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Dame Traveler’s Three Photography Tips For Instagram vs. SLR

February 11th, 2019

Popular Instagram travel photographer, Natasia (@nastasiaspassport), and also of @DameTraveler fame, teaches shooting for instagram for professional photographers. We asked her to share her top three tips of shooting for Instagram vs SLR to share with the Zenfolio community. We hope you enjoy it.

If you love Nastasia’s photography, you can follow her on Instagram. If you want to buy a print or gift item of her photos, she has a new Zenfolio account available at https://dametraveler.zenfolio.com/. Welcome to Zenfolio Nastasia!

NASTASIA’S STORY:

We live in an flourishing age of technology, innovation and creativity. With just a touch of a screen, we can be transported to the other side of the world. We can view new cultures, bright and vivid colors and textures of exotic places and hear the stories of strangers and friends alike. Here at Dame Traveler, we feel fortunate to be able to curate an inspirational and motivational community of female travelers that use our platform for just that. As the first female travel community on Instagram, we feel a special kinship to the good ol’ ‘gram… and we’ve learned a thing or two about what makes certain travel photography stand out amongst the masses. Today, we’re excited to share our top three tips for shooting specifically for Instagram, compared to SLR.

ALWAYS SHOOT IN PORTRAIT

Instagram is flooded with so many photographs, and with the ever-nuanced algorithm, it can be extremely hard to stand out. Our number one photography tip for Instagram is a simple one – always shoot in portrait, not landscape. That means make sure your photos have more vertical space than horizontal. Portrait photographs fill up the app’s digital space, making you more visible to the stranger scrolling through their feed. Considering that you might only have a millisecond to make an impression on a new follower, why not give yourself some extra time to shine?

EDIT OUTSIDE THE APP

As much as we love Instagram’s platform, we’re not so enthralled with its built in filters. That’s why we suggest always editing outside of the app. There are amazing photography apps out there to play with – from VSCO, A Beautiful Mess, to blogger created filters used in Lightroom CC. We suggest toying around with other editing apps to find a style unique to you.

CREATE A CONSISTENT VIBE & KEEP THE “9” IN MIND

This is a biggie! Your individual Instagram feed can either hook or sink a new follower… so make sure you’re creating a mood between all photos you post. Simply put, keep your editing style choices consistent. A new follower should get a strong “vibe” from your feed. Another thing to keep in mind is that Instagram shares approximately three by three squares on your feed. If you love sharing minimal, clean cut photos but have some bold and colorful photos to post, space them out to make it feel more intertwined and natural in your precious three by three square!

Happy shooting!

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About Nastasia

Nastasia, originally a Labor & Delivery nurse turned travel blogger, has leveraged her passion for travel, photography and has founded Dame Traveler, a curated women’s travel blog where solo female travelers can inspire, and connect with, one another. Her eye for stunning travel visuals has helped build a large Instagram following, with close to 440,000 followers on @dametraveler and 100,000 on her personal account, @nastasiaspassport, in addition to a large network of travel bloggers. Her hard work has led her to be featured in publications such as Travel & Leisure, Fodor’s, Vogue and more. 55+ countries into her journey, her passion for the world has led her to create a sizeable community of female travelers where her mission is to empower them to travel more, do more and be more. Whether sipping on chai in Istanbul or volunteering abroad in South Africa, Nastasia continues to find and share the beauty of this world, thus inspiring people to change the way they see and experience life.