I rarely would capture photos in the vertical orientation. It did not come naturally to me.

I tended to favor the landscape horizontal format, probably because the photos looked amazing on a widescreen computer monitor. I was never too concerned about the fact that I could flip my camera 90 degrees and capture photos in a different orientation.

Recently this has changed and I cannot decide if I am thrilled or concerned that it was Instagram that got me to think “vertically”.

The fact is, almost all of our photos on Instagram are viewed in the vertical orientation on mobile phones meaning horizontal photos will appear smaller and take up fewer pixels on the screen. This is okay but if you are going for maximum impact, vertically oriented photos will be larger and perhaps capture viewer attention more so.

I have not studied if my photos posted in the vertical orientation get more likes and I am not too concerned or occupied with this as I mostly do it because it looks great and that in itself is a positive. Growing my account is okay too :)

Photoshop for Vertical Photos - VSCO for Horizontal

When it comes to getting photos prepped for Instagram the most time-consuming format is the vertical photos if you decide to add or border.

For horizontal images, I use the VSCO app on my iPhone and this is by far the fastest way to get good results for 3 x 2, 4 x 3, or square photos as the app has a borders feature.

You can also use this for vertical photos but the end result will be a square format 1 x 1 ratio and hence smaller than a customized 4 x 5 layout.

A horizontal image with a white border created with VSCO

Create a Photo for Instagram With a White Border in Photoshop

Resize your photo to height of 2500 pixels

Adjust the canvas size and you will see a white border added to your photo

Using Actions and Batch Processing to Create Photos for Instagram With a White Border

If you want to save time and prep several photos at a time you can speed things up by creating an Action and then processing your photos in a batch.

Create an Action in Photoshop to speed up the process for adding a white border to a photo

Batch Processing

Create an Instagram Photo With a White Border Using the VSCO app

I stumbled upon VSCO years ago for film simulations. Back then it was desktop Lightroom presets dominating the scene. VSCO has since dropped this and instead focus one hundred percent on the mobile app.

I find the app very useful for basic photo editing and the draw is excellent film simulations that look very organic.

On the topic of adding borders, VSCO has an excellent tool for this when it comes to horizontal and square images. For vertical images, I prefer the method shown above as it yields larger images on the mobile screen.

Please see the three variations below and click to view a larger image.

Borders or No Borders. Photoshop or VSCO?

You can argue that you can show your photos even larger if you chose to go without using borders. If you prefer this for vertical images, simply upload an image after you have cropped it to the 4 x 5 aspect ratio. Instagram also gives you an option to crop when you upload your photo.

For vertical images, my Photoshop workaround gives great-looking results that make images stand out. This, of course, is subjective and you would need to try it out to see if you think it is worth the effort.

As an all-around great solution, you could use VSCO across the board for adding borders to all your images, vertical and horizontal. The only caveat is the fact that Instagram will show your vertical images in a smaller square box.

I hope this tutorial has been helpful. Do not hesitate to comment below if you have any questions.

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