Instagram, oh what fun it is! I essentially use it as a diary of my life, things I love, people I love, a place to save moments that take my breath away. In saying that I like to make sure that it is creative, bright and that the photos are of a high quality. It often takes 5-10 shots to get the perfect shot. Here are a few of my trusty little tips and tricks I use with my insta.
Light is important in photos, so always make sure you use it to your advantage. Use it as a effect on your photos to give shadows or brighten peoples faces, there is nothing more beautiful than natural light in a photo. When I am taking a photo esp of food or a flat lay I always use natural light I never use the flash on my phone.
If you are taking a photo or wanting to feature a product on your Insta look for a simple neutral background. I use a white board from the hardware store or a clean patch of sand. This way it allows your subject to be the focal point of the image instead of getting distracted by a busy background. Keeping it simple and clean is best with these kind of shots!
Take you time when posting and picking the image you want to post. Make sure your images are not out of focus, when you take the photo you tap on the screen to ensure it focuses. Use the straighten tool to make sure the horizon is straight if your photo is of a beach or sunset. Sometimes I like to use a digital camera to ensure the image looks REALLY high quality and the use photoshop to brighten the image.
Depending on what type of feed you have you can use the whole square or use a white boarder to keep the entire image in use. You can use a white boarder app or simply tap the image to get the white back ground around the photo and then screen shot. I go through stages where I like my insta to have all white boarders and then will chuck in a square images if I think it will look good in the feed.
Use your creativity and personality with your feed. Try not to post the same kind of images straight after each other, mix it up so people stay excited about your posts. I try to mix it up between surfing, fitness, food, quotes, videos, flat lays this way my feed doesn’t look all the same.
I also am a fan of being creative with the caption, use a quote, a story, a fun fact something that captures someone scrolling through’s attention. Keep it short and sweet though don’t write an essay to clog up peoples feed. ps on this note if you are going to hash tag do it in the comment below not in the actual caption, it looks cleaner and if you share your photo onto facebook it will not look silly.
Where I live in Sydney there are so many great photographers on all of our beaches either in the water or on the sand shooting so I am incredibly lucky to have so many surfing shots. Before I knew any of these lovely generous humans my friends and I took turns taking photos of each other surfing from the sand or swimming with go pros. If I am alone a cheeky tip is to set your phone/camera on video mode and then you can just screen shot the best frame!
Also use Pinterest to gain inspiration for the kind of shots you want to capture and follow accounts that you love the look of this way you are constantly inspired with content ideas and images.
If you use a photographers image always PC (photo credit) them as they put in a lot of hard work, gear, talent and hours to get those photos. This goes for regraming photos always give credit where credit is due, If you use someones image say THANKS and give them #regram credit.
BE a nice girl, don’t say negative things on peoples instagram feeds, stop and think how you would feel if someone said something mean to you on yours. Encourage each other and tell someone if you like what they are wearing or think they look beautiful!
Enjoy it and put your own little touches on your posts, have fun! Let me know if you have any cool Insta tips or fave accounts you always go to for inspo
