Glam Your Instagram: How To Brand Your Photos On Instagram

1. Welcome To Glam Your Instagram: Hi, I'm Amanda. And in this skill share class, I'll teach you how to glam your instagram. Instagram is a great visual platform that allows you to connect with your ideal audience and allows you to create a community of followers that are tuned in when your business and brand need it the most. By making your instagram feed consistent and Cokie, you'll attract the right people to your business. Fail me there to listen when you are ready to promote your services or your products. I'm Amanda and I'm a Web designer and photographer based in East Pennsylvania, and I love to help people glam their brand, which includes Instagram in this skill shark class. I'll teach you the exact process that I take Teoh, take my photographs, curate the photographs and create a cohesive instagram feet. That way, my instagram looks exactly how I wanted toe Look, I'll share with you my top tips to improve your photos right away. How to make your brand feel consistent on Instagram to curate your feed and why it's extremely important to come up with a theme or pattern to help you figure out what to post and when to post it. By the time you're done with this class, you'll have a plan, and you'll have three denying photos that you can add to your instagram. You'll feel proud of. It will feel easier to execute, and you'll probably feel like the process is even a little bit fun. So let's dive in. 2. Class Materials: Let's talk about what you'll need for this class. First up is a branded photo prop box, which I do have a class on here on skill share. So if you want to check that out, go ahead and look at my classes and you'll find it there. Or you can just grab some items from around your home or your office or studio, and use those as the things that you're going to photograph for this class. Next, you're going to need backgrounds or backdrops that work while with your brand. Now I have a whole video that talks about backgrounds and backdrops, so be sure to check that out so you can get some ideas about what you can use for your backgrounds. Next, you'll need a camera or your smartphone. I recommend using the camera that you have, so that way you can master it before you move on to something more complex that you've never used before. So you do not have to upgrade your camera. You don't need any fancy equipment. You can use the camera that you have, so if you have a smartphone that takes nice pictures, go ahead and use that for this class or if you have a point and shoot camera or a DSLR, go ahead and use that for this class. Lastly, what you're going to need is access to a planning tool like plan early or later. Or you can use a design software like Kimber or Illustrator Toe Plan out your instagram, which will deal as our class project. 3. Class Project: Theo class project. I want you to take photos as you're learning with each lesson. Because, honestly, the more photos you take, the better you get with photography. Then what I want you to dio at the end is curate the photos for your instagram feed. This means that you will narrow it down all of these photos that you've taken to a series of three photos. Or if you're feeling a little ambitious, you could do nine photos if you'd like. And this will be what your feet it might look like after you've done all of the lessons. So what you'll do then is your post it in the class project section and you can get feedback from me and you can get feedback from the rest of the class and see what you can do to further improve your photography for your brand and for your instagram feed 4. Part One - Improve Your Photo Skills: I split this class up into three parts, the 1st 1 being how to improve your photography skills. Now, this isn't a comprehensive, all inclusive course on how to improve your photography, but I wanted to include a few of the skills that I think you can work on. Teoh make your instagram feed better. So I'm going to talk about things like camera hacks that you can use regardless of if you're using a DSLR camera or if you're using your iPhone. For instance, I'm going thio. Talk about a few things when it comes to you, lighting and getting nice lighting for your photos for your instagram feed. I'm going Teoh Talk on depth of field and why That is one of the things that will improve your photography the most. And lastly, I want Teoh share a couple of tips on how Teoh reduce camera Shake if you are getting a little bit blurry photos so you can make them nice and crisp and look lovely on your instagram feet. So let's dive in 5. Camera Hacks: Let's talk about improving your photography skills, starting with a couple of camera hacks that you can dio whether you're using a DSLR or a smartphone. So the first thing that you can do is you can turn on the grid. The grid will help you. Teoh. Use the rule of thirds Teoh. Make your composition of your photo, and we'll talk about why you want to use the rule of thirds later on in the composition video. But basically, if you can turn on this Greta, you can use the rule of thirds and you can use the guy. It's in order. Teoh place objects within the frame, so what you want to do is go to the menu of your camera or go to the settings option of your smartphone to turn that the grid on. And once you have that on, then you can start using it. Teoh make compositions that you're going Teoh. Take a photo of and it will help you to improve where you place things within the photo. Now the second thing that I want you to dio is to change the aspect ratio. Now the aspect ratio is basically how the picture will look so you want to set the aspect ratio to 1 to 1 or the square frame. So that way you're already set up to take photos that will go easily on Instagram because instagram is the square format, so you can already see what you're going to see in a square format, and it will also save you the time of needing to crop later. So doing this is just good, because you can see what's in the frame. You can see what you want to see and then not have to imagine how this will look as a square as opposed to a rectangle. And then also, it will help you save time later so you don't have to crop. So that is something I would strongly recommend you doing on your camera, and the Gainey would go to your settings or your menu. So if you can see the menu button there, you just press that button on the back of your camera and scroll through to find where you can change the aspect ratio. Now, if you have a smartphone like an iPhone, there is a square setting, so you can just go into your camera, and then you can put it on the square option so you can just take photos with that square option. And it will help you to see what you are going to actually see as the final product when you go to edit it and put it on instagram. Now these two tips are quick and easy, its not anything earth shattering, but it will help you to really start making better decisions when you're taking a photo, and it will help you to save a little bit of time in the process. 6. Lighting: So the next thing we're going to focus on to improve your photo skills if lighting and what we want to do with lighting as we want to use natural light that comes in through a window as opposed to using artificial light. When you use artificial light, you're going tohave a color caste from whatever type of light you're using. So we want to use the natural light that's coming in from a window. I use a window that's to the left of me, and I have a photo station that you can see here where I will take photos. I don't stand in front of it and all kind of stand to the side a little bit, so that way I don't get my shadow in the picture, and then I will take my photos from there, and I also have a set of window sheers. So it's a sheer curtain that I have over my windows that will help to diffuse the light to make it softer, so you can also use the light on a cloudy or overcast day because you're not going to get any harsh shadows by using all of these things on this checklist using natural light instead of artificial light, using window sheers to help diffuse the light to make it softer and more flattering. And by taking photos on an overcast or cloudy day, you're going to ensure that you have a light that IHS soft that comes through with very minimal shadows or harsh lines that can come from some direct light that is less flattering . And in the end you will have an easier time of editing as opposed to you if you were to use some artificial light or if you were to use really harsh bright light. So these are the things that I recommend that you try. It will take some time for you to figure out what is the best situation for lighting in your house. I would recommend going around to different windows and taking some photos in the morning and in the late afternoon to see what happens. See if you have any harsh shadows that are happening, and if anything, you can use a reflector to bounce some light back up onto whatever it is you're photographing. So that way you can eliminate those shadows if need be 7. Depth of Field: When it comes to improving your photo skills and using depth of field, you're going to instantly make your photos look more professional. So if you are a person who owns a DSLR, you can set your camera to be on aperture mode. You can set your aperture to be 1.8 or 2.0 or 2.2, and by setting it at a lower number, you're going tohave more blurriness in the background. If you have a DSLR, I recommend putting it on APPA tra mode. So that way you were just setting that number. And then the camera is doing the rest of the work. Now. If you have a smartphone, you can perhaps put it on portrait mode. You have to make sure that you are appropriate distance from the subject of your photo, because otherwise you won't get that effect. But as long as you have that distance between you and the subject of your photo, you should be able to get that blurry background effect that will make your photos look more professional. If you don't have that option on your smartphone. There's an app that I recommend that you use called fab focus. Now this app does cost a little bit of money, so you might want to make sure you have it in the budget. I think it's two or $3 and this will allow you to actually make this blurry effect without having Teoh have anything special with your phone or with your camera. So if you're taking photos with your smartphone, you can go in and kind of paint on this blurry effect, which is really super cool that you are able to do this without having to have any fancy equipment. So no matter who you are, you should be able to get this blurry effect. Now something I want to talk to you about really quickly is I want to talk to you about the foreground, the middle ground in the background. So the foreground is what is in the picture that is closest to the camera, and that thing is perhaps in focus or out of focus, and I'll show you some examples here so you can have something that is in the foreground that is in focus and you have stuff in the background that's out of focused, or you can have something in the foreground. That's a little bit blurry, and you could have something in the middle ground or background that's in focus. You can do the same with the middle ground so you can put something in the middle ground. So in the middle of the picture, and you can have something that is to the friend that's a little bit blurry. And then, of course, the background is also blurry, and with the background you can have that and focus, or you can have a blurry. I tend to always have my background blurry, and then I have something in either the foreground or the middle ground that is in focused , and you can do this by separating objects from the background. So if you take something, let's say you have a little plant in a cute little container and you separate it from the background in the back. Then you will have a little bit more depth there that will help you to have some of that blurriness that's going on. And the more depth you have, the more out of focus your background is going to be, especially if you have a camera that you're using the aperture mode on, and it will allow you to have this kind of separation where the thing that you're focused on in the foreground will be clear and the thing in the background will be blurry. Now, depth of field is a very big topic that I wanted to start to cover here so that you can start toe work on it and try to see if you can get more depth in your photos so you can have one thing that's kind of centralized in focus. And make that the stars. And then you can start toe have more things blurry in the background. When you start doing this, it will take time for you to develop your skills when it comes to depth of field. But the more you do it, the more you understand it and the better you'll get. 8. Reduce Camera Shake: Theo. Last tip I have for you to improve your photo skills is to reduce camera shake. Now, this is extremely important. If you are a product based business and you are trying to highlight your products on instagram, what you'll want to do is actually to whip out a tripod if you have one. If you don't have when you can usually get them fairly affordable on Amazon, and you can use this tripod to help you take pictures off. Whatever it is that you're trying, take a picture off. Now. A tripod will help because it will keep the camera study. And if you need even additional help, because whenever you touch the camera, you may still get a little bit of shake. So when you go into push the button, if you're still seeing that, you get camera shake than what you can do is use a timer so you can push the button and then step away and allow the camera. Teoh, take a few seconds to take the photo, and then you should have a better quality photo. Now again, you want to make sure that you have things and focus where they need to be in focus, but to reduce the camera shake itself, you can use a tripod. You can do the same for your iPhone. So let's say you want Teoh. Take a photo that is like a flat lay where you're looking down on the objects. If you are having a hard time because you don't have enough light or you just can't keep your arms study, you can go ahead and put it on a tripod so you can be hands free and you'll know that the picture will be sharp in in focus. 9. Part Two - Branding And Storytelling: Now we're going to shift from the ways that you can improve your photography to how you can improve your branding and your storytelling in your photographs. So in the section we're going to talk about three different things. We're going to talk about brand consistency, composition, and we are also going to talk about atmosphere. So these three things are going to help you to do better when it comes to your branding and your storytelling, So let's get started. 10. Brand Consistency: when it comes to branding and storytelling with your photographs, what you can do is be consistent. Think about what your brand personality is and figure out the things that you want to keep consistent across the board so you can be consistent with things like props. You could be consistent with things like colors, subject matter, backgrounds. You can be consistent with patterns, themes of what you photograph, so all of these things will allow you Teoh keep things consistent and allow you to tell a consistent brand story. So by looking at each of these things and figuring out what things you photograph, for instance, when it comes to props and making sure that you have a series of props that you are using over and over again in your instagram pictures, then you can make sure that you are being consistent. So let's say, for instance, that you are a painter. Props that would come up consistently would be things like a paint brush and paint palette or your little canvases that you paint on. You can have different things like your workspace, things like that that will show this consistency, and it will help to bring people and write them into your day today because you're sharing the same things over and over again, and people will begin to recognize when you are showing up in their instagram feed. Another way to remain consistent is by the colors that you use, so you'll want to look at the colors that you use in your branding. And you also want to think about the colors that you might use if you're an artist. If you're an artist or creator and you have specific colors that you have showing up over and over again, you might want to integrate those into your branding. So that way you can keep those things consistent. And then people will start to recognize your palate and bill know instantly when they see a photo that belongs to you. Now the subject matter can vary from photo to photo, but maybe you will accusingly have certain things that show up time and time again. So, for instance, you're like me and you work with people and helped them. Teoh established their brand presidents and help them establish their website. Then you might have something like a computer show up over and over again, throughout your feet. If you're an artist, the subject matter is most likely going to be whatever it is that you create, so that will show up consistently. And making the subject matter the star of the show is very important. So thinking about what it is that you want to highlight in each photograph and making sure that that particular subject is the star of the photograph and then anything else in the photo is kind of like a supporting actor. Then you'll be doing really well when it comes Teoh having this subject matter consistency so thinking about, For instance, if you're highlighting a painting of yours or if you're instead highlighting a paint brush so you can have the painting be the subject matter star and one photograph in and another photograph you can have the paintbrush be the star of the show, so thinking about how you can you subject matter and creating some consistency throughout the things that you photographed by alternating things by, um, using the same things that you would establish in your brand prop box, which I have a whole class on here on skill share, you can create this consistency. You'll also want to think about things like patterns that you use. So if you are using a pattern consistently in your brand off course, you can read that into your instagram. And I would recommend not string off to a bunch of different patterns because that can come across as confusing. So once you find a pattern that you love and enjoy, for instance stripes, then you can have stripes reappear over and over again in your instagram feed in different formats. So let's say one time the stripes show up in a photograph of you in the clothing that you're wearing, and then next time it shows up in a notebook that you have. Or you could do polka dots, which I like to do sometimes so you can have poker, not show up on a notebook one time on a pen. Another time, something like that to you kind of bring the consistency with the pattern that you have that's re occurring on your feet. Lastly, the backdrops that you use now I've experienced experimented with this myself, and I've used a variety of backdrops on my instagram feed. It's okay if you're experimenting, but when you find the ones that you love. Then, if you keep them as the main backdrops or the main backgrounds that you're using, and you start to create consistency with that, then it will start to bring everything together. So, for instance, if you have a marble backdrop and then a plane a white backdrop, those go really well together, and then you can kind of alternate them. Or you could use the marble background mostly, and then occasionally use a plane way background. You can mix it up, but keeping it cohesive because you're not going from background to background to background, and I will talk about this more in an upcoming video. Overall, what you want to do is you want Teoh. Figure out the key themes that you have repeating over and over again. Whether that's through your props through your patterns, through your colors or through your backgrounds. Choose the things that you really want to keep in common and then make sure those things are showing up over and over again and you'll see that as we are going in the next videos 11. Composition: Theo. Next way to improve your branding and storytelling in your photographs is to work on your composition skills. There are different things that you can do and you can use in order. Teoh make your photographs interesting and appealing and to tell a story, for instance, you can use scale in these photos. Use different parts of the subject matter. So I am using an example of popcorn and a bowl for you to be able to see the variety of what you can do with this scale. So, for instance, I can take a photograph that's really far away from the subject matter, so that the subject matter looks pretty small in the photograph, and then I can get a little bit closer, and then I can even zoom in to an individual popcorn kernel. So that way, the popcorn kernel is the star of the show, so you can play with scale to make more interesting photographs. So this is something that I love to play with, and I really especially love tohave in the foreground, something smaller and in the background have more of the context. So, like in the example of the popcorn kernels and then the bowl of popcorn corn in the background, it slightly blurry, and it adds more Teoh. The element adds more to the story makes it a little bit more visually appealing. Another thing that you can do as far as composition is concerned is something that I alluded to earlier in this course and that is using the rule of thirds. Now, if you have your grid on when it comes to your camera or when it comes to your smartphone, you'll see that it splits up the actual frame into nine different parts, and they're all equal. So what you would do is you would try to place your subject matter on one of the intersections of the lines. So you would put the subject matter that you want to be the star of the show right directly on where the lines intersect and that will make the composition ah, little more interesting. So it's something that is easy and fun when you have the great on that you can start playing with. Now again, if you look at this photo of the popcorn, where I have the popcorn kernels front and center and the bowl of popcorn in the back. I used the rule of thirds to make this particular photograph by having the grid on when it comes to you, my DSLR camera. So you can do this by just turning that grid on and then try to start putting things where those lines intersect. One of the last fund things that you can do with composition is you can create a flat lay photograph. Now, flat lay is where you have objects on your background and you shoot from above, so you would probably need to have your background on the floor. Teoh. Capture all of the items on your background. So what I like to dio the safer way to do this is to you put the background on the floor and then put your props on top and you can lay things out in a bunch of different ways to make some interesting compositions. You can leave some negative space, so that way you can add things to the picture like text so that you can have maybe an interesting quote. Or you can talk about your product or service in that negative space. So that's something that you can do or you could just leave the negative space. If you like that, by trying these different composition techniques, you are able to expand your skills as a photographer and you're able Teoh tell some different, intriguing stories. So try each one of them out, and hopefully you'll come up with something unique and fun. 12. Atmosphere: Theo. Last way that you can improve your skills when it comes to branding in storytelling is to create an atmosphere in your photos. What I mean by atmosphere is the mood or the feeling that your photos give to the viewer. Now atmosphere basically takes all of the things that we've talked about, and it brings it together in the photograph. So you're creating a scene that is interesting and appealing to your ideal audience. That is, from the props that you used to support your mean subject. So let's say that you have one of your paintings, and then in the background you have your painting supplies, paintbrushes and your pains and your paint palette all of those things coming together. That is what will create the atmosphere to tell a story. The background that you use is also a part of that atmosphere, and it's something that I've alluded to you and I've talked a little bit about. But I do want to dive into the background a little bit further here so you can use a background that is clean and minimal, or you can use a background that is warm and rustic, or you can use something that is interesting and graphic. Each one of these backgrounds will give a different story. You could use one of them or you could use to different backgrounds, and you can vary the story up as you're going along in your instagram feed, and it will make it interesting and unique and your own. I do suggest that you use a busy background with simple subject matter and a simple background, or clean a background with more vibrant subject matter of your photographs. So depending on what it is that you're using, if you have too many things going on, it might make the picture overwhelming and not as flattering. So you'll want to keep that in mind. Now, when you are creating the setting and you're thinking about the backgrounds that you might want to have, you can think about things like, Do I want this to look like it takes place in a cafe, or do I want this to look like it takes place in an art studio? Where are you wanting this to kind of take place? And if you think about that, then you can start to think about what kind of background what kind of atmosphere that you would have. Now you can get backgrounds from a bunch different places. I usually get mine from the craft store from the fabric store from the office supply store , so I'll get some foam board from the office supply store. And that is a simple, cheap, affordable background that you can grab. You can just get a plain white one, or you can get it in different colors. I also get my backgrounds from Amazon. There's a really great company called medium Boards that I love, and I'll leave some links for you in in the Project Notes section, and then, lastly, you can make your own backgrounds. This is, honestly, my favorite thing to Dio. I have painted a board that I got from the craft store with some cheap acrylic paint, and it was a lot of fun to do. And then it also turned out to be really beautiful and my photographs it gave this beautiful color that looks really good with the rest of my brand colors, and I can use that Teoh add to the story without having to put a bunch of items in the photograph. So that's something that I would really strongly recommend that you dio by bringing all of these things that we've talked about together and setting the mood, you're going to create an atmosphere that's inviting to your ideal people. So you'll want to put some thought into this. Maybe sketch some stuff out. Or maybe just write down some notes off what you think might work and then try it out. You'll never know until you try it, and it's okay to experiment with these things as you're learning and as you're going. So I recommend just having fun with it, playing with it and seeing what works for you and what you're drawn to and what your audience is drawn, Teoh. 13. Part Three - Planning And Execution: Now we're to the fun part of this class where you actually get to plan and execute your ideas. So this is the part where you're going, Teoh, bring it all together. You're going to make a plan and you're going, Teoh, actually create the photos that you are going to put in your instagram feed in this section . We are going to talk about crafting your plan. So coming up with a plan of how you want this all toe look curating your feet, which we're going to talk about editing some of these things out so some of your ideals will not make it through. It will be up on the chopping block. And then we are going to talk about creating a theme or pattern to make it easy for you when it comes to posting. Because sometimes we just need Teoh it, take the guesswork out of it and make an easy way for us. Teoh move forward with putting photos on her instagram. So let's dive in 14. Craft Your Plan: Let's talk about crafting your plan, so creating a plan, it doesn't have to be hard. You can think about how often you wanna post once a day during the work week is usually doable for most people, but sometimes that might be a little overwhelming for some people. So if that's the case, then you can narrow that down to three times a week. Or maybe just posting once a week. I think about what you want to share as a business owner. Of course, you'll want to share posts that share your work or share what it is that you do in business . But then you want to balance that with some more personal things. You can just share things with a photo that you've taken, but you can use the caption to share what it is personal that you want to say, and that's what I actually end up doing more often than not. So I take a bunch of fun photos that I love because photography is my creative outlet. It's the thing that I enjoy doing, so I just take a bunch of photos and I enjoy the process. But then I used the captions Teoh, sell my services, sell the things that I'm doing on. Then I will balance that out with some more personal thoughts. And actually, you can do some theme days. So, for instance, maybe you might make each day of the week a different theme, so Monday's can be behind the scenes. Tuesday's could be a close up of your most recent work. Wednesday's could be a photo of you so that people can see your face and get to know the face behind the business. Thursday's could be a motivational post, so you just post a beautiful photograph with a motivational quote. Or maybe you post a motivational quote that you've painted or you hand lettered, whatever it is totally up to you. Then on Friday, you might want Teoh share something that you've struggled with but that you've overcome. So that's easy. It took me literally 30 seconds to think of those theme days, and then I can start using that as a guide for me. Teoh, post a picture and then think about the caption, and it doesn't have to exactly go together. It can if you want it to you, but it doesn't have Teoh. You just want to make sure that you are balancing your work with some more personal things because people want to know who it is behind the business that you have, so make sure that you are kind of mixing it up. 15. Curate Your Feed: when it comes to Instagram. In order for you to create an instagram feed that you really love that you feel looks really nice, you have toe have a plan. You will want Teoh. Take pictures and you'll want Teoh. Create for yourself a library of photos that you can draw from. But then you'll want Teoh, Then create a plan using those photos, and not everything is going to make the cut. So you want to think thoughtfully about the things that you want to say and also the photos that you want to share. So when you look through your photographs that you've taken, be choosy about the ones that you want to share. I cannot tell you how many times that I have taken photos and loved them, but then later realized that they do not fit my brand or that they're too chaotic. There's to much stuff happening in the photo, or it just doesn't really fit my aesthetic. So it doesn't really go with my colors or the pattern is wrong or something like that. So these things don't make the cut, so every photo that you take is always up on the chopping block and you have to decide. Is this really the photo that I want to use to tell? My story is really the photo that I want to use. Teoh create this brand that I want people to fall in love with and you can decide whether or not a photo makes the cut. And then you can further develop your plan from there. So make sure that you are looking through your photos and choosing the ones that you feel are the best fit for your brand. 16. Create a theme or pattern: I find the easiest way Teoh execute is to create a theme or pattern, and that might develop over time. You can experiment with it, and the way that I like to experiment with it is by using a planning software like Plan A Lee or later, or by using a design software such as Can Va or Illustrator. So I'm gonna share with you how I do this in Canada by sharing my screen for just a couple of minutes. So here I am in Camba. So you just go to Canada dot com and you can use the free version you'll want to do is you want to use custom dimensions over here, So just click on that button and then you will want Teoh put in 2150. So 2150 pixels by 2000 150 pixels and then click design, and it will open it up and you will have your little canvas there. For you to be able to add a grid to you is you want to find one that that has nine photos, so just scroll down till you find the one that you want so it would be like this one right here. So you just click on that and it will add it in. And then you can make changes so you can actually make the spacing a little bit more or less so you can make the spacing more If you want to see more white around it. I prefer to keep it a little bit smaller so that I look similar to you what Instagram looks like. Then you would go into your up loads and you would find the things that you have uploaded as faras pictures go. If you haven't uploaded any pictures, you just hit this big green but in and upload all of your photos here and then what you can do is you Congrats them and you can pull them on over and you can start Teoh. Make a theme or pattern so you can do that by alternating colors. Or you can do that by alternating subject matter. It just depends on what kind of pattern that you're making or you could. Instead of doing a pattern that's alternating. You could do a pattern where it's like every third image so you could have a white background, white background and then one that has a pop of color. And then you could dio a white background, uh, more white background. And then again, you could do something with more of a pop of color, or you could alternate it. Let's see if I did this differently. If I put this one over here and then I added some other white ones this way, so it could be, well, that one has a little too much color. So maybe I would do this one instead so you can do it like this. It's just depending on the pattern that you want to make. So let's say I want to dio white here. Come then, another blue one down there. Maybe that one is too much. So what you'll find is that you will want Teoh experiment and see what works and see what you like. And then when I do after I have some, like this is, I copied the board so I don't have to recreate it all over again. And then you can just click on the image here and hit delete so quick on it hit, delete, and you can do that to all of them, And then you can scroll up and see the pictures that you've used here, and then you can add some more down here, and you can start to create kind of a pattern and figure out which photos you want to use wear. And now this is just If you're not using, like a planning software, you can also use a planning software like plan only to do the same type of thing. Now, after I have used Camba to kind of come up with a general theme or pattern, then what I do is I take my photos and I put them into plan Aly, and then I start scheduling things out. So those are the tools that I use. Another planning software, another design software. Maybe a better fit for you. But you can take what I have said here, and then you can craft your own a plan and come up with a theme or pattern. So different things that you can use for a theme or pattern are varying things by color, so you can have a light background and then a dark background and then a late dark rap background and a dark background and go back and forth. Or you can have just two different colors so you can have a blue background and then a purple background, which is something that I kind of tend to do. You could also very things by texture. Or maybe you have backgrounds like a smooth white background with no texture at all. And then you use a wooden texture background where you have a little bit of like a wooden texture and you very things up by those two different backgrounds. Something else you can do is you can very things by size, so maybe you have a close up of your painting and then you have a further away a picture of a painting, and you go back and forth between those. Now, you don't have to do every other photo to create a theme or pattern, but you can start out with that where you have two things that you're going back and forth from in your planning software or your design software, and then you can start to build upon that. So I did that myself. I kind of was going back and forth between a light background and dark background and I figured out that and really work for me. So I decided to start again. And then I wanted Teoh alternate between colors. And then I found that I didn't want it to be quite so stark of a difference between photos , where it's one color, verses, another color. So I started kind of mixing things up, and now I kind of have an aesthetic that I really, really like. And it is not a set pattern of per se, but I know that I don't want to have ah, photo of me every single time that I have a picture coming up on Instagram. I want to have a picture of me at least once, and then I know that I want to have the blue background and then a white background and then a purple pattern. So that is something that I have crafted for myself and I have come up with a bunch of photos and now moving forward, I can follow the same theme or format, and I will make it so much easier because I know basically what I need to take photos off. I know that I need to create certain things like I need to make a painting or I need to make a pattern. And I know that I need to have some photos of me. So all of these things together makes it really easy for me to create a library of photos and to figure out how I want those to come out on my feet. So what you'll want to do in this section is you'll want to think about what you want to alternate or if you want Teoh have a photo with you every third photo or something like that. Just think about how you want Teoh. Execute this sit down and kind of sketch out ideas. Sit down and use the planning software where you can kind of look at your photos altogether and then you concert to see things come together. 17. Continually Improve: a Z move forward. You'll want Teoh. Keep focusing on these different skills and improving in the areas that you feel you need to improve in the most. Maybe you will need to improve in the photography skills section. Or maybe your photo skills air there. But you need to improve on the planning aspect because you don't really have a plan. But you'd like to make it easier for yourself. Whatever it is, keep going through and improving this to make the process easier for yourself so that moving forward this can be an easy process and you don't have any guesswork. 18. Instagram Tips: So, lastly, what I want to help you with our A few instagram tips. First of all, you want to make sure that you have a photo that matches your face unless you are a product based business where you have one main product. Otherwise, you should use a picture where you can see your face and it's really clear because people are going to connect to you and that will help them. Teoh know who you are, and it needs to be photo that they can see clearly, and that is really relatable. Also, what you want to make sure you do is that you are thinking about the things that you want to post on a consistent basis and constantly tweaking your plan and thinking about your execution. Now you may run out of ideas, and I have a couple of places where you can gather some new ideas. If you look in the Class Notes section, which is under the project section, you can download the pdf there, and you can come up with some ideas if you're drawing a blank. The next thing I want to say about Instagram is that really, above all, consistency is key. If you post a photo and then don't post again for months, you're going Teoh, hinder your growth there and you don't want Teoh be concerned necessarily with numbers. You want to be concerned with engagement. So you want to make sure that you are posting things that are relevant to your audience and that they can connect Teoh. So the more you craft a story, the more that you focus on your photos telling a story, the batter your results will be with Instagram. I recommend that you keep working on these skills and that you are able Teoh visually tell a story that connects. And then when you see that connections air happening and you see that people are responding by adding comments or they're talking to you through your direct messages, make sure you respond because then you are creating that engagement that is so important to instagram. So those are my quick and easy instagram tips. I hope they have been helpful for you. And I hope this cross has been helpful for you. So next up, I'm going to share with you my final thoughts 19. Final Thoughts: By taking each of these steps and improving your photography and then improving your branding and storytelling and then taking some time to plan and execute, you are going to be able to really glam your instagram. So if you're ever feeling that things were not coming together for, you can come back and watch a specific section again. Teoh, see where maybe you are having some troubles. Make sure that if you have a question, you leave them in the question section. So that way I can know how I can help you by either answering your question there or by making a new sculpture class that addresses those questions. Thank you so much for tuning in for listening and watching this class. I am grateful that you have taken your time. Teoh, have me as your teacher, and if you would like to connect with me, be sure to follow me here on skill share and connect with me on Instagram by following me. My handle is add Amanda Underscore Creek, and you can follow me there and let me know where you are in the process. As always, I hope that you take the time to do the class project. So for the class project, you are just going through each of these videos and creating some photos that you're going to curate and share a screenshot of the three photos or than nine photos that you are going to use for your instagram and share those in the class project section. Thank you again So much for tuning in to my skill share class here, glam, your instagram and I am excited to see what you come up with.