Shea, I haven’t figured this out yet. It also seems interesting to me that there are so few conversations about story filters. Maybe most people don’t realize that they exist? Applying them is different than traditional Instagram filters.
For what it’s worth I generally try the above with my photos in Snapseed. Here’s a bit more detail about what I do.
- Auto white balance—My Moto G isn’t always the best with color accuracy.
- Boost warmth a bit. Depends on the photo though.
- Curves, Luminescence. I generally bum everything, but the highlights slightly more
- Curves, RGB—push the highlights slightly, drop the shadows
- Structure—push slightly
- Sharpness— push a good bit
I’m pretty sure the filter does something very similar. Unfortunately, I don’t have a good way to gauge how much these are changing.