Instagram is very much a calling card for a good amount of photographers these days. Many of my friends with successful photography businesses attribute a large proportion of their client influx to the app. Here's a great video on how to make your account better.
In a modern world where social media is often the portal through which people seek services, a photographer's Instagram account can very often be the first landing page for a client looking for their services. Just like any social media service, it has its own quirks, and with those come certain viewer expectations that one should consider when crafting and maintaining their portfolio.
- Consistency of Style: Being consistent makes it immediately clear upon a cursory scan what kind of photographer you are, what you specialize in, and what look people can expect from your work.
- The Grid: As you scroll through someone's feed, you're gleaning and absorbing their style. Paying attention not just to your individual photos, but to the overall flow is very important. This means planning out content in advance and ensuring that the order in which you post creates an overall structure that is both pleasing and cohesive.
- Stories: Use a professional camera and Premiere to make your Story videos. Though this is clearly a step up in effort, it will easily set apart your account. Stories are one of the best ways to ensure you stay on people's radars and they commit to following your content.
Instagram is one of the most popular ways to showcase your work, and understanding and taking advantage of the app is a great way to increase both engagement and business.
Definitely! Also-------- www.instagram.com/mclendonphotography =P
I like how he hits on how our work needs to be great but I always find a lot of IG success videos leave out one huge part of the puzzle (not all but a lot from what I've noticed) which is engagement. IG is a "social" media application. If we don't engage with our target market or our peers we are losing out on exposure. Just commenting on someones posts you like will get people to check out your page and hopefully end up following you. Not that I have anywhere near a decent following but when I start commenting (in a genuine way) on other posts I notice I get a small boost in my own followers.
I dunno...all these over curated, all professional/prepped images, kinda souless grids don't really do it for me. great...anyone's stuff looks good when you use a nice camera and have time to edit. 85% of my feed is from my iphone (and the rest is either prepped images/rendered video or scans) and it's what I'm doing at that moment. I would much rather follow a talented/interesting photographer with an organic feed than a kinda sterile grid full of prepped images looking like a portfolio website. to each his own, I guess.
I have a solid following (just under 60k) but I tend to shoot more naked stuff than most people, so my engagement isn't the greatest.
I also thought this is the way to go. Don't have it look too clean/professional, use some of the insta filters and mix some iphone shots in there too. so my gf and I tried a new account in this style www.instagram.com/like2seeplaces - so far most comments seem to come from bots