# How do instagram models downgrade their picture quality? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 4, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722 "2018-09-04T01:47:16Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/1 "2018-09-04T01:47:16Z")
This picture [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](https://imgur.com/a/h1U7f3o) is a good example. It is a professionally looking taken photo by a instagram model but the picture is all grainy like it was taken by a 1990’s camera. Most of her other photos are clear and not grainy like that. I notice this sometimes with models where their pictures are grainy, to me it looks like they are trying to hide imperfections in their skin by making the photo grainy. I am curious how do they do this? Is there a easy way to take a clear photo and make it grainy like that? ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/2 "2018-09-04T02:15:56Z")
> [@sara20](#): > > This picture [Imgur: The magic of the Internet](https://imgur.com/a/h1U7f3o) is a good example. It is a professionally looking taken photo by a instagram model but the picture is all grainy like it was taken by a 1990’s camera. Most of her other photos are clear and not grainy like that. I notice this sometimes with models where their pictures are grainy, to me it looks like they are trying to hide imperfections in their skin by making the photo grainy. I am curious how do they do this? Is there a easy way to take a clear photo and make it grainy like that? [Filters.](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-filters) ---
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/3 "2018-09-04T02:46:09Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > [Filters.](https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-filters) Which filter makes the picture grainy? Because when I have used filters before all it did was give the picture a slightly different shade of color. ---
**Author:** ![GaryM](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garym/32/241_2.png) [@GaryM](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaryM)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/4 "2018-09-04T03:29:16Z")
Not filters in the film camera sense, but PhotoShop type filters that combine changes to contrast, saturation, edge sharpness and other settings that can make a photo look different from the input file. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/5 "2018-09-04T06:32:42Z")
There is a grainy effect on most photo editing apps. ---
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2018, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/6 "2018-09-04T19:40:53Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > There is a grainy effect on most photo editing apps. Can you give me the name of a good app? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/7 "2018-09-05T18:13:54Z")
Adobe’s Photoshop is the industry standard. For a free option: gimp. Note that many of these have a fairly steep learning curve. You’ll likely want to find a tutorial on how to use the one you choose to get the effect you want. Here’s a [gimp tutorial](https://www.gimp.org/tutorials/Film_Grain/) Here’s a [big ol’ list of software](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_raster_graphics_editors). ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [September 5, 2018, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-instagram-models-downgrade-their-picture-quality/820722/8 "2018-09-05T19:07:06Z")
I am mostly using Luminar these days. It is almost entirely filter-based, and has hundreds of effects.