Instagram is releasing an upgrade to its photo filters for the first time since the app was launched. It's a much needed update, one that should make photos look much better than they already are, if used properly.

The new photo filter is not just about adding new filters, it's about how much a filter affect an image. After applying a filter, users can use a slider to determine how much the image is affected. We've seen this before from Google's improvements of Google+, so it is likely Instagram is just reacting to this move.

For those who want more control over their images, they now have 8 new photo adjustments to play with. These features are basically what one would find in a basic photo editing software; it includes brightness, contrast, warmth, saturation, highlights, shadows, sharpen and vignette.

"Today, we're delighted to bring you a set of new creative tools on Instagram with the ability to adjust brightness, contrast, saturation, warmth and more.

Inspiring creativity is incredibly important to us-and as the Instagram community grows, we've been excited to hear requests for more ways to creatively take hold of how your photos look and feel.

When you go to select a filter, you'll now see a new wrench icon. Tap it and you'll find a tray of photo editing tools ready for you to explore. You can also now adjust how much of a filter you apply to a photo by double tapping the filter icon," according to Instagram in a blog post.

Usually, Instagram's image editing feature has always been viewed upon as nothing special, just a feature for casual photographers. However, advanced photographers who tend to use programs such as Photoshop to make their Instagram images stand out can use some of these new features.

At the moment, the new Instagram app, which is at version 6.0, is only available for iOS and Android. If you haven't seen it yet in your respective app stores, give it some time because the company is rolling out the app right now. For those who are using Windows Phone 8, you should be used to this by now. Keep waiting, the Instagram 6.0 should be available for Windows Phone before the end of the year.