Maybe you’ve never spent time thinking about what to post on Instagram, and you just post whatever cute picture you’ve taken recently.
Or maybe, if you’re like me, you spend a little too much time thinking about how often to post, what to post, what to use as captions, and how cohesive your Instagram profile looks overall.
Well, I’ve been down every path of Instagram obsession and ignorance, and I’ve found a good happy medium. If you’re in search of the right way to tighten up your account– either for growth in an art field or for your own satisfaction– read on for a few ideas.
- ultra-effort
This one takes, well, ultra effort, and an ultra amount of apps. Back when I ran a fan account for One Direction (honestly one of my greatest accomplishments, don’t even come for me), I often created nine individual posts out of one giant image. It would look something like this when I was finished.
To do this, I found a (high quality, many-pixeled) background image. I then used the app Picsart to add each of the celebrities’ photos, a polaroid frame, text, triangles, etc. Then I saved that whole image and went to an app like PhotoSplit, which helped me chop the one photo into nine posts. It took a lot of work, but looked pretty cool and saved me time later– I had about a week’s worth of posts right there! For the Christmas pictures, I used different background pictures, but used a similar technique with the frames.
Posts using this technique don’t have to be as bright or intense as mine were, and you can always create a similar effect by editing a solid color or picture as the background around your pictures, so they look like they all belong together.
2. a fair amount of effort
Once I got into college, I did still curate my wonderful fan account on Instagram, but I started to put a little less effort into it. Similar colors and patterns kept a theme, but I didn’t plan out and edit nine pictures at once anymore.
I used features on Picsart like the overlay tool to layer space scenes on top of pictures. Later, I used the VSCO app to apply the same color on top of pictures. The subjects were often wearing the color already to add to the cohesion– this was easy to find when I used the Google image search “color” tool to narrow my searches by color.
3. planning, but not overworking
This style is what I use now. I took tips from my past self on the “same color” theme, then took it down a few notches to create my personal feed, which looks like this.
To create this look, I only post pictures with white/ivory/beige as one of the main colors in the photo. I then pull up VSCO to apply the same filter (right now, I use E1) and fix any lighting issues. Especially since multiple picture posts are a thing now, it’s not too hard to plan a white outfit or find a beige wall somewhere as a cover image to keep your feed looking consistent.
4. just keeping things consistent
For a while, all I did was use the same VSCO filter on every one of my photos. While I ultimately chose to change things up, I still think this is the best way to kick your Instagram account up just a notch without putting much work into it at all. Plus it’s pretty fun searching through filters on various apps to find a perfect one to match your photography style.
Ultimately, what you do with your social media accounts is completely up to you. Want to repost pictures from your favorite stylists and designers? Great, you can share those brands with everyone following you. Like your cat more than your face? It’s no problem if your profile looks like it belongs to a kitten. Want to post all your glammed-up-aspiring-MUA selfies? Girl, you do you! Think your breakfast needs to be shared? Show me that french toast right now. Would you rather just never post and use social media to keep track of your faraway friends? Completely valid.
It’s your life, your Instagram, your choice what to share. Own it!
m. leeann 