Instagram Photo Tips
By Tobias Michel of www.tobiasmichel.com
1. Chose one subject to focus on (not 50 different things at once)
LEFT: Simple and good: A phone on a desk (a bit too dark though)
RIGHT: Nice overview, but neither the bird, the flowers or the tower is the center of attention
2. Find enough light to brighten up the subject (or try to use Instagram’s editing features)
LEFT: Good – RIGHT: Too dark
3. Fill the frame with your subject
LEFT: Good: The meal is filling the frame of the entire image.
RIGHT: Not good: This is neither a picture of a meal nor of a table. It is something in-between.
4. Collages
One medium, two close ups and one overview picture together make for great collages (now build-in into the Instagram app – or use one of the may free apps)
5. Play with depth
Depth: The obvious use is to have a foreground subject close to the camera (like a face) and a little off to one side, with something in the distance filling the remainder of the frame and telling a story. (Like walking off the stage after a workshop with the next speaker behind me)
A more unusual example is this picture of a, at first, lonely Michael Jackson imitator on the street – with a huge crowd reflecting in the window behind him. (The MJ imitator is the foreground close to the camera, the crowd is in the inverted distance)
6. Symmetry is sexy!
7. Diagonal lines are more exciting to look at than straight lines
Sometimes tilting the camera makes for more interesting photos – usually it is better to keep the camera / phone straight but move around and find a spot to take a picture where the subject and background form diagonal lines.