Instagram Tips for Fashion Photographers
As a fashion photographer Instagram should be among your most frequently used apps. It’s a great way to showcase your latest work, keep your followers updated, attract new collaborators, and impress new clients. But building a loyal and respective following isn’t done overnight.
Here are 16 tips that will help you become the next Instagram superstar:
1. Quality Over Quantity
I understand, you don’t want people to forget about you or your work, so you’re constantly looking for photos to post in order to keep momentum going. Relax. Chances are your followers follow more accounts than just yours, and their lives do not depend on you updating your account every thirty minutes.
Instead of focusing on posting 24/7, keep your focus on your work, and only post when you’ve got a frame you really need to share. One great photo a day is worth way more than 10 uninterested ones.
2. Pick a Good Username
Don’t over complicate things. Pick a username that’s easy to spell, as is short as possible, and that makes sense. In the end you want to make it easy for people to find you, and chances are they won’t find you if your username has nothing to do with who you are and what you do.
3. Don’t Buy Followers
Again, one good (*and loyal) follower is worth a thousand… yeah you get it.
4. Engage (like like like)
Make sure to connect with people by exploring new users and liking photos. Other Instagram users love a like just as much as you do, so chances are they’ll check out your profile once you’ve liked a few of their photos. And if you follow point 1 religiously, they’ll be stupid not to follow you.
5. The 1-2-3 Rule
A good way to engage with other users is to follow the 1-2-3 Rule. When you post 1 photo, comment on 2, and like 3. You’re already on Instagram posting, so why not be effective and get some engagement in at the same time.
6. Don’t Spam
Share regularly, but don’t spam. If all of your photos are of high quality, make sure to spread them out. After posting wait at least two – three hours before posting your next one. Not only is it annoying when someone’s hogging your whole feed, but strategy wise it isn’t never clever to bundle your quality posts within a short time-frame as you’ll only reach the followers that are checking Instagram at that given moment. Spread them out and you’ll reach the masses.
7. Promote Your Account In Existing Channels
If you’ve already got a descent following in other social networks, utilize it by letting them know you’re on Instagram as well. Make sure to add a link to your Instagram account on your website, Facebook fan page etc.
8. Mention People In Your Posts
Posting a killer photo from your last shoot? Then don’t forget to mention the model(s) in the photo, and who you worked with on the shoot. Just because you pulled the trigger doesn’t mean the hair stylist shouldn’t be credited for his or her great work.
This will keep your team happy, besides they’ll probably return the favor and promote you to their fans.
9. Stay Consistent
I always stress this in all of my talks on the fashion photography business. Consistency is extremely important across the whole board. If people follow you for your amazing photos of models in cars, then that’s exactly what they followed you for. You still need to keep it interesting, but pay attention to what works for you, and stick to it.
10. Hashtags
Sure, hashtags are cool, but who really checks the #photooftheday or #nofilter hashtags? Keep them on the minimum, and stick to relevant ones.
11. Geotag Your Photos
Shooting at a cool location or in a nice studio? Share it! People love a bit of extra insight into your fabulous life.
12. Connect Your Accounts
Make sure to connect your account to Facebook and Twitter, and share your specific Instagram posts throughout your network. This is a great way to pull followers onto your Instagram account, but remember to follow point 6.
Timing is key.
13. No Food
You’re a fashion photographer for Christ’s sake. Your amazing bowl of oatmeal, your cute pets, or your kid’s first day of school has NOTHING to do with you as a professional fashion photographer.
No clients will ever book you for your photos of your Starbucks coffee. Just don’t.
14. No Nudity
Unfortunately, Instagram doesn’t like a nipple quite as much as you do. You get three strikes, after the third your account is gone, and there’s no way to get it back. So censor the good stuff, or leave it for your portfolio or Tumblr.
Like above, nudity is allowed, just don’t show the good stuff.
15. No Watermarks
Adding watermarks is like pissing on your art in order to keep people from stealing it. This is 2016, get over it.
16. Behind the Scenes
Yes, keeping all of the above in mind, you should post some behind the scenes photos once in a while. But don’t post just anything, remember point 1.
Conclusion
Remember to use Instagram as an extension of your brand identity as a fashion photographer, and not a playground where you just post anything. Follow Breed on Instagram.
—
by Marius Troy
Marius is the co-founder of BREED and founder of Ben Trovato, an online magazine discovering and showcasing stories of some of the most promising talents within fashion photography and film in the world.
Article posted on Breed Networks, for more resources check out jointhebreed.com.
Breed
Breed is an online educational resource for fashion photographers. Breed writers and contributors are experienced industry professionals teaching and sharing current fashion photography insight through a series of videos, written articles, interviews, product reviews, and more. The Breed community also provides fashion photographers a place to connect, collaborate, share and critique work while learning valuable insight about the historically guarded and highly competitive industry of fashion photography. For more, visit jointhebreed.com.
Follow Me:
October 26, 2016 at 9:00 pm, Ranger40409 said:
Watermarks… I don’t mind for MARKETING purposes… I get it in the fashion photography world where you should depend on style to identify you. But what if you’re still developing a unique style and its not entirely 100% consistent as you’re still developing trying to figure out the best and unique style to pick/choose/add, etc…? Hence why I have a watermark on mine for now. Lindsay Adlar has it too I think?
September 12, 2015 at 7:09 am, Alfred Šimčík said:
There are watermarks across the entire photo. Then there are discrete ones that the interested will always find, but wont make your eyes bleed. So watermark everything, with a nice watermark in the CORNER, not in font size 155 in the middle of the screen
August 14, 2015 at 2:34 am, Stephon David said:
I was a bit taken by the “do not watermark your photos” statement. Actually I really did “laugh out loud. Seriously? What does it being “2014” have to do with it? Is that the year that we tossed logic out the door? I have been a pro shooter for more than 3 decades and when I give suggestions to a new person in the industry I tell them to – BRAND themselves! Create a consistent watermark brand that will follow your images. Make it translucent so that it doesn’t become an ugly ornament hanging on the christmas tree so to speak. It should be there but not at the same time. But if you choose not to and then you see some poser taking credit for featuring your work as some of the best shots on Instagram and making $$$ for his/her effort of collecting the photos without giving anyone credit (or doing the actual work) – then you deserved the outcome and only have yourself to blame.
Create a watermark and use it with pride and don’t be a douche and take credit for other’s work!
August 13, 2015 at 1:57 pm, DafOwen said:
Re 12 – Twitter no longer show Instagram preview images (since Facebook bought them) So rather than cross-posting to twitter from Instagram – I’d just make a separate post on Twitter.
August 13, 2015 at 1:55 pm, DafOwen said:
Re watermarks – newspapers etc often use photos from Instagram without permission. They will cedit it to the account – but are essentially just chancing their luck. Likely get away with it more often than not. I think a watermark would help reduce this.
I also work for an Image library and have seen less than scrupulous agencies distribute Instagram photos.
I personally don’t on Instagram as I usually crop quite close to the face (usually musicians) and think it would detract from the picture. However on Twitter I load a wider crop and do there
August 13, 2015 at 1:52 pm, DafOwen said:
Additional tip Re username – make sure it matches your twitter (etc) username. Since@-tags often get cross posted.
I was late to the twitter game and they don’t match – regret it.
August 12, 2015 at 6:34 pm, DT CorpJock said:
Aside from #15, this is a nice guide to using Instagram in a professional manner.
August 12, 2015 at 5:27 pm, Ben Davidson said:
Totally wrong on #15, but otherwise, good tips. I found my work being sold for poster printing on a Hong Kong website without my knowledge. Of all my work, they had selected images from before I began to watermark.
Gotta be an idiot to put your stuff out on social media without watermarking, both for the above and for the missed opportunity to brand it.
August 12, 2015 at 3:42 pm, KarenImages said:
We have 5000 legitimate followers in 1 Instagram account and over 1000 in another and every image posted is watermarked. If you do not brand your work you appear to be a hobbyist with no grasp of marketing the business of photography. Copyright matters ©
June 30, 2015 at 2:56 pm, Ibtester Ib said:
Lol!
February 13, 2015 at 10:16 am, Rhiannon D'Averc said:
re: watermarks – My take on this is to write my username at the bottom edge of the image (I’ve seen a lot of others doing this too). I’m not worried about people stealing the images as the small resolution Instagram uses isn’t good enough for them to really use the images. But, if someone does repost my work or use it elsewhere, I want the people who see it to be able to find my instagram account and follow me instead of the reposter. It’s free advertising.
August 12, 2015 at 6:19 pm, Tim Vechik said:
Unless of course they plan on stealing it and selling it in a gallery for $90,000 with the Instagram frame, comments, and likes…
August 13, 2015 at 12:31 am, Rhiannon D'Averc said:
Sure, but since that guy has been reselling photos from magazines since the 1970s, it doesn’t really matter where you post it or what you do to it. He’ll steal it anyway!
February 01, 2015 at 7:49 pm, romanenko_org said:
Cool article 🙂 Thanks!
January 14, 2015 at 4:31 pm, Kent Johnson said:
So the author does not like watermarks as he has built his career on the back of other peoples work. A ‘good’ watermark should be no problem. Try making a living from YOUR photography then you can talk about watermarks. Everything here is marketing 101; if you can’t work this out yourself keep your day job.
September 12, 2015 at 7:04 am, Alfred Šimčík said:
I couldn’t agree more! A discrete signature in a corner will also let the viewer know that you’re the actual photographer and not just some fool that googles a lot.
January 14, 2015 at 12:26 pm, Abrimaal said:
I will remember this lesson, especially #1-3 #12-13 and #15 (this one rules). However #14 makes a beauty connoisseur remain faithful to dA.
January 14, 2015 at 12:13 pm, Cheshire Isaacs said:
These are excellent tips. I’ve personally ignored Instagram for myself, but this article has persuaded me to give it a better shot than I have. Love the “1-2-3 rule” concept.