This is a guest post written by Sandra Christie
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Believe it or not, more than 50 million pictures are being uploaded to Instagram every day. The iPhone changed digital photography in 2007 and Instagram revolutionized it. For six years the purpose of the app has remained consistent; still, Instagrammers have made it more sophisticated. Breakfast, oceanic views, dogs and selfies consume a considerable amount of the Insta world’s bandwidth. However, various users are doing more with this application.
So, how can you make your photos epic and mind-blowing?
Tips To Improve Your Instagram Pictures And Feed
1) Proper Planning
Similar to digitally shooting a film, capturing interesting pictures for your Instagram feed requires planning. As per various Instagram experts, it is about putting yourself in a position to achieve what you want i.e. to get a good picture. Experimenting with angles, scouting for a location, and planning the lighting are necessary for getting the best Instagram photos.
2) Avoid Thinking About Likes
Be calm, observe and check out what you like. It is important that you don’t get stuck with what the Instagram community thinks is good or what type of photos will give you the most likes. You will end up going after sweet and ordinary visuals. But your talent may lie in humor, storytelling and showing compelling portraiture. Just keep in mind the three motives – surrealism, calmness, and candidness.
3) Go For Natural Light Rather Than Flash
Do you know the most important Instagram rule? It is using natural light. If you are using the flash of your phone, your picture might look bad and unattractive no matter how much time you spend in taking it.
Sometimes using the flash will blow out the pictures and can ruin the lighting, making everything quite weird. It is a safe bet to go for natural light, and it is easy to use it to your advantage.
If you are going to take a picture, go outside or take it near the window. Make sure to avoid bright and harsh sunlight, as it will have the similar effect of a flash. If you feel the photo is slightly dim, then use filters and editing tools to adjust.
4) Make It Simple, However Not Too Simple
While taking snaps, always keep in mind that things need to be simple and not messy. But you should make sure that it mustn’t be too simple. For example, if you take a snap of a black bag on a white background, it will be boring irrespective of how attractive the bag is. But adding a single prop, like a vase filled with flowers along with a textured background will make the picture more appealing and exciting.
5) Attract Viewers Using A Clear Point Of Interest
A perfect and attractive picture will have a clear point of interest. So, whether the photo is of a person in the foreground or is about a landscape filled with leading lines, it will attract the attention of the viewer to that image.
Impressive pictures have many points of interest and that too without feeling untidy. So, it is important that you try and capture snaps that tell a story about a place or person.
6) Editing Before Filtering
Instagram has undergone massive updates since it first came out. Currently, you not only have the option to add filters but can even edit the pictures. You can edit the snap before filtering.
Playing with the contrast or brightness will make the photo better, sharper and more natural compared to what a filter does. With a little bit of editing, the photos will be much better rather than using a huge amount of filters.
7) Check Out For Moments
You need to create photos having great moments, especially the ones that focus on a subject or subjects which you are photographing. Emotional, extreme, settled and peak moments are natural and will make the pictures interesting.
Make sure to stay away from unwanted information which can detract from the given moment. But if it brings value to the photo, then there is no harm in trying it. Frankly, the purpose of a clean snap is to attract the viewer’s attention to the story which you are trying to show without distracting the viewers.
8) Check For Stronger Shapes, Colors And Lines
For a powerful Instagram picture, you need well-defined lines, shapes and intense colors. Also, you must get close to certain elements present in the picture which will loom in the frame and attract the attention of the viewer to it. Make sure to train yourself to view photos that show certain kind of emotions.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, you are using Instagram to bring more traffic to your photos. And for that, you need to have interesting content. With the above-given tricks, you can get the required results from Instagram. So, go ahead and try them.
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Sandra Christie is a Social Media Strategist at iDigic.
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Leonard Kim is Managing Partner at InfluenceTree. At InfluenceTree, Leonard and his team teach you how to build your (personal or business) brand, get featured in publications and growth hack your social media following.