{Picture Perfect} How to Take Better Instagram Photos

Instagram is definitely one of my favorite social media apps, probably of all time. I love nothing more than to take a break from my workday and pop on over to Instagram and scroll through my feed to get inspiration, relax and just enjoy the beauty and simplicity of photography! Not to toot my own horn too much, but I am actually very proud of my Instagram account as it is nearing in on 5,000 followers! I think the reason my account has been doing so well lately has to do with the extra effort I put into it and of course, a few helpful tips I have picked up since first starting out!

1. Don’t be afraid to use a DSLR or Compact Camera!

When Instagram first launched, the novelty of the app was wrapped up in the fact that you could capture images on your iPhone and then add these cool filters to your images to give them a cool vintage or film camera vibe! I think the novelty of that soon wore off when people began to see that the best way to get a lot of likes on your photos was to use a DSLR or compact camera to shoot, edit your photos in Photoshop and then post them to Instagram! Now, iPhone purists would say Instagram is meant for iPhone/Smartphone photos, but the truth is, you can take any image and post it, and it is becoming increasingly popular for people to use a higher end camera to take their pictures. If you are trying to grow your account or have a business you want to promote through Instagram, using a higher end camera is really a must! Not 100% of the time, but definitely using a better camera to shoot most of your images is a good idea for marketing sake! Now, I know it can seem like a pain to pull out another camera and then have to upload your images to a computer to edit before uploading to Instagram, but don’t worry, I have a solution for that! At the end of 2014, I actually purchased a wifi SD card, the Toshiba Flash Air, that goes into my camera and pairs with my iPhone so that I can quickly and easily upload my photos from my DSLR to my iPhone, no computer needed! Then I use some of my favorite iPhone editing apps to tweak the photo before I post to IG, it’s super simple and the SD card was very reasonably priced and a great quality- I would highly recommend it!

2. Lighting is VERY important.

Few things can ruin a great photo like bad lighting! I think that is probably the biggest issue I ever see on Instagram is an image that is underlit and/or has the wrong color balance, usually because the photographer has tried to up the brightness artificially within an app! Although I do tend to up my brightness a tad with applications, I always try my hardest to start with an image that is properly lit. Make sure you are using the best natural lighting you can find, or go ahead and use a lamp or studio lights to make sure your image is bright straight from the SD card! If you are in a bind and out and about, try using your iPhone’s built in flashlight feature (or a real flashlight) to help add lighting to a scene by bouncing the light off a reflective or light-colored surface onto your subject. If that isn’t a possibility, or you’re shooting a dark scene on purpose, try to use settings on your camera (like ISO or pre-programmed night scenes) to help properly balance the lighting and color in the image!

3. Use color saturation to help your image pop.

Now, let me preface this by saying that I try to be as conservative as possible when it comes to adding any effects to an image, but I find that something simple like bumping up the saturation a little bit can really help an image pop. In terms of built-in Instagram filters that help boost saturation, Lo-Fi, Hefe and X-Pro II are probably my favorite for this within the app, or else I use Afterlight which is one of my favorite photo editing apps!

4. Go easy on the filters.

Like I mentioned in the previous point, I try to be as conservative as possible when it comes to filters and added effects. Although that “authentic film camera” look was a popular feature for Instagram that lead to it’s rise, I think now, for the most part, people are over the lomography look. Don’t feel compelled to always use a filter if your image doesn’t require it and only use a filter if you think it enhances an image, as opposed to using a filter to mask the fact that your image wasn’t the great to begin with. This is especially true of HDR filters. HDR was hot in like the early 2000s, but now it just looks incredibly dated. If you aren’t familiar with HDR images, here are a few cringe-worthy examples to help bring you up to speed. I’m sure once you see the examples, you will know what I’m talking about!

5. Consider composition before shooting.

The final tip I have for making the most of your Instagram photos is to consider the composition of the image you are trying to capture. Instagram provides a “rule of thirds” on-screen guide to help you manage your composition, and I think not enough people pay attention to that feature! Unless absolutely necessary, try not to center your subject in the middle of your image, play around with it’s location in the shot and work with different and exciting angles that may add interest to the photo! I won’t go into how to do this too much in this post, but I will refer you to my Photography Tips post where I discuss this more in-depth and give examples to illustrate how to properly compose an image!

Okay, that is it! Just a few simple tips to help you make the most of your Instagram photos! Make sure to go ahead and leave your Instagram handle down in the comments so I can check our your accounts, and also be sure to follow me on Instagram @MissTrenchcoat if you aren’t already and help me get to 5,000!

xoxo,