Whether you want to get on Instagram for your own personal page, or to promote your business or something else that is important to you, you will notice something whenever you get on the website and start looking for photos. Everyone on Instagram seems to be a professional photographer or has some amazing editing skills!
It’s amazing how some simple techniques and changes allow for you to make some amazing photos on Instagram, but for a newcomer all the options you have can feel very overwhelming. Especially whenever you are marketing your brewery and you need to make your pictures stand out in order to get some new customers.
In order to make things a bit easier for you as you are starting out, this article has compiled a few simple ways to create stunning Instagram images without needing a degree in photography!
1. Take A Good Photo
Photo editing tools, whether those included in Instagram or in other third party tools, can do a lot. They are very important for touching up your photo and making the changes that will allow your image to be completely insta worthy. However, none of those tools will help you out whenever you have a poor quality photo to begin with.
If you have a poor camera, or are taking a photo in an area with too much or too little light, you might find those photos are going to be much harder to edit because you aren’t giving the editor a lot to work with.
So invest in a good camera (or use your Iphone) and don’t be afraid to make some changes to your photo well before you snap the picture. You don’t need to be a professional photographer to know whenever the sun is reflecting off the lens or your room’s lightbulb is casting the subject of your photo in an orange light.
Use your common sense and take a good photo, but don’t go thinking that it needs to be perfect because that is what your editing tools are for!
2. Focus On How It Will Be Viewed
If you are creating your Instagram account for a business, then you might want to put yourself in the shoes of your customer. If you want to create a successful brewery Instagram, then your customers probably want to see your latest beers and the process that goes into making them. So whenever you take a photo, make sure that your beer bottles are centered in the image.
Additionally, another way to create a stunning Instagram image is to focus on perspective. While most people tend to hold their phone up to eye level and snap a picture, you might want to move and find some interesting angles to get your latest photo. What if you could take a picture of your brewing process from above? Or take a photo of your beer flowing from another angle? It might separate you from your brewing competition and will keep your customers flowing in the door.
You shouldn’t break your neck for the perfect photo, but playing around with angles and perspectives is the best way to draw eyes to what you create.
3. Include Layers In Your Photo
One other thing that you can do to help draw the eye into your photo is to focus on layers. After all, what’s more fun than digging into layer after layer of something to get to the end?
While you might want to have something in your photo be the main focal point that draws in the viewers’ eyes, you should also try to include some foreground and background in the image.
Each extra layer is going to draw in the viewer, especially if there are things in the foreground and background that are interesting to look at. You might not always be able to have a layered photo, but whenever you can you should try to include them.
Plus, layered photography can also help you improve your photography skills and can force you to see the world around you in an entirely new way.
4. Learn About Instagram Filters
While you might think that filters are just things to make selfies pop or to add humor to a photo, Instagram filters are designed to be the perfect tools to help you create amazing images. While you might not use every single filter and effect for your Instagram post or story, you should still go through some of them and see if any of them can add that extra pop to your photos.
Some filters like the Oslo filter can warm up skin tones and create contrasts, while others like Clarendon can add a cooler tint to your photo. This can work to your advantage if you find that your different beers can have some different effects on your customers. Maybe putting a warm filter over drinks that will make your customers feel warm and fuzzy can be an effective marketing tool.
Experiment with the various effects and filters you can find on Instagram and also third party tools as well. You might find some that will actually work for you on serious posts, as well as some of the funnier ones that are able to be used whenever you want to post a not so serious post.
5. Focus On Photos With Engagement
Most people get trapped in the ‘scrolling cycle’ where they constantly go through their feeds, scrolling from picture to picture and not even stopping to toss a light towards the picture that causes them to chuckle for a millisecond.
Do you see the problem with this? Chances are you want people to be engaging with your photos, and by extension the rest of your posts and your content, and unless you stand out from the staggering number of posts that are shared every single day, that won’t happen for you.
Make your photos out of the box, and don’t be afraid to spend time adding strange colors, a cool pattern, or using shapes to make your picture pop. As easy as it might be to just take a picture and call it a day, you will need to do a lot more than that to stop the scroll and get your customers interested in what you have to say.
Speaking of engagement, you also need to make sure to have well researched hashtags and captions under your posts. This will get your picture in front of your audience even more, and you might also find that your audience will be commenting a bit more too. Spend some time looking at other brewery’s Instagram accounts and see what hashtags they are using, and then research some of the current ones to add to your posts.
6. Learn What Your Audience Likes
Finally, you won’t get very much traction on Instagram if you find yourself unable to learn what your audience likes, so doing some research can help you in that regard.
Look at your competitors on Instagram and see what they are doing. What hashtags are they using, are they posting images at a certain time of day, are they engaging their audience in ways that you might be able to copy?
What about your discovery feed? Are there things there that you can learn from? After all, the discovery feed is showing you some of the most popular things on Instagram at the moment, and they are very popular for a reason! Heck, even going to the comments section on your competitors’ posts can show you a lot about your customers and what they like and appreciate.
Learning and knowing your audience can influence your picture taking in various ways because you can expect a higher engagement. For a brewery business, being able to focus on your engagement is key.
Plus, if your audience looks at everything you post and then begs for more, you can bet that a picture from your account is going to cause them to stop and look closely at what else you have to offer.
Finally, Be Creative!
It can be very easy to turn creating Instagram images into something that is formulaic, where certain pictures are more effective than others. Then there’s no reason to post anything other than the photos that work, and not only does your account get all samey and boring, but your drive to take the pictures actually starts to decrease as well.
Don’t optimize the fun out of using Instagram, whether you are using it for your business or for your own use. Make sure to be creative and don’t be afraid to post a picture that just looks good, is fun, or shows off your personality.
Sure a picture of you eating a comically large sandwich or a sunset that you’ve seen might not up your clout too much, but it can be fun and can bring a chuckle to whoever does see the picture.
Plus, social media is supposed to be loads of fun, and making images that make you smile has to be a part of that.