Good photos on Instagram can attract thousands of followers and generate lots of likes. What are the characteristics of a good photo and how to take one? In this article you will find some proven ways.
With over 2 billion users, Instagram is the second most popular social media platform in the world. Every day more than 500 million people log on to it, who actively add, comment and react to photos, videos and posts. How to attract attention with your photos? How to take nice, aesthetically pleasing photos? Here are reliable ways to take good photos.
Perhaps you think that all the nice photos on Instagram are taken with a decent DSLR camera or smartphones with the best digital cameras. Nothing of the sort! You don’t need professional equipment or the most expensive smartphone to take a good photo for social media. With just an average camera phone, you can take eye-catching, aesthetically pleasing photos. The quality of photography matters, but today’s popular mid-priced smartphones can handle social media photos just fine.
Let’s start with the most mundane issues, because they are nevertheless important – dimensions. Images published on Instagram have a square shape. If the photo is rectangular, it will need to be cropped or filled with a background of your choice. In the vast majority of cases, such a photo already loses a bit of its beauty, so when taking photos for Instagram, it is worth keeping in mind the square frame in which it will be published on the portal.
“If it is not the quality of the equipment that determines the aesthetics of the photo, then what then?” – you may ask. Actually, the matter can be closed in three words: idea, composition and frame. These are the key elements of a nice photo. Even a simple everyday activity, such as cutting fruit, can be presented in an aesthetic and eye-catching way if we have an interesting idea for props, harmonious composition and a good frame. The right combination of colors, positioning of elements and a shot that presents the whole in an interesting way is the key to nice photos!
This is where we talk about the props that accompany the main subjects in the photo. If you want to depict an activity, a person, or an object, adding elements related to this main theme will add a lot of variety to your photo. However, remember not to overdo it. The main points of the photo should stand out, and the embellishments should complement the image.
For example: you are doing your daily work in front of your laptop (a very common theme of photos on Instagram). You can simply photograph a piece of your notebook, mouse, keyboard and a cup of over-drunk coffee that happens to be sitting on your desk – and it won’t be a good photo, and it certainly won’t draw much attention from your audience.
If, on the other hand, you add a magazine or book, a notebook with notes, a pen on (or next to) it, and a coffee mug in your hand, it will create a much more varied and eye-catching image.
main photo: unsplash.com/Nathana Rebouças