Nowadays most of the people stick on to social media’s and it had become an integral part of their life. Social media nowadays act like the first impression of an individual and they try many innovative ways to make it look attractive and make it more engaging. Adding perfect photographs in your social media account make the profile stand-out. But if you’re not a professional photographer or if you don’t have much knowledge regarding the overall visual brand, then it will be difficult for you to manage.
So don’t worry, I’ll help you out with 7 simple tips which you can try to make your social media pictures look professional.
1) PROVIDE SOME EDITS TO YOUR PHOTO, BUT KEEP IT SIMPLE
Providing some edits to your work before posting it on social media. It will make it stand-out in front of the audience. Make sure you do some editing as well. There are a lot of apps available on Play Store for editing and each has its own distinguishing features.
According to my suggestion, if you’re a beginner you can go for Snapseed and Pixlr. They are user friendly and you can use the provided filters and make edits. You can also adjust the tone, brightness, contrast, sharpness and many more for free. If you’re a Pro, you can go for PicsArt as they have many professional features and you could also learn it easily by referring some tutorials on YouTube to improve the quality of your edits.
But keep in mind that you don’t over-do the picture. Make sure you keep your picture simple and authentic. Your audience prefers authentic pictures over artificial ones.
2) HAVE A CLEAN AND CLEAR CAMERA LENS
Make sure you look after and take care of your camera lens. Handle that portion with extra care because even a single scratch can alter the quality of your picture.
Also, make it a habit to wipe the lens with a cloth or cotton pad before taking the pictures. Capture some trial pictures first to ensure that there is no problem with the camera.
3) TAKE PHOTOS FROM DIFFERENT ANGLES
Always taking a photograph from one specific angle will make it look normal and boring for your audience. Taking pictures from varying angles can involve a sense of illusion and it will help in adding more perspective to your photographs. Take pictures from lower and higher angles as it will help your photograph to stand-out in front of your audience and involves a sense of creativity.
4) CONSIDER LIGHTING
Lighting is yet another important factor to check for.
There are two types of lighting:-
i) NATURAL LIGHTING
Sun is the main source of natural lighting and is the most preferred one too. Avoid taking photos in the bright sunlight and make sure you make use of the Golden Hours – the first hour of light after sunrise & one hour prior to the sunset. This is the best available time for capturing perfect photographs as they provide better exposure.
i) ARTIFICIAL LIGHTING
Artificial lighting is mainly by lamps and other light fixtures. Most professionals use a good setup studio with artificial lightings to take perfect photographs. If you can’t afford to go for a studio, you could also take it at the comfort of your home. If possible buy a ring light as it would provide excellent lighting with no matter which time of the day it be. Make use of different corners of the house and take samples photos to identify the perfect spot.
5) MAKE USE OF THE TIMER
Even though front cameras helps in the better pose, try to use the back camera more. Because the back cameras have more megapixels compared to the front camera and can take pictures with more saturation and exposure. If you don’t have an external help then make use of the timer feature. The timer features are available in almost all cameras and use tripods for better handling and capturing of photos.
6) MAKE SURE YOU AVOID MANUAL ZOOMING
Many people try to zoom while taking photographs as it enables them to get a close view. Make sure you don’t follow that. Zooming of the camera will reduce the image quality considerably.
You could try a few alternatives without getting the photo manually zoomed:-
i) Move closer to the subject of the photo to get a clear and closer view. But keep in mind to maintain a proper six-foot distance from the subject otherwise it will affect the image quality.
ii) You could use the crop feature at the time of editing to apply a desired zoom to the photograph.
7) FIND A PERFECT BACKGROUND
A perfect background makes a perfect photograph and it will add more points to your profile. Find a perfect and suitable background for your images. Make use of the nature and environment around you. You could also use a plain white background in some cases. Make sure the background fits your topic as well. A photograph with a good background can help in engaging more audience.
So, these are the main factors I follow while taking a photograph. My advice is to make sure your photographs must be creative and authentic for getting a higher engagement in social media.
Hope you got all your doubts cleared by now.
Written By Sooraj Saji | Edited and Published by Joshna Sharon Johnson