Instagram for street photographers
I’m often asked about social media and its relevance (or otherwise) to street photographers. Is it a force for good or evil? Is it worth all the effort or is it a waste of time? Does it attract the right or the wrong sort of followers? Does it provide us with inspiration or false hope? So many questions - and no easy answers.
I use social media extensively - but perhaps my motivations are different from those of most street photographers; I use social media to promote my business and the StreetSnappers community as much as I do to draw attention to my own images which means that my social media strategy (and tactics) may well differ from yours. So here are my thoughts - and please bear in mind these are my personal opinions and experiences - it’s not meant to be an objective review!
This is the first in a series of articles about social media for street photographers and I’ll start with Instagram.
Beginnings
I started using Instagram in 2015, when it seemed to be a platform for photographers to showcase their work and build a community. There was little or no advertising and all the photography ‘big names’ were using it to promote themselves. Going back to its earliest days, Instagram was mainly for pictures taken on a ‘phone - a way to record what you snapped - it was, I think, fairly unsophisticated. Then, over the years, more serious photographers got involved and it became more of a showcase for their work. Fast-forward to today and what we have is a real mix. Yes, there’s still lots of spontaneous stuff shot on mobile phones, but you also have high end commercial photographers marketing their portfolios and we now have lots of sponsored posts and advertising. And in the middle of all that you have street photographers - and lots of street photography.
Street photographers have had a long attachment to Instagram - but I’ve got to say that, today, it’s a Marmite thing - most people either love it or they hate it. In fact, street photography is massive on Instagram. Just look at the hashtag #streetphotography and you’ll see thousands of images posted every day. Personally, I think it’s a good illustration of how hashtags can be abused or misused: a lot of what you will see is most definitely NOT street photography - however you care to define it. But that’s maybe a discussion for another day.
Why I use Instagram today
So why do I still use Instagram? Well, it serves four main purposes for me:
It’s a showcase for some of my own work. I currently have just over 27,000 followers, so if I post one image every day, that’s hitting a pretty big audience - assuming, of course, that some of them actually look at it! I think if at least some do, I’m reasonably happy with that. And for me there’s a commercial imperative: if people like my work they might look at my profile, follow the link to my website and book a workshop. In that sense, it works.
I use it as a means to see what certain other street photographers are doing. And by that I mean people whose work particularly interests me - and also folks who have been on my workshops: it’s a great way of keeping track of what everyone’s up to and watching how their work is developing.
It can be inspirational. If you follow the right people, you’ll have a constant steam of good work landing on your screen all day long. I find this inspires me, it make me more creative in my own thinking and it sparks ideas for work - particularly for projects.
It’s a social network and I use it to communicate with people I know, meet new interesting people, collaborate on projects, and so on.
So for me, Instagram does have value. But I also think the more careful I am about who I follow, the more value it a has.
How to get the best out of Instagram
Tip #1 Instagram is all about the concept of ‘following’ and this is worth remembering: it’s the quality that counts, not the quantity. It’s far better to have 100 of the ’right’ followers than 10,000 who you don’t know and most of whom won’t care one bit about you or your work. So I would strongly advise against what is often a crazy, grabbing attempt to get followers, whether that means buying blocks of them or subscribing to one of those follow/unfollow services which seem to be popular.
Look at it this way: does anyone actually care about how many followers or likes you have? Do people think you’re a better street photographer if you’re popular? I hope not. If you’re doing all the right stuff, the followers and the likes will come - you really do need to play the long game.
Tip #2 Post only your best work. this is where people will form an impression of you and your work and first impressions really do count. If they like what they see, it could lead to some positive interactions. If they’re not seeing your best stuff on there, the chances are they’ll move on and won’t come back. Remember that people’s internet attention span is minimal and if you don’t hit them with something interesting right away, they’re gone.
Use stories or, if you must, reels for any additional content - your behind the scenes stuff, your leftfield stuff and other content - but don’t clutter up your main feed with this - save that for your best work.
Tip #3 Composition matters. Remember that Instagram is made up made up of horizontal and vertical lines. It’s a grid system so get your lines straight and take care about how one image lines up with its neighbours - not only to the sides but also above and below it.
Then really consider how pictures work together; will certain images jar when positioned next to each other? How they work on the page is important and your page needs to feel designed. Personally, I use an app called Whitagram which gives me a nice crisp white border around my images and allows me to post in landscape or portrait formats, rather than Instagram’s regulation square format - and this is a big thing for me; if I compose to a square, that’s fine, but I usually compose in either landscape or portrait.
Tip #4 Be consistent in style. Don’t try to be all things to all people. For example, don’t mix landscapes with street with still life with weddings - maybe have separate feeds - it’s very easy to set up multiple accounts on Instagram. Think about how your feed reflects your voice as a photographer - is the right sound coming across, loud and clear?
Tip #5 Be generous with others. This is really important if you want to grow your presence on Instagram. Remember this is a community, a network and we’re all there because we want to engage. and the best way to do that is by offering genuine praise and feedback. Having said that, I probably wouldn’t offer critique on this platform unless it was specifically asked for. If people take the trouble to comment on your images, reciprocate with a few nice words - it takes a second and it reinforces your standing as a good person.
Tip #6 Post regularly but don’t post loads at once. Personally, I find that one post per day feels about right - but just do whatever works for you - if you can only post one image every few days or one a week, that’s fine - it’ll just take you longer to build your community. But do try to be regular - I sound like a bowel doctor here - if you normally post between 7 and 8 a.m. then try to keep with that convention.
Timing can be important. Think about when your audience is tuning in. For me, 7 to 8 a.m. works well - and that’s when I get the most traction on my posts; you may find that mid-afternoon works best for you. I think that aiming for a time when people are having breakfast, commuting to work, having lunch or heading home is probably a good time. I guess it also comes down to the time zone you’re operating in - or want to appeal to.
Tip #7 Forget the filters, emojis, watermarks and overlaid text etc. While these things all have their place online, they can often end up spoiling the aesthetic feel of a carefully curated street photography based Instagram page. Street photography is, after all, a genre typically historically defined as capturing candid moments with much importance given to authenticity.
Tip #8 Use hashtags but don’t abuse them. Hashtags are important in drawing attention to your post but just look, for example, at all the images which have the hashtag #streetphotography. So if you’re posting, for example, an image of a bowl of lovely Amalfi lemons in the sunshine, don’t include the street photography hashtag, or tag one of the well known street photography collectives - this just undermines your credibility on Instagram. Using inappropriate hashtags in this way will just hack people off and alienate your community. Having said that, using the right hashtags can reel the right audience in and will help people discover you and your work.
Tip #9 Captions are important. People tend to like captions. Sometimes I’ll explain a shot and its context - maybe a particular technique I’ve used or perhaps something about the location. It’s up to you how much text you use, but do say at least something. As a bare minimum I would put the location and date. Research has shown that people engage more - and by that I mean either like or follow - with a captioned image so it is worth spending a few extra seconds on this.
Tip #10 Create an easy workflow. Yes, you can post directly from your mobile device and that’s straightforward. I know that many people hold back from using Instagram because they think they can only post pictures from their phone. Well, there are other ways. This is how I do it for example . . .
My Instagram workflow starts with Lightroom CC which I assess from my phone or ipad. All my images are in Lightroom and once I’ve identified the image I’d like to post I just click the ’share’ button and share the image, firstly to Whitagram, which is that app I mentioned earlier which gives me those nice white borders. From there I share directly to Instagram, where I insert my hashtags and other data in the usual way. With hashtags, by the way, I have my most used hashtags saved in the Notes app so I just copy and paste some of them - maybe around half of them, adding as many image specific hashtags as I can. Finally, I’ll include an entry in the location field. There’s lots of research which shows that engagement is significantly higher, on average, if you include a location. The whole process, for me, takes about 30 seconds per image. If you do want to post directly from a PC or Mac, there is a hack - and lots of people do this - and you can easily find this from a Google search.
The future?
I’m not sure what the future holds for Instagram. A great number of established photographers are deserting the platform in favour of Twitter or Vero, mainly because Instagram is moving to far towards video content, contains too much advertising and is more geared to juvenile influencers rather than serious photographers. I keeping a close eye on what’s happening and I currently use all three platforms.
If you would like to see my work on Instagram and maybe even follow me, I’m @streetsnappers
