Instagram Adds Five Quaint Filters for Christmas

Go ahead, flatter yourself.

A view from the artnet News office as seen through the new set of Instagram filters. From top left: Normal, Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden, and Perpetua. Photo: Sarah Cascone.

The social media phenomena that is Instagram shows no sign of lagging in popularity. On the contrary, it’s become more favored than ever. And just in time for the holidays, the photo-editing app makes a couple of much needed improvements and adds five brand new filters.

The Instagram blog describes the new filters—Slumber, Crema, Ludwig, Aden, and Perpetua—(as quaintly monikered as sweater colors in a J.Crew catalog) as being “inspired by the photography, art, fashion and design of the global Instagram community.” They’re able to “soften and subtly shift colors to achieve the look and feel you want for your each photo.” Though all Instagram users have their go-to filters, it may be time to shake things up. But not to worry. With these filters, everything is still made to look pretty.

Pointing our smart phone out the window, artnet News took the new filters on a test drive, and early results are promising. Slumber is a little yellow, and Perpetua has some green undertones, but any one of the new filters created an image that would have been a more-than-passable addition to our feed. Our initial favorites just might be the high-contrast of Ludwig and the more muted tones of Aden.

Although the new filters are undoubtedly a fun treat, the most exciting change that comes with the update is the ability to manage your filters, hiding less the popular ones (move along Kelvin and Walden) and bringing the best-looking filters to the top of the list (hello Lo-Fi and Earlybird).

artnet News is excited to see how all our favorite artists and art world personages employ the latest additions to our favorite app (see “The 15 Best Artists To Follow on Instagram” and “Ways of Seeing Instagram“), even if we’re not all fans of Richard Prince’s embrace of the medium (see “Richard Prince Sucks“). Here’s hoping for a photo-op filled holiday season.

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