Instagram Adds Color and Fade Tools for Seasoning Photos to Taste

Apps like VSCO Cam may not have the enormous social network that Instagram boasts, but they offer powerful photo editing features that Instagram has historically lacked. After launching five new filters for its service and a perspective-tweaking Adjust tool just a few months ago, Instagram is now working on putting more photo-editing power at the fingertips of its users. Today the service announced two new creative tools: Color and Fade.

The new Color tool lets you add a specific color as a tint to the highlights and shadows of your photographs. You have eight distinct colors to choose from: yellow, orange, red, pink, purple, blue, cyan and green.

The Fade tool, as its name suggests, lets you give your photos a little more fading, even beyond what filters already do. Drag the slider to soften the colors in your shot.

These tools can be found in version 6.19 of Instagram’s Android app, now available through Google Play. It is also being rolled out to iOS users over the next few days as version 6.10 in Apple’s App Store.