How to make instagram story look like polaroid

How to get white borders on your Instagram photos for that Polaroid effect | London Evening Standard

lthough Instagram has certainly been pushing Reels recently, there is a large number of people who want the old days of a photo-based platform in a Polaroid-style back.

Despite Instagram’s best efforts, many users still prefer to share images and want their feed to look clean and aesthetically pleasing as well.

Clever customisation enables you to frame the same old pictures of your kitchen and your cat in a new way, so your feed of photos can look sleek and in Instagram’s original Polaroid theme.

There are several apps and sites you can use. We have laid out the most convenient options for you here.

1. Instagram’s own - filters and white borders

You can get a pretty nice white border on Instagram itself. If you look at your profile, you will see a white line separating each photo automatically. You have the option to thicken this on every image you upload.

When you upload a photo, look for an icon with two arrows pointing away from each other on the bottom left of your image. Tap it and it will automatically create a border. Depending on the size and shape of your original image, it might not look exactly like a Polaroid, but it creates a nice effect on your feed.

2. Afterlight - editing and Polaroid borders

Available on iOS and Android, After Light is an app that allows you to make precise adjustments to your photos and add various Polaroid frames. You can do this all in one place, as well as export the final product directly to Instagram (or any social platform). But, while the download is free, you need the paid option to achieve what we're looking for.

First, edit the image itself. For the dated, analogue effect, try altering the RGB curve to fade the colour, decrease shadows, and increase grain. Then you can move on to frame options, before saving or sharing directly.

Alternatively, if you don’t want to splash out, you can download a couple of apps that will collectively do what Afterlight does alone. A little more effort, but free of charge.

3. InstaLab - filters and Polaroid borders

A limited version of InstaLab, available for free on iOS and Android, can get you the Polaroid effect very quickly and easily. Just download the app, import or capture an image, and scroll through the available free templates. You’ve even got a #stayathome caption.

It doesn't offer the same level of editing control or sophistication as Afterlight, but comes with various filters that can help give your photo an aged effect.

4. Polarr - editing

Polarr is a photo editing app with all the tools of Afterlight, but it’s free. Available on iOS and Android, it offers a wide range of playthings you can add to your toolbar, including curves, shadows, effects, vignettes, and more. You can also add a simple border.

A useful trick is that it allows you to save the final effect as an instant filter - so you only have to fiddle once.

And finally, if it's storage where you're broke, there's one option that requires no downloading at all...

5. Kapwing - Polaroid border and caption

Kapwing is an online studio that you can access on any browser and device. It's simple to use, includes a caption, and processes video as well as stills, making it great for Stories and Reels.

While you can’t add a border to videos, you can still play around with images using Kapwing, with a full suite of customisation options. This is a slightly more advanced tool, but great for perfectionists who want to tweak every last detail.

8 Best Polaroid Frame Apps for Instagram

Social media is more than a place where you can connect and talk to people all over the world. It is a place where you can put yourself on display by sharing photos, videos, and snapshots of you or your life online. One social media platform is especially known for building social media profiles with photos, and it’s called Instagram. In Instagram, you can customize and edit the photos you post. The trend these days is 90’s style grainy, vintage Polaroid photos. You may think that this photography style requires you to buy a Polaroid camera and practice real life picture-taking, but you can work your way around it. In this list, we’ll be talking about the best Polaroid frame apps that you can download on your phone, and immediately enhance whatever pictures you want to post. These Polaroid apps for iOS and Android allows you to capture, edit, and share moments within minutes.

1. VNTG – Vintage Photo Cameras

VNTG is the first app on our list because it is an all-in-one app that you can use to edit your photos. VNTG allows you to snap, share, and print photos, together with providing a lot of options for editing. This app’s interface is user-friendly, providing all kinds of features for taking bright or dark, grainy aesthetic polaroid photos.

VNTG has over a thousand frames that you can choose from, and all kinds of adjustment tools to make your photos like how you want them to. To start, simply import whatever photos you want to edit, play around with the filters and frames, and export your photos in high-quality.

2. Nichi – College & Stories Maker

Nichi is an app that is definitely more whimsical and delicate compared to other photo apps. Besides providing polaroid frames to edit your photos, you can also edit your Instagram stories and posts with different layouts, templates, frames, text, and stickers. If you’re a fan of making collages and scrapbook-like images with pastel colors, Nichi is definitely a must-have for your phone.

There are also different filters, including retro and vintage-esque filters that you can add to customize your photos even further.

3. Instant Pic Frames

The Instant Pic Frames App is another straightforward photo editing app that allows you to edit any and all of your images with all kinds of picture frames. Not only can you add any frame of your choice to your pictures, but you can also edit the look of your photos themselves. You can add all kinds of effects like vintage, bright, or grainy filters to make your photos stand out. You can also create collages of different pictures on the app.

Simply capture a photo on your camera, or import a picture from your camera roll, and add whatever you want to decorate it. There are also preset frames for events like baby birthdays, and other decorations like borders and special frames.

4. PolyCam – Vintage Filters Cam

If you want to lean into a more nostalgic and vintage look for your photos, you can try out PolyCam – Vintage Filters Cam. Instead of purchasing a retro or vintage camera, you can make your photos look authentically like film with Polycam. It features 25 different vintage filters, together with other aesthetic effects to make your photos truly one of a kind. You can also adjust the highlights, contrast, and shadows of your pictures. Once you’re done, be sure to add the right polaroid frame for it!

5. Retro Cam – Vintage Camera Filters

One of the most popular apps to customize and add frames to your photos is Retro Cam. This is a widely used app for both Android and iOS for good reason. It features over 80 different filters with different kinds of effects, like vintage, retro, black & white, portrait, cinematic, mood, landscape, and so much more.

Retro Cam allows you to imitate analog images as well with different kinds of light leak effects. There are also other effects such as VHS glitch filters, trippy effects, neon effects, and special Lo-Fi that will instantly brighten up your picture. If you’re a big fan of how retro photos and media looks like, consider downloading Retro Cam today!

6. Polaroid

Another free app to add Polaroid frames to your photos. This app is more friendly toward larger audiences to help you take professional photos. It allows you to both capture photos on the app, and also edit it with its different settings and features.

It also has other handy features like a self-timer, making it easy for you to take photographs by yourself without needing anyone else’s assistance. Once you’re done editing the photos you like, you can save it in high definition in the app!

7. StoryLab – Story Maker

StoryLab is another versatile photo and Instagram story editor with over 500 unique and highly detailed templates to choose from. You can make different kinds of collages and layouts of different kinds. You can think of StoryLab as a combination of different styles for its frames from other apps in this list such as Nichi, Polaroid, and other kinds of general photo effects.

If you want to be more creative with your Instagram posts, you can make use of StoryLab to set you apart from the rest of your peers.

8. MolyCam – Retro Effects Camera

As the name suggests, the app has a camera with several retro effects. You can capture the most memorable moments of your life with one click using this app. Its user-friendly interface will make you feel like a proficient photo editor. MolyCam lets you create the best polaroid photos.

The final app on our list is called MolyCam, and it is another app that focuses more on styling your image with retro and vintage effects. You can capture images through this app to instantly make it look like you have transported back in the 80s. You can also choose all kinds of filters and light leak or grain effects to make your photos more authentic. To go the extra mile, you can also add highlights and even stickers to your final creations.

When Instagram hadn't been invented yet. A man took a picture every day for the rest of his life with a Polaroid

Jamie Livingston took his first picture with a Polaroid camera in 1979, and the last in 1997, on the day of his death. All this time he took at least one picture every day. Now his photo archive, which tells the whole story of life and tragic death, is published on the site.

A New Yorker named Jamie Livingston, born in 1956, turned his own life into an art project using a Polaroid SX-70 camera: starting March 31, 19For 79 years, he took one photo every day and kept an imprint.

March 31, 1979

By profession Livingston is a photographer, cameraman and director, but he did not set himself the task of making "beautiful" shots, which in themselves could claim to be art. He decided to make a documentary portrait of human life, making random "touches".

January 8, 1980

September 5, 1985

Livingston took pictures of himself or gave his camera to friends to take pictures of. He photographed friends, passers-by, relatives - at random moments or at moments of momentary joy, care. Sometimes I photographed food, some objects, a room, newspapers, just houses and streets. In general, everything in a row, at first glance, is chaotic.

June 3, 1987

After his death, the archive was preserved by his wife, and recently a group of enthusiasts opened the page of the Jamie Livingston art project: some photos of that day. Almost all the photographs he took are posted here, many hundreds in a row, sorted chronologically.

May 19, 1990

In addition to the photos themselves, there are comments. The authors of the project invite viewers to share their story. Those who got into the frame - about how it was, those who knew Jamie - write some words about him, and those who did not know him - just tell their own story related to this or that day when the photo was taken. There are a lot of comments on the site: “Wow, on this day I was born!”.

October 28 1993 years old

April 26, 1997

Looking at photographs is a meditative activity, it is addictive. In 1997, Jamie learns that he has cancer, and this happens quite late. In recent months, he has been photographing his farewell to the world. Lots of pictures taken in the hospital.

October 20, 1997

October 6, 1997

At the beginning of October, she and her girlfriend got married, but just a few days later he didn’t get married. The last picture was taken.

October 25, 1997

Medialeaks told the story of a terminally ill boy, Anton, who was adopted from Russia to the United States. Anton suffered from epidermosis bullosa, the so-called "butterfly disease". He had to undergo many operations, he was constantly in severe pain. Adoptive parents were by his side and did their best to alleviate his suffering. The moments of this story, which ended in December 2015, when the five-year-old Anton died, were captured in the photo.

Canadian youth Terry Fox became famous for having contracted cancer at the age of 18 and lost his leg because of it, at the age of 23 he ran more than 5 thousand kilometers in an attempt to complete a marathon from ocean to ocean in 143 days. Despite the fact that he failed to complete the plan due to the penetration of metastases into the lungs, Terry Fox was buried with honors as a hero. After his run, a large photo archive remained.

How and where to make a frame and photo in Polaroid style for Instagram??

Cyclical fashion brings back white retro frames, scuffs and other highlights that were created with a Polaroid camera a couple of decades ago. How to take a Polaroid style photo to make your shots look vintage and super super original?

Nomo

The first app with a Polaroid frame is called Nomo. Here the shooting is as close as possible to the long process of shooting in the 70s and 80s. You need to select a good frame, and then click on the button.

Next, you need to wait a couple of minutes until your list appears. After a while, you will receive a photo card in a white frame, on which a retro filter is superimposed.

The application allows you to take pictures with both the front and rear cameras.

Unfold

Polaroid-style photos can be taken with the Unfold app. Some frames are free (for example, the CS1 template set), and some are paid. The examples use frames from the FF1 set.

If this app is not available on your phone, here are the Top 10 Reasons Why You Should Download the Unfold App.

MolyCam

Polaroid style photo can be taken with MolyCam app. The program offers only 1 white retro frame. But for aesthetes, this is enough! After all, the application is full of vintage effects that can be applied to the picture.

Instants

A white Polaroid photo frame with wide white borders is available in a program called Instans. There you can also process the image to your taste, artificially age it or apply a fashionable old-fashioned filter.

Pixlr-o-matic

How do I take a Polaroid style photo? Try using frames in the Pixlr-o-matic app. This option is more suitable for horizontal photos. The best frame has a name Nolaroid.

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