How to take good Instagram pictures only using your phone

Taking good Instagram photos: exposure and HDR

Everyone has probably had a photo that would have been just perfect if it wasn’t overexposed - if you’re taking a pic with your phone and there’s too much light, which often happens outside on a sunny day, the light “bleaches” the picture, turning whole areas into barely visible blobs with too much light on them. Once that happens - there is nothing you can do. If you’re using an iPhone, you can avoid this by focusing your camera on the brightest part of the frame and holding your finger there for a few moments. This will lock in the exposure and then when you move your camera to your actual shot, it won’t get overexposed. If you later find that the picture is too dark - simply brighten it using a photo editor.

Most phones have HDR automatically turned on, this means that your phone doesn’t take just one photo, it takes many pics at the same time, focusing on different areas and then combines them together. This can help with uneven lighting, but most of the time it can also give you an unnatural picture, so keep this in mind and play around with the setting when you’re shooting.

Composition and pallete for good Instagram pictures

Take a look at your Instagram feed: you can notice that the best accounts you follow post pictures that are very similar to each other in terms of their color palette. If you want your account to look gorgeous and captivating, choose either a warm, cold or a neutral palette from the very beginning and stick to it. You can also choose a filter or two from your favorite editing app or just one of Instagram’s own filters and apply it to every picture you take - this will ensure a similar color palette in all your pics.

Composition is another thing that’s key to a great picture, and with composition it’s important to remember the rule of thirds - the golden rule of photography. You phone has a great little tool to help you with composition using this rule - just choose the option to display the grid and you are all set to create a perfectly composed shot.

Choose perfect lighting for artsy Instagram pictures

As we’ve already mentioned above, you want to avoid having an oversaturated picture, so if you can choose a day when to shoot, opt for cloudy days - they create a gorgeous, even lighting. Plus, you can avoid having to hide from sunlight that either blinds you by shining directly in the eyes or creates weird shadows on your face and body that spoil the entire pic. If you’re taking a picture inside, try to do it during the day in a well-lit room - natural lighting looks much better in an Instagram shot.