You’re sure to know that Instagram is one of the most popular free photo and video-sharing apps around.
But do you know how to display your best images on Instagram in creative and different ways to ensure your imagery is seen, liked, and shared?
Whether you’re on the app to market a business or to simply have fun and make connections, you can generate more interest in your profile and your images by spending more time creating eye-catching pictures that will stand out and carefully thinking about the best ways to showcase those images.
If you’re short on ideas, get started by considering the following nine creative and different ways to display your best images.
1. Create, Select, and Edit Images That Will Cause People to Pause Their Scrolling
You’re sure to have spent time scrolling through Instagram feeds. And you’re sure to have stopped your scrolling when you’ve come across photos that grab your attention. So, consider what made you stop scrolling. In order to learn more tips on processing photos on your iPhone so that they catch the eye, it is better to familiarize yourself with the information on BacklightBlog.com
If you want people to pause your images and investigate your images on Instagram further, you need to post images that have the potential power to pause scrolling behavior.
Post Before and After Photos
For instance, you could post a before and after photo.
As someone scrolls down from the “before” photo to the “after” photo, the person is likely to scroll back up to see the “before” photo again.
Make Your Images More Visually Appealing
You can also simply ensure your Instagram imagery is striking and beautiful to help people pause and admire your images.
Use photo editing tools to enhance your imagery and make them more visually appealing.
For instance, with Picsart’s free photo editor, you can improve photos with editing no end. You could use tools to remove backgrounds, create artistic effects, or sharpen imagery, for instance, to help your pictures shine on Instagram.
Create Fun Images
Fun things and photos that make people laugh are also good for preventing people from scrolling through your photos without stopping to take notice of your content.
Take Photos from Interesting Angles
You can create more interesting imagery by taking photos using unusual angles.
For example, you could flip your phone upside down and take pictures of your subject from ground level. The ground would then become the foreground element of your picture and your subject will take on a new and interesting look.
So, carefully consider your subject and the different types of angles you could use to take the shot to make your imagery unique and eye-catching.
Utilize White Space to Draw Attention to the Subject
Another way of creating an eye-catching image is to utilize white space.
This can be particularly good for showcasing products, but it can work well for any kind of photo.
Utilizing white space simply means you take a photo of a subject on a plain white background to help the subject stand out.
The more colorful and vibrant your subject is, the more it will stand out.
For example, a rainbow-colored toaster will pop out of the screen when it’s placed against a white background. On the other hand, it wouldn’t look as striking on a colored or busy background.
You can always use a background removal tool, using photo-editing software, to replace the background of a photo with whiteness, but you’ll create a more professional-looking shot if you use a white background when taking your photograph.
Get the Composition Right
Getting your composition right can also enhance your imagery to ensure people pause their scrolling.
It’s best to consider the composition of photographs during the process of taking them.
For instance, you can activate the grid feature of your phone camera to help center subjects or use the rule of thirds to improve your picture composition.
You can also learn about the golden ratio, which enables you to apply a composition technique that makes images more aesthetically pleasing and will draw in people’s eyes.
Though, you also have the opportunity to focus on composition after you have taken photos by using the crop feature of a photo editing tool.
2. Add Stickers and Drawings to Your Images
In addition to taking and editing photos to prevent people from scrolling past your images on Instagram, you have the opportunity to embed graphics into your photos.
That can be especially useful when promoting events and products or announcing things like giveaways.
One of the easiest ways to add graphic elements to your pics is to make use of Instagram’s stickers and drawings feature.
You can do things like add bubble stickers with custom text to create witty or fun content. You could even use bubble stickers to create a comic strip from several pictures.
Also, you can use stickers in creative ways and add text and drawings to make your images more fun or engaging.
3. Use Slideshows Inventively
Instagram doesn’t limit you to posting single photos, so get creative by using Instagram’s slideshow feature.
You can add up to ten images to a post at any one time, so you could do things like tell a story as the viewer works through the photos in order.
Slideshows are also good for showcasing before and after content, whether that’s a weight loss transformation or showing the sun going down and finally disappearing.
To maximize slideshows, make sure each photo is consistent and you use the same editing tools and composition for each individual image.
And think outside the box. By coming up with a unique slideshow storyline or premise, you can create content that is different and which is sure to engage viewers more.
For example, you could do something fun like drawing a face on a potato; taking a photo each time you add a new feature like eyes and a mouth.
Then, after you have created a fun potato character that viewers think is cute, post the last photo of the potato character being placed in the oven, with a speech bubble of the potato cursing.
4. Utilize Visual Chaining
Following on from the last point, you can showcase your photos better by utilizing visual chaining.
That means ensuring each photograph coordinates perfectly.
Whether you’re adding images to a feed or a slideshow on Instagram, by ensuring each photo is coordinated and consistent, you can create a polished visual chain.
So, basically, every time you post a new photo, think about how it will look next to the previous one and the ones before that.
Get creative by arranging photos by things like color, orientation, and content to generate really interesting and eye-catching visual chains.
5. Create a Collage
There’s nothing stopping you from posting a single image that is made up of lots of different images, and that can be a great way of creating unique content to display your best photos.
So, look at making collages out of your top-quality photos that go well together or juxtapose each other well.
It’s easier and quicker than you might think to create engaging and aesthetically pleasing collages. All you need to do is use a collage maker for social media, such as the one from BeFunky.
Simply choose your best images and then drop them into one of the professionally-designed collage templates.
You even have the option to make use of BeFunky’s Collage Wizard. With one click, the advanced tools will automatically create a stunning photo collage for you without clipping or cropping any of the photos.
6. Partner with Others or Use Multiple Accounts to Tell Stories
With the Instagram Stories feature, you can tag others with links that go directly to their accounts, which makes it easy to give shout-outs to your favorite Instagram accounts and receive shout-outs yourself.
But some users have begun using Stories in more inventive ways.
For example, two clever Instagrammers united to post a short film in ten parts over the course of ten days, in which the content was posted between the two’s alternating accounts. Each part of the film ended on a cliffhanger to prompt watchers to check out the next post.
So, you could do similar things with your Instagram photos.
You could partner with another Instagrammer to come up with inventive and new ways to share content and stories between your two accounts or you could partner with more than one other Instagrammer.
You could even open up multiple accounts yourself to come up with interesting concepts across your different accounts that are linked to one another. For example, you could tell one story from two different perspectives on two different accounts.
7. Come Up with a Theme
Another creative and different way to display your best images on Instagram is to come up with a theme and use it consistently in the content you post.
If you want to post images on Instagram that doesn’t fit your theme, you can always create two accounts.
Having an account with a designated theme, such as one that centers on a subject like cute farmyard animals or one that has a broader theme, such as glamor and luxury, you can attract target-audience followers who know what to expect from your account.
By curating themed content well, you will soon be able to build your followers and get your amazing imagery seen by a wider audience.
8. Take Photos of Unusual Things
The more creative and different you are with the subjects for your Instagram images, the more you can create unique content that will get attention.
So, you may want to forget about posting things that we all see on Instagram every day, such as cute pets, birthday party celebrations, and landscapes from exotic locations.
Instead, think outside the box.
For instance, if you’re a keen traveler, you could post photos of mailboxes from around the world.
Alternatively, you could take close-up photos of people’s eyes, take snaps of naked people covered in brightly-colored paint, or set a theatrical stage that looks like it’s out of Harry Potter.
Options are endless. So, be as inventive as possible to come up with photos that are sure to get noticed.
9. Learn More About Photography and Photo Editing Tools
To create amazing photographs that you can display to get traction on Instagram, brush up on your photography and photo-editing skills.
By ensuring you know how to take and edit professional-looking shots, you’ll already be ahead of the game before you’ve even posted the images to your Instagram account.
So, learn things like how to use lighting effectively when taking photos, how to use the right combination of background and subject matter, and how to complement colors.
And learn more about the tools that are available with photo-editing software, such as art effect filters, stain removers, and sharpening tools.
There are plenty of online tutorials for photography and photo editing that you can access to learn more.
Summing Up
It can take time to build up a following on Instagram, but by coming up with creative and different images and displaying them well in your feed, you can generate more followers and more interest in your images on Instagram faster.
So, spend some time planning how you will approach displaying images on Instagram before you begin posting to ensure you share images that are instantly engaging and eye-catching.
To recap, you can achieve that by creating, selecting, and editing images that will cause people to pause their scrolling via:
- Posting Before and After Photos.
- Making Your Images More Visually Appealing.
- Creating Fun Images.
- Taking Photos from Interesting Angles.
- Utilizing White Space to Draw Attention to the Subject.
- Getting the Composition Right.
The other eight methods listed above for displaying your best images on Instagram creatively and differently are as follows:
- Add Stickers and Drawings to Your Images.
- Use Slideshows Inventively.
- Utilize Visual Chaining.
- Create a Collage.
- Partner with Others or Use Multiple Accounts to Tell Stories.
- Come Up with a Theme.
- Take Photos of Unusual Things.
- Learn More About Photography and Photo Editing Tools.
Whether you’re already on Instagram or are planning on opening an account. if you want your images to stand out and get noticed, make sure you utilize some of the above methods.
And whether you’re posting from a personal account or a business-focused Instagram account. make sure you have fun when creating and displaying your images on Instagram!
