diff --git a/moto/ec2/models.py b/moto/ec2/models.py
index cd5be45db..377699164 100644
--- a/moto/ec2/models.py
+++ b/moto/ec2/models.py
@@ -85,6 +85,7 @@ from .utils import (
     simple_aws_filter_to_re,
     is_valid_cidr,
     filter_internet_gateways,
+    filter_reservations,
 )
 
 
@@ -588,7 +589,7 @@ class InstanceBackend(object):
                 if instance.id == instance_id:
                     return instance
 
-    def get_reservations_by_instance_ids(self, instance_ids):
+    def get_reservations_by_instance_ids(self, instance_ids, filters=None):
         """ Go through all of the reservations and filter to only return those
         associated with the given instance_ids.
         """
@@ -605,15 +606,20 @@ class InstanceBackend(object):
         if len(found_instance_ids) != len(instance_ids):
             invalid_id = list(set(instance_ids).difference(set(found_instance_ids)))[0]
             raise InvalidInstanceIdError(invalid_id)
+        if filters is not None:
+            reservations = filter_reservations(reservations, filters)
         return reservations
 
-    def all_reservations(self, make_copy=False):
+    def all_reservations(self, make_copy=False, filters=None):
         if make_copy:
             # Return copies so that other functions can modify them with changing
             # the originals
-            return [copy.deepcopy(reservation) for reservation in self.reservations.values()]
+            reservations = [copy.deepcopy(reservation) for reservation in self.reservations.values()]
         else:
-            return [reservation for reservation in self.reservations.values()]
+            reservations = [reservation for reservation in self.reservations.values()]
+        if filters is not None:
+            reservations = filter_reservations(reservations, filters)
+        return reservations
 
 
 class KeyPairBackend(object):
diff --git a/moto/ec2/responses/instances.py b/moto/ec2/responses/instances.py
index b1ccc7e12..8605969b8 100644
--- a/moto/ec2/responses/instances.py
+++ b/moto/ec2/responses/instances.py
@@ -3,20 +3,18 @@ from jinja2 import Template
 
 from moto.core.responses import BaseResponse
 from moto.core.utils import camelcase_to_underscores
-from moto.ec2.utils import instance_ids_from_querystring, filters_from_querystring, filter_reservations, \
+from moto.ec2.utils import instance_ids_from_querystring, filters_from_querystring, \
     dict_from_querystring, optional_from_querystring
 
 
 class InstanceResponse(BaseResponse):
     def describe_instances(self):
+        filter_dict = filters_from_querystring(self.querystring)
         instance_ids = instance_ids_from_querystring(self.querystring)
         if instance_ids:
-            reservations = self.ec2_backend.get_reservations_by_instance_ids(instance_ids)
+            reservations = self.ec2_backend.get_reservations_by_instance_ids(instance_ids, filters=filter_dict)
         else:
-            reservations = self.ec2_backend.all_reservations(make_copy=True)
-
-        filter_dict = filters_from_querystring(self.querystring)
-        reservations = filter_reservations(reservations, filter_dict)
+            reservations = self.ec2_backend.all_reservations(make_copy=True, filters=filter_dict)
 
         template = Template(EC2_DESCRIBE_INSTANCES)
         return template.render(reservations=reservations)