How to Create Amazing Custom Photo Filters on iPhone

If you’re one of those people who likes to maintain a consistent theme across your social media feed, you’ve probably spent hours editing your photos to make them all look consistent. An easy way to avoid manual editing and achieve consistency is to create custom photo filters on your iPhone.

Copy and paste edits using the Photos app

Unfortunately, the native Photos app on iPhone doesn’t have a built-in feature for creating custom presets. However, there is a simple solution. You’ll need an image in your camera roll that has been edited with the effects you want to reuse.

If you can't find it, it's best to take the time to edit using the Photos app.

Note : Remember that you cannot reuse edits from a photo if it was edited using a third-party app.

Here's what you need to do:

1. Open the Photos app on your iPhone and find the photo you edited.
2. Tap Edit , then tap the three horizontal dots in the upper right corner of the screen.
3. Select Copy edits from the options that appear.

Copy edits on iPhone

Once you've copied the edits from your edited photo, here's how you can paste the edits into a new photo:

1. Locate the photo you want to edit.
2. Tap Edit , then tap the three horizontal dots.
3. Now, select Paste edits .

Paste edits on iPhone

While this doesn't create a preset filter, it's a quick way to reuse your favorite settings in the iOS Photos app. To save time, add your favorite edited photos to your Favorites album for easy access.

Preserve iPhone camera settings

Similar to reusing edits in the Photos app, another way to achieve consistency across the photos you take and ensure a more consistent look from the start is to preserve your iPhone's camera settings. Doing so will allow you to lock in specific settings like the last iPhone camera filter you used, the aspect ratio, or the lighting settings you used.

Ultimately, this means you won't have to spend as much time setting up your camera before taking a photo. You can enable this feature by going to Settings > Camera > Preserve settings .

On the next screen, you’ll see various toggles, like Camera Mode, Creative Controllers, Depth Control, Macro Control, Exposure Control, and more. The options you’ll see will vary depending on which iPhone model you have. While you can find a brief description of each option on the same page, we recommend turning on Creative Controllers and Exposure Control .

The Settings app on iPhone shows the Preserve settings section

Use a third-party app like Snapseed

Unfortunately, the Photos app is pretty limited when it comes to advanced editing features. Naturally, this means that most of us turn to third-party iPhone photo editing apps. While most of these apps let you create custom presets, you usually need to subscribe to a premium version to access this feature.

For example, VSCO lets you save and reuse edits by creating Recipes, but you can only create one Recipe in the free version. Google’s editing app, SnapSeed , is an exception because it lets you create unlimited custom presets.

Here's how to create a custom preset using Snapseed:

1. Open the Snapseed app on your iPhone. Tap anywhere on your phone and select a photo from your camera roll.
2. Edit the image as usual. Once you're happy with your edits, go to the Styles tab  at the bottom of the screen.
3. Scroll to the bottom and tap the plus (+) icon.
4. Name your custom preset and click OK .

Create custom filters with Snapseed

Now, whenever you want to apply the same effect to your image, just go to the Style tab  and select the filter you created.

Overall, the above methods will not only help you take photos worthy of posting on social media, but will also save you a lot of time in the long run.