how to have a good Instagram

Everything you need to know to create an Instagram that you love.

At lot of people don’t care or understand the point of putting the extra effort into Instagram. But growing up with a fascination for all of this “stuff,” I see the importance and the fun to it, so keep reading if you’re the same way 🙂

Here is a little table of contents/overview of what I am going to talk about:

• Poses/Angles
• Planning
• Theme
• How I Edit My Photos
• Apps I Use

Poses/Angles

This one is mainly for fashion Instagrams so skip ahead if this doesn’t interest you. But this can also help those who want to learn their angles.

It’s all about becoming comfortable in front of the camera, and not worrying what others think. Because yes people are staring, but is it worth losing the photo op, worrying, if you KNOW its going to be good. The ones staring are going to be the ones staring on social media as well, so you just gotta do it.

I would start by dancing in front of the camera to get comfortable. Then from there, do poses that feel right to you. Sometimes, dancing is all you need.

 

Try playing with your hair or your clothing pieces.

 

Be silly. That makes the photo more authentic.

Use a prop. 

 

My go-to pose is looking down and putting one foot in front of the other… this makes you look taller.

 

As for angles, when you’re first figuring out what angle you like: tell whoever is taking the photo to try couching down, putting the phone above their head, or come from different sides so then you can figure out where you look best.

Planning

My favorite app to plan with is UNUM.. just don’t ask me to pronounce it.

This app is so convenient because it helps you plan what looks good next to each other on you feed.

I think Instagrams look best when the photos are categorized by “thing,” “close up,” and “far away.”

“Thing” can be anything from a prop, flat lay, photo of something w/o you in it, etc… just a thing.

“Close up” is simply just a photo that is focused on a person or person(s). So if you have a photo of you and a friend and you two are the main focus, or it is hips and up – that is a close up. Or if it is a selfie where you are the focus.

 

“Far away” is a photo of you with or without friends but you are far away, there is more going on behind you… it is a full body.

 

Once you have the photos categorized, sort them out and move them around to see what looks good next to each other. You don’t want to have too many of one next to each other.

This is personally what I do and think looks good in my mind, but it is Instagram and there are no rules – post what makes you happy at the end of the day. Having an organized feed with content I am proud and passionate of, makes me happy.

Planning your photos on UNUM is just like playing Tetris lol.

Theme

Once you have your planning done and photos organized, having a feed (one filter or style you use on every photo) this brings the whole look together.

Your theme doesn’t have to be a filter, if you can make it work where all your unedited photos match… but from personal experience I cannot achieve that and I like playing with filters!

Picking the perfect feed, involves playing around on whatever editing app you like and finding a filter that speaks to you, then altering the settings to make all the photos match.

I just think a theme makes everything look a lot cleaner and organized.

How I Edit My Photos

I love a good vintage and retro pink. So I would take photos of me in pastel colors (my brand color basically) and add S1 on VSCO, play around with it.. I would usually bring saturation down, temperature down, and add a pink tint to reach my desired look.

Recently, aka a couple days ago, I wanted to change it up and I was leaning more a blueish/brownish feed. So I started using A5 on VSCO, bringing it down to the 7s, adding blue temp or orange temp depending on what the photo needed more of and that’s pretty much it.

(If you don’t use VSCO, this might not make sense but play around with it and you’ll get it).

 

Apps I Use

• VSCO (to edit)
• Lightroom (I mess around with it but I’m not a pro – but that never stopped me)
• UNUM (to plan)
• FaceTune (to make things more white or add “detail” to certain things)
• Rhonna Designs (for fonts and to make templates/fliers/etc)

 

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These are just my thoughts and opinions. There is no right away to do Instagram. But I started using it since the beginning in 2011 and have been watching what people do throughout the years and on my own, this is what I discovered as the best practices. This was geared more towards a fashion lifestyle type of Instagram but you can make it your own with whatever photos you like to take!!!!