Instagram Tips

Instagram is probably my favourite social media platform. It’s the one that I’m really passionate about and I thoroughly enjoy sharing pictures that sum up life as I see it. I’m lucky enough to get lots lovely comments over on my profile @thismamalife and often get asked how I take my photos.

I thought it would be fun to share some of my tips with you.

1.       It is ALL about the lighting – I’m rather unlucky in the fact that I work from 8am till 5pm every day so tend to miss out on those lovely hours of the day that are filled with natural light. This meant I needed to invest in a nice, bright softbox light so I could fake the wonderful, natural light my photos needed and craved. It takes a while, and a lot of trial and error, to find the best way to get your light to work for you. Mess around with the positioning and you’ll soon find what looks best for you.

(You can also, often, find me running home on my lunchbreak and stock taking photos at the weekend so that I do get some natural light in my life!)

2.       Find your theme – my theme is bright bright bright. I edit nearly all my photos the same way so that the images flow and look good together. I also put the exact same border around each photo so that they are all spaced out exactly the same. A lot of people do this and it’s fun to see everyone’s different preferences. There are all sorts of themes you could follow for your profile and it all comes down to personal preference at the end of the day. I follow a lot of monochrome accounts, colourful accounts, flatlay accounts, all sorts.

3.       Use great editing apps – I’m a big fan of VSCO Cam, Filterstorm Neue, Snapseed and Facetune on my iPhone and Picmonkey, Lightbox and (when I figure out how to use it) Photoshop on my Macbook. Explore them to find the perfect way to brighten, retouch and enhance your images. I will do a separate post on photo editing apps at some point in the future.

4.       Use appropriate hashtags – have a quick google for your genre and you’ll soon find out what everyone else is doing hashtag wise. It’s good to see what hashtags your favourite accounts are using and follow suit.

5.       Follow similar profiles – interact with accounts you admire and aspire to. Like their photos, comment and ask questions etc. The best way to get yourself out there is to communicate with others and you’ll pick up lots of great tips and followers on the way.

Let me know what your top tips are for your Instagram profile!