Here are a few tip that will help improve your Instagram “branding” photography. Most small businesses do not have the budget to hire a professional photographer so the next best thing is to understand some basic photography principles and learn what actually works. Using a modern smartphone camera is good enough and some won’t even know the difference.

Understand light

Light is one of the biggest photography factors. Too much light and your subject looks washed out. Too little and the dark photo doesn’t grab your audience’s attention. You could have the best camera in the world, but if you have no light you have no image. When you’re doing brand photography, you want to understand how light affects the subject.

The golden hour, early morning and sunset sun usually cast a pleasant softest glow. A afternoon of full sun will blow out a photo’s white area. Where as a overcast afternoon works like a big soft box in the sky. If you understand how the sun and lights behave in relation to your subject, you will easily improve the quality of your photos.

Create Interest

While a simple, minimalistic look is always safe, add interest to your photos by adding layers. This means introducing objects in the foreground and/or background. You’ll still have a subject in focus but the objects add interest and guide the eye to the subject.

The rule of thirds & white space

The rule of thirds is composition 101. Divide up your frame in three evenly spaced vertical lines and three evenly-spaced horizontal lines. You’ll end up with nine-part grid. Where the lines intersect are where subjects in focus can be placed. The renaissance painters made good use of this technique.

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