- Don’t take photos via Instagram
- While it may seem convenient to take photos using the Instagram app, your phone’s own camera app is way better. Instagram’s camera app doesn’t allow you to zoom and it automatically crops all your photos into a square, for instance.
- It’s also worth noting that most smartphones come with an HDR (High Dynamic Range) function, allowing you to take photos with different pre-set exposures – another thing you can’t do on Instagram.
- Work like a tripod
- Great still photography requires a steady hand. To get crisp photos free from motion blur, you need to turn yourself into a human tripod. Look around you to see how best you can support yourself. Use a table, a tree, a park bench, your BFF… whatever, to help keep you and your camera steady.
- Invest in a mini-tripod to place on tables, benches or the floor, or consider a GorillaPod, which has flexible legs which can anchor your camera or phone to trees, fences, ledges or whatever else you can find.
- The good thing about tripods is you can also take selfies using remote control timers without worrying about awkward arms getting in the way or the phone toppling over at the last moment.
- Edit your photos
- The Instagram app is OK if you want to make basic tweaks to your photos, but if you’re looking for an alternative, there are hundreds of feature-packed, easy-to-use editing tools out there.
- App stores are literally bursting with tricked-out apps – Average Camera Pro is great for nightlife photos, 8mm Vintage Camera can make your pics look convincingly vintage, while VSCO is great for post-production picture work… and there are many more.
- Be clever with your filters
- A recent scientific study by Georgia Tech found that photos with filters are 21% more likely to be viewed and 45% more likely to get a comment.
- The researchers also found photos with warm filters, greater exposure and well-defined contrast were the ones that proved most popular, while pictures with saturation effects led to lower views, and those with age effects to lower comments.
- However, over-processed images often lose definition and enhance noise in your photos, so don’t go overboard with your filters.
- Get more people in
- A separate study by Georgia Tech and Yahoo Labs also found that Instagram photos with faces are more likely to get more comments than those without.
To be more specific, if your photo includes a face it is 38% more likely to get a like and 32% more likely to get comments than a sunset or a photo of your brunch.
Oxigen Business Consulting 