Instagram is everyone's favourite social media platform right now, isn't it! For a long time I didn't really know what I was doing with Instagram and just smapped photos of any old thing, added a filter and a couple of naff hashtags and forgot about it. Over the last few months I have suddenly become obsessed and can spend absolutely ages scrolling through and liking pretty pictures. The way I used Instagram is certainly different to how I used it say this time last year, heck even about 6 months ago I was using it totally differently! A few people have asked me how I found my Instagram style, so I thought I'd write a little post.
From the perspective of a reader, I know I follow accounts that are consistent in their content, layout and editing, so that's what I try to apply to my own Instagram posts. I want my followers to enjoy my photos so I try to put myself in the shoes of the person seeing my feed. I aim for quality over quantity; if I don't have any photos that I feel are good enough I'd rather just not post anything at all.
CONTENT. Firstly, I thought about what I was sharing and why. My Instagram account is an extension of my blog, and my blog is a family lifestyle blog. I wanted my Instagram to give instant snippets of my life. A snapshot of my life at that moment in time, like a live version of my blog. Most of my photos now are of my boys, with lots of children's fashion, a few lifestyle shots, pictures of the blooms I buy every week, or pretty food I might be eating. It's not an exclusive list of what I share, but you get the idea.
LAYOUT. My photos now are deliberately taken in certain rooms of my house. My house is very odd and my living room gets barely any light. It's ideal for vampires, but I am not one! So many of my photos are taken in Little N's room, which is a bright room and gets lots of light. Even food photos have been taken in there! Yes, I carry my dinner up to my son's room to take a photo of it. What can I say, it just looks prettier. I try not to have a cluttered frame and tend to have quite a bit of empty space around the subject I'm photographing.
EDITING. I'm not a fan of the Instagram filters at all anymore but I do edit my photos before posting. It's like a compulsion, I have to edit them even just a tiny amount! I do like the brighten button and I am fond of a little bit of a fade, and sometimes I increase the saturation just a touch. Once I found the editing that I liked best on my photos, I then tried to stick to it for all of my posts. Every now and again I do change every so slightly because I'm finicky like that, but when I do I try to stick to the same edits for at least 3 photos so that the consistency isn't lost.
