How to take professional pictures for instagram

How to take professional pictures for instagram

Sunday, May 9, 2021

Tips on how to take professional photos for instagram

You don't need to be a professional photographer to take great shots. However, a few basic rules remain if you want to seduce an ever larger audience by posting the best Instagram photos.


1 - Choose the theme of your Instagram photos
Whether it is an object, an animal, a person, a landscape… the person who is going to look at your photo must understand what you want to talk to him about and what your subject is.

You need to tell a story that your viewer needs to instinctively understand. 🗨

Feed @annadawson
Anna Dawson tells each time a story centered on balloons, a poetic element of her universe.
The more things in your photo, the talking points, the more links, the more success you will have with your followers.

2 - The rule of thirds
This is one of the basic technical rules in photography: divide your frame into nine equal parts by drawing two horizontal lines and two vertical lines.

The strong elements must be on the lines and their intersections. Your mobile also allows you to display these main lines in the options. ⚙

Optimizing Instagram Posts: The Rule of Thirds
Use the rule of thirds on Instagram.
3 - light
It's all a matter of dosage. Your Smartphone does not allow you to manually adjust the exposure (you can do this through a third-party application). But you still have the choice of the light reference point.

Touch your screen in a place that is neither too dark nor too exposed to lean on. The application determines, from this selection, the best settings to result in a balanced photo. Do several tests with different benchmarks so that you can choose the best one. ✌️

brightness photos
4 - The flash
When it's dark, try to do without the flash as often as possible - it flattens everything. A photo will often be much more interesting while retaining relief, even if it has dark parts.

The flash can sometimes be used during the day to reduce the contrast of a subject in both light and shadow.

The Instagram app's flash switch can be turned on, off, or automatic. 📸

5 - The point of view
Try to find an original angle of view that you are not used to seeing.

You can also focus on a detail that, by definition, cannot be seen at first glance. An ordinary object can become interesting if it no longer looks like it used to be. 👁

Instagram photography by Gérard Trang @ superchinois801
An example of an original angle of view: the statue thus appears to admire the architecture of the building (Gérard Trang).
6 - Take stock
If you want to embrace artistic blur, it has to apply to everything except your subject!

The latter is rarely in the center of the photo - it's like we saw before, along and at the intersection of the lines of thirds - but you absolutely have to take stock.

Theo Gosselin
Théo Gosselin's vagueness highlights the model.
I emphasize that you may want your subject in the center to make it cooler. It can be a sought after style effect. Be careful, however, not to overdo it!

7 - depth of field
The shallower the depth of field, the less distracted the viewer is. The downside of the smartphone is that it works at a wide angle and with a great depth of field.

To correct this, you can get as close as possible to your subject.

This framing has the advantage of making what is outside the subject blurry and also less important in proportion. Solid backgrounds also allow you to highlight your subject.

On the contrary, sometimes think about giving depth to your photos with a foreground and / or a background on your subject. 🕳

Instagram Photography @Neriad
Nice example of a carefully considered depth of field (@neriad).
8 - play with cropping
To break out of the ordinary, set yourself apart from stereotypical frames. For example, give more importance to the hands, carried forward, than the face. Cut off the topic to tell the story around it rather than about it. If the artistic effect appeals to you, take some crooked photos (a technique that shouldn't be overused, though!).

You can also clash in the thread by posting Instagram photos with a white frame (For this, you will need the Instasize application (for IOS & for Android)).

Feed @ william.wanderlust
Example of a very trendy Square White Border feed (@ william.wanderlust) since 2017.
In short, sometimes have fun and surprise! 🙋

9 - Filters and tools
Instagram obviously offers filters to give certain effects. Test them!

But be careful not to overdo it: #nofilter Instagram photos have more engagement than others, when they just don't have a filter!

 

If you have to put one in, know that the most successful filters are Willow, Valencia and Sierra, according to a 2015 study.

She also adds that the less saturated the photo, the more successful it is and that ... colors also have a role to play! 🎨🤔 Prefer to use cool and light colors.

You can also use other tools on a computer or smartphone, applications or photo editing software such as the image editor from Swello.✌️Car, ok the #nofilter does not have an Instagram filter, but that does not mean say that they are not retouched beforehand by their creators. And yes, that's what photographers and influencers often do!

VSCO
All these beautiful people will advise you VSCO (available on IOS & Android): bloggers' best friend offers a dozen very nice free filters (including the A6 or HB2 filters) and allows you to create your own & save it for reuse in every photo! It also allows you to take photos and videos from your phone in .RAW, which, unlike .jpg, is a raw photo with no data loss, for better quality photos!

SNAPSEEP & LIGHTROOM
We also recommend Snapseed (available on IOS & Android) or Lightroom (available on IOS & Android), both free, which allow you to retouch the basic settings of the photo (brightness, contrast, temperature, white balance, etc.) to determine the particular atmosphere given to your photos but above all to be able to apply certain modifications to only one place of the photo, using the "selection" tool.

FACETUNE & AFTERLIGHT
Facetune (2 versions - Facetune 2 is free - to retouch your portraits and "look like a Hollywood star") or Afterlight (to add effects to your photos, like light beams or a "dust" effect) will complete this list .

What to become a pro! 😉

10 - Improve your Feed
Pay close attention to your feed as well. 💕

This will help you avoid the usual "Oh boy, that's ugly! »Because your photo does not go with the others and to bring your community into a particular universe: yours.

To do this, you can manage your Instagram photo layout, using tools like UNUM, an application that allows you to simulate your feed (with photos already published) and thus test different photo combinations.

You must also create a feed unit:

either by retouching your photos so that the tones and shades are almost similar so that the atmosphere that emerges is identical (see point number 10 🔝);
Feed @Frenchwords
The feed organized (alternating photo and quote) and harmonious (nuances of similar photos and the same background for images with texts) of @FrenchWords ..
or by giving them a common element. A kind of clue that we find in each photo: a color, a white or black background, a particular object which can sometimes be in the foreground and others in the background, flowers, balloons (like those Anna Dawson)… 🎈

The feed of Jonathan Bertin (@jonathanbertin), Travel & Lifestyle photographer, wows with its impressive color scheme.
Your followers will appreciate the harmony between all your photos.

Photography advice, inspiration, retouching and tools ... 🎨

Now you have a lot of information to make Instagram photos that are not only stunning but also successful that are sure to grab the attention of your followers! ☺️

So get started! There is no shortage of subjects to photograph. Oh and here's a last little tip: a face in a photo = + 35% likes. 😮

Finally, find me on Insta (subscribe of course!): @gadoltaurine

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