How to Improve Your Photos on Instagram

I’ll always encourage you to book a brand photography shoot, so you’ve got lots of lovely, professional photographs to share on your Instagram feeds. But I do understand there might be times you need to include your own photos. So, how do you do that and maintain a professional consistency with the pro photos you’ve already got? Here’s how to improve your photos on Instagram in five steps. 

1: Shoot in Good Light

It may be that you have some products you need to take photos of, or you want to grab a few pictures of your work. As busy business owners, it’s totally understandable how getting these photos can somehow get pushed to the bottom of the list of to-dos. Suddenly you find it’s getting late, but you need to get those photos out. 

Hold it right there! Because any photo you take on your phone when it’s late, dark, and you’ve got overhead lights on is going to look pretty awful. Trust me, there’s a reason photographers prefer to shoot in daylight hours!

Move that item on the list to a higher priority and get it done during the day. Take your photos near a window where there’s lovely natural light (although avoid harsh, direct sunlight if you can). And switch off those overhead lights! This is the first step to getting much better quality photographs.

2: Think About Composition

You don’t always have to put the subject of your photo in the centre of your image! 

There’s a great little technique known as the “rule of thirds” that’ll help you immediately improve your photos. Picture a grid on your phone screen, with two vertical lines and two horizontal, splitting up the screen into a grid of nine. You may even already have this grid on your phone camera screen (or have the ability to switch it on). Now, where these lines cross over is where you should be placing the focus of your photograph for a more pleasing image. 

That being said, you can use dead centre as well, but it’s good to change things up a bit.

3: Try New Angles

Our tendency is to shoot straight on with a subject. But what about shooting lower down, so you’re looking up at it, or from above in a sort of “bird’s eye view”? Don’t just take one photo from one angle. Get creative and try some other angles. You might find a much better photograph appears with a bit of experimentation!

4: Create Depth With Layering

There’s nothing wrong with taking a photo of an item against a plain white background. But it can get a little boring if every photograph looks like that, can’t it? 

Get creative by adding in other elements to create some depth. Look at including props to create some foreground or background interest. And if you’re out and about, shoot through things or use foreground objects to frame what you want to capture.

Again, this is all about experimenting to see what works. So don’t just take one photo and run. Have a little play around to see what works best. 

5: Edit Your Photos

Even the most professional photographers in the world will edit their photos. No one ever puts out a raw, unedited photograph, and you can tell the ones that do!

Avoid using Instagram filters to edit your photos, though. They have a very distinct (and not always flattering) look about them. So spend a little time editing your photos outside of Instagram before you post them.

I recommend using the Lightroom app on your phone. It’s free to use and easy to get to grips with. Alternatively, there are other great editing apps out there, so have a look and see what works best for you. Remember, you still want your photos to look natural and the colours to look correct. So, avoid using any kind of filter that changes this and stick with a clean, natural edit that fits in well with your other pictures.

6: Final Tips

A quick few pointers to remember which will elevate your photographs instantly: 

• Keep your horizons level! 
• When photographing people, scan the background to ensure there aren’t trees growing out of heads and things like that.
• Try to keep backgrounds simple. If a lot is going on in the background, it can take away the focus from the image’s main subject.

And that’s it! You’re ready to get out there and take better pictures for your Instagram feed.