How To Take Best Photos for Instagram in 2020

The most important thing to know about Instagram is that this platform is all about visuals. That's why, when thinking of your brand's Instagram presence, you need to carefully develop a content plan because photos have to look good and be high-quality.

Your brand's Instagram account is an essential part of the brand's representation. Can you imagine a world where successful and popular worldwide brands would post to their profiles blurry pictures without any care about their page's aesthetics and overall appearance? It sounds absolutely ridiculous. If you claim that your products or services are the best, your social media should match.

Good photography has a huge impact on users' decisions about purchasing a certain product or service. Good content works like a magic push for the person to start following your brand and buying what you market. If you want to dominate your niche, you have to attract more followers to your Instagram. And you will need to put in some work in your photos to do that.

Now that you are aware that people are here for good photography, you may be worried that you're not a professional photographer, but don't worry, we have a few tips for you to get your photography skills to the next level.

Think of your Instagram feed as a mosaic. With every next picture, you're adding strokes like a painter to perfect it. The whole composition should look harmonious. Before taking any photos, you should plan the overall aesthetic of your Instagram profile. Note that it should fit your brand's personality. People should be able to easily recognize the brand.

Think about who you are going to photograph when it comes to photography. Will your Insta account feature photos of people, or it's going to be full of shots of various foods?

If you carefully think all of these things through, it will be of great help for you in taking high-quality photos that support the brand's style and image.

To preview whether your shots go together well and turn your feed into one beautiful story, you can use visual planners, like Later, Buffer, etc.

Taking amazing photos on the go is not that easy, especially if photography isn't your cup of tea. Getting great pictures is the result of detailed planning and preparation. Once you figure out the aesthetic of your brand's Insta profile, you need to focus on the steps that will help you in achieving the best results:

• Should you explore locations for your photos?

• Will you need to purchase props or other supplies, like backdrops for taking pictures?

• If you're going to photograph people, who are they? Do you need to look for the models for the photos?
  

If you're not sure how to answer these questions, you better sit down and develop a strategy. This way, you will be prepared to take the best photos to make your Instagram feed look good and attract new followers.

Your phone camera and photo editors are capable of creating pure magic to make your Instagram account pop. Take a look at Apple's Insta account. Those are user-generated pictures that the company's team posts on their page. As you can see, to take jaw-dropping images, you don't need any special equipment.

Even if you don't have to invest money to purchase professional equipment, you can't start producing content without understanding how your device works first. It's essential to know all of the advantages your camera has, to use it in full force, and create good content.

Camera settings offer a huge variety of options, like exposure, shadow, etc., and you have to know in what way you're supposed to adjust them to take a great picture. All of these things depend on what device you use. The most convenient thing you could possibly do is to search for tutorials and then practice adjusting the settings.

You need to learn some of the photography basics. It will help you be productive, enjoy the process of creating, and get the best high-quality images to showcase your brand. If you want your content to stand out, prepare for reading educational materials and taking test shots.

There are tons of information on how to capture things with your camera and turn the shots into a chef's kiss, but here are some of the core advice:

• Composition

It's the placement of the objects within the frame of the shot. Probably the most popular and easiest technique to balance the image is the rule of thirds. It requires you to mentally divide the image with the two horizontal lines and two vertical ones. And then place the most relevant elements along those lines or at the points where they meet.

• Negative space

It's the area that surrounds the main object of your composition. This element can help you with guiding the viewer's attention toward the object you want them to focus on without overloading the frame.

• Perspective

Try to use your creative side more to show the object from the best angle. Take a couple of shots above, below, from the left, from the right, and then compare what you've got.

• Lighting

Good lighting is the foundation of amazing, high-quality images. This particular element is inalienable for succeeding in making fabulous shots. That's why the next paragraph will highlight it in detail.

Since most Instagram photos are square, you can take pictures in square mode. This way, you will have an opportunity to see the way your image will look like without the need to crop it.

If you feel that photography is truly your passion and you have lots of ideas, then dive straight into the world of tutorials, educational articles, and classes that you encounter. But if all of the above seems boring to you, at least stick to the basics seeing as it'll help you to get the job done.

By the way, if you're the owner of an iPhone, here's the tip on how to apply the rule of thirds in practice: go to the Settings and open your Camera. Turn on the button Grid Overlay, and the nine-square grid will appear on your screen every time you use a camera.

Lighting has a huge impact on taking a good shot. If you consider lighting during the process of shooting, you'll get impressive results.

And don't worry about the equipment. Sometimes all you need for creating a beautiful image is natural lighting.

However, if you're thinking about throwing a photoshoot outdoors, you don't need the sun to shine directly on the objects you're shooting. Also, you need to take into consideration the shadows that the sun casts, etc. Try shooting at the locations that have open shade.

And if you're not a fan of outdoor photoshoots, you can take advantage of the natural lighting for the indoor photoshoot as well.

Considering that Instagram is a social media, you might immediately decide that you need to shoot and post quickly. Like it's some kind of competition. In a way, you probably can call it a competition because well, competitors within the niche monitor each other's actions. But to capture high-quality images for your brand's Insta account, you should take your time, especially if you're just learning.

When it comes to creating images, experimenting, and being bold is your best bet. Don't be afraid to try out new ideas, change angles, poses, rearrange objects within a frame until you're sure you can create good content.

The process of shooting requires patience and dedication. Besides, trying out new things allows you to expand the boundaries of imagination and diversify the feed by choosing good shots.

Instagram has lots of built-in filters and editing tools to help you improve the images' appearance. However, third-party apps offer a lot more tools as well as opportunities to make your photos stand out due to its beauty.

The variety of editing apps and tools seems limitless, but here are some of the best:

• VSCO
  
• Snapseed
  
• Afterlight
  
• Camera+
  
• Pro-Camera
  
• A Color Story

Settings and adjustments you make to the images depend on your brand's Insta aesthetic and the style of the feed you want to maintain.

Third-party editing tools open the world of endless possibilities for making the content your followers will praise you for.

To learn how to create great Instagram content takes time. You experiment, fail, succeed, try again, and so on.

Success doesn't happen overnight. Even though there's plenty of educational materials and tutorials where you can find detailed explanations for every step, you may still have questions, and it may take some time to get the desired results.

Don't throw in the towel on your learning process. Do your research, practice, experiment, and you'll level up your skills. Also, the whole experimentation and the practicing process will help you to figure out what you do and don't like, discover your strong sides, and the things that work out the best for your brand's Instagram.

Now that you know how to take fabulous pictures for Instagram, it's time to apply the gained knowledge in practice and start taking photos. You have enough of the advice and tricks to back you up.

It's okay to postpone your posting schedule and invest the time in creating amazing shots. To post a few high-quality photos each week that will bring your page engagement is always better than post blurry, chaotic images every day. Remember that quality prevails over quantity.

You don't have to be a professional photographer to create amazing visuals. Your passion and desire to learn can lead you to great success.