Instantly improve your instagram with these smart tricks

   Bored of your own Instagram profile? Not seeing enough engagement with your posts? Just two months ago, I felt exactly the same but, since then, I have completely changed up my content and noticed a huge difference in my growth! 

Now you can do the same just by making a few simple adjustments to your pictures...

   First of all - to give you an insight into how great of an extent I transformed my Instagram profile - here is a before and after screenshot. 


   What a difference, right? The first thing you probably noticed was how dim and dark my pictures used to be and how they appeared very muddled without a clear indicator of what my blog is all about. 
Here is how you can change up your content in the same way I did:

Make your pictures brighter

   You can do this by increasing the exposure either on your camera settings or on an editing application after taking the picture. Afterwards, you can also use settings to remove shadows, increase highlights and adjust your contrast levels. In effect, this brightens up your feed and gives it an uplifting feel.

Make your colours pop

   This is integral to the uniqueness of your feed and what kind of mood you want to build with your pictures. Start with either creating a mood board of colours you want to incorporate into your photography or choose to focus on one colour or pattern in particular. In my examples, you can see that my focal point is pink.

   As for the next step, you can do one of two things. You could include these colours/patterns at least once in all of your pictures OR if you struggle to keep up a constant theme, take a bunch of pictures with a high concentration of a colour/pattern and space them out amongst the pictures that don't. The latter still creates the illusion of a constant theme without the pressure of making all of your pictures the same.

TIP: Most editing apps allow you to give your pictures a tint or adjust the appearance of your colours - particularly in Adobe Lightroom.

Know that your Instagram reflects your blog

   It is very easy to fall into the trap of posting for the sake of it as you haven't done so in a while but don't do it! I used to make the mistake of jumbling up my personal life with my blog content. This, in effect, made it very confusing to determine what my Instagram profile was for. I now ensure that my posts are strictly lifestyle with the occasional exception. 

   In short, people should be able to tell, just by glancing over your pictures, what your account is for.

Invest in flatlay props

   If you are fond of flatlays, this would be the perfect way to boost your blogger aesthetic! A little goes a long way here; focus on on your focal colours and patterns. What would accentuate your theme? I've yet to do this with my new theme but because my focus is pink and florals, I plan to invest by buying some artificial pink roses and some ribbon for my flatlay pictures. 

TIP: You can go into shops like 'Wilko' and grab some wallpaper samples or decorative paper that would make a great backdrop for your flatlays.

Use photo editing apps

   For some, the Instagram built in filters are enough but, when it comes to getting the lighting and colour right, you would definitely be better off using apps like Adobe Lightroom and VSCO. Snapseed has also been recommended to me by a number of bloggers but I have yet to check that out - I will get back to you on that one! 

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Have you tried any of these tips or tricks? Have I missed any?

Let me know in the comments below!