How To Use Filters On TikTok

If you’ve spent much time on social media platforms, you’re familiar with the many funny, strange, and even scary changes that users can make to their posts before uploading them.

Some apps call those “filters,” but the ones like googly eyes and hearts swirling around your head are known on TikTok as “effects.” TikTok filters are much more subtle, designed to let you make minor changes in a TikTok video’s attributes (like its color saturation and brightness). They essentially change the “feel” of what you’ve shot, not the content itself.

There’s one more difference between filters and effects; you can choose an effect before or after you record a video, but filters can only be applied after you’ve recorded.

Bottom line: if you want to give yourself huge lips, put your head into a fishbowl, or add all sorts of other “cool stuff” to your video, you add “effects.”But if you want to make the lighting look like you were recording at dusk, give yourself a “tanned” look, or convert the video from color to black and white, you use a filter.

Here’s how to do it.

Using TikTok Filters

Some of the app’s filters will slightly change what you’ve shot, but most are designed to simply show you (or the subject of your content) to best advantage.

There are four categories of filters: Portrait, Landscape, Food, and Vibe.

• Portrait filters let you change the light, shading, and tone of the foreground subject.
• Landscape filters enhance the appearance of a video’s background, and are particularly helpful when shooting in outdoor settings.
• Food filters can be used on any video, but they’re intended to make food look yummy.
• Vibe filters give you a one-tap shortcut to a specific look and/or mood without having to tinker with any other filters.

Each category gives you a wealth of options, all of which can previewed on the video you’ve recorded before they’re implemented on the finished product.

To add a filter:

1. Tap the “+” icon at the bottom of your screen to enter “Create” mode and get started.
2. Choose the length of the content you want to record (15 seconds, 60 seconds, 10 minutes) from the slider above the large “Record button,” and then click the button to record your video. Click it again when you’re done.
3. Look on the right-hand side of the screen for the editing icons. Tap the three circles to bring up the “Filters” menu.
4. You’ll see the four categories of filters pop up at the bottom, and you can scroll through them to choose the filter you’d like to use on your video. You’ll immediately see a preview of the filter on your content; if you don’t like it, just hit the🚫 icon to remove it.
5. Do any other editing you’d like (for example, adding effects), click the checkmark, finish choosing the specifics of your post, and upload it.

You can use more than one filter, but that requires a little more work. Apply the first filter, then save your video as a draft from the “Post” screen. Then open the draft from the “Create” screen and you’ll be able to add a second filter.

That’s all there is to it. Experiment with filters for a little while, and your videos will look like they’ve been shot by a professional photographer!