Up Your Insta A-Game Like A Model Pro

Ok, ok, ok – we get it.. genetics do play a part but it’s not the sole contributing factor to all the jaw-dropping images we see scrolling through our feeds. The models too benefit from a few handy hints they’ve acquired along the way, and now we’re sharing them with you.

Posing

There’s only so much help good lighting and editing apps can give you and if there’s one thing we absolutely know for a fact – it’s that models know how to pose. They know their angles and know what looks good.

And you know why? Because they practise. Remember, they weren’t all expert posers to begin with so go sit yourself down in front of the mirror and test out some moves; take a whole bunch of selfies and get to know where your nose sits at its best and what smile works for you.

….Of course, we know it’s not always that simple so we’ve listed a few pointers below:

• Create movement in the image; bend your arms, lift your legs and angle your body. Aim to dart the eye across the image and create some space between your limbs and the torso.
• Shoot from the ‘thigh-up’ (makes you appear taller and even somewhat leaner).
• Tilt your chin down a little and gaze up.
• Relax your hands.
• Stand on your toes with one slightly behind the other.

Lighting

They say lighting is probably the important factor any #instaworthy image and to be fair, we’d say they’re right. Harsh light in the middle of the day wont do you any favours. So to get that lustrous glow, we recommend shooting either early morning or late afternoon, just when the sun cascades that mesmerising ‘golden’ shade out into the atmosphere.

It’s only got a limited life span so you need to get in and get in quick – have your outfits sorted and packed in the car ready and waiting with your photographer at the ready to tap away.

Post-Production

We moved on from using the readymade filters available on the app years ago with the help of ever-abundant editing software surfacing on the app store. So really you’ve got no excuse to have your IG content looking on fire. Apart from the obvious; VSCO, HUJI and Facetune (don’t kid yourself, we all use it) the latest trend hitting our feeds are lightroom presets.

Have you noticed recently, a lot of the people you’re following suddenly upping their game with some seriously cool content? It’s because few of the somewhat more ‘tech savy’ influencers are selling their pre-made filters so that you too can curate your feed to look every inch #instaenvy and we won’t lie, they’re pretty epic.

Note though – if you look at most famous model feeds, their content is a little less curated and a lot more natural. We recommend playing with the options under the ‘edit’ tab in the app; if you’ve already nailed the pose with killer lighting, you shouldn’t need more than a few tweaks here and there.