10 Tips to Create the Most Instagrammable Photos

When was the last time you took an audit of your Instagram feed? If you use your Instagram for your personal brand, your business or you just like a curated feed, taking another look at your feed can give you a course correction. Your friends at AirBrush are delivering the tips you need to create instagrammable photos that can generate more engagement from your followers. Keep scrolling to find out how!

To get instagrammable photos you can start with playing around with your posing. If you don’t have lots of experience with posing, you may find that all your photos look boring and stilted as you stand with your arms by your side. To make your poses more dynamic, you’ll need to play around with your angles. Try the rule of thumb “if it bends, bend it” – tilt a shoulder and/or a hip towards the camera; lift your arms away from your body to expose your waist and be sure to push your chin slightly forward to avoid a double chin.

A touchstone of photography is to ensure that your lighting is appropriate for your photo. This does not automatically mean the brightest light as you may want to create a certain mood with dim lighting. If you want everything well lit and you’re using natural light (recommended), choose out the exact venue or part of the room you want to take the photo in to grab that light. If bright natural light is not available you may have to invest in artificial light. Or you can use AirBrush’s Relight tool to bring light to the face of your subject for a more instagrammble photo. 

Following on from our lighting rules above, if you choose to use natural light, you will need to decide on the kind of sunlight you need. Typically, the golden hours in the A.M. and more so the P.M., are regarded as the most flattering for portraits. However, if you want to go for a more bright and airy look, wait until mid-morning or mid-afternoon for steady white light. You’ll also need to consider how cloud cover affects natural light. Light cloud tends to offer a diffused light which can be complementary; heavy cloud cover will produce a more moody photo

To get more instagrammable photos, you can introduce props to add visual interest. This can range from something small enough to be handheld to larger decor items that make up the backdrop of your photo. Once again, the props you choose will be determined by the vibe you want the photo to express. Use colorful props in light materials for an airy and fun photo. For more somber photos go for dark colors in your props to convey that sense of seriousness. 

Not all of your photos need to feature a person or portrait. Consider doing a flatlay to break up your feed. Flatlays are a great way to feature treasured trinkets, hobby equipment or inspiration for your followers to draw from. As we’ve said before, the theme of your instagrammable photo will determine the type of flatlay you set up. You can go for something pink themed and traditionally feminine or brightly colored and fun or maybe a dark academia theme will better suit your overall aesthetic.

You can inject more visual interest into your pics by layering the photo. To make this an instagrammable photo, you’ll need to decide what goes in the foreground, midground and background of the frame. Of course, the camera’s focus should clearly feature the person or item you want to be highlighted. As a result, the other layers of your photo go out of focus but still pull viewers in as they try to determine what is the item or person just out of focus in your photo.

You can get things moving and shaking by using action shots on your feed. What this means is allowing the camera to capture you as you move across the frame. Move slowly and with a shutter burst to capture an in focus shot of the subject. If you want something more editorial, look to capture a fast moving subject, where the moving body or body part is blurred. These different styles are useful depending on what you are trying to convey in your instagrammable photos.

This has been hinted at previously but a big factor in getting more instagrammable photos is deciding upfront what aesthetic or theme you want for a photo or for your timeline in general. Deciding this at the beginning helps guide you on lighting, styling, background, etc decisions so that photos are cohesive. As an example, you may have a light and sporty aesthetic and can decide to feature daytime photos in different locations, with different sporty outfits. 

Photo composition refers to how a photographer arranges visual elements within the frame. The aim is to achieve a pleasing organization of objects within the photo. Filling a frame may sound easy, yet can be quite challenging. Composition can be difficult because it is the combination of lighting, location, wardrobe, styling, and any other elements. Some easy rules to look into and follow are the rule of thirds and symmetry.

Once you’ve captured your raw instagrammable photos, make them memorable with an AirBrush edit. Though all of our tools are intuitive and easy to use, nothing beats using one of our Filters to get that polished, professionally edited look. There are over 300 Filters for you to choose the one that best elevates your photo into something worthy of your timeline.

Using even a few of our tips above will certainly have you on your way to creating instagrammable photos. It mostly comes down to planning ahead and deciding on how you want your feed to look. Keep in mind that those first 9-12 squares are what give a first overall impression, so take your time when making this decision. AirBrush, the easy photo editor, will make sure your photos are looking fabulous. Tag your pics with #AirBrushApp so we can find them and have a look. Then, follow us @AirBrushOfficial on Instagram for our latest tips, tricks and hacks!