The first thing that you have to recognize is that Instagram forces you to post your images in a square format, sized at 650px by 650px. The second point that you ought to understand is that you need to export the images at the right size and also resolution if you wish to maintain the photos looking sharp and of excellent quality. That means that they should be exported at 650px on the lengthy side.
For my workflow, I use Lightroom, Photoshop, DropBox, and Instagram to deal with every one of the prep work as well as uploading. I've tried a number of other ways to post my pictures on Instagram, but the following workflow has given me the very best and most constant results.
If you do not wish to go through the process that I comply with below, and also just want to post images without IG chopping your photos, there are applications that you could set up on your smartphone like Squaready as well as InstaSize. I don't use either of those apps myself.
Convert Picture To Instagram Size
Tip One - Lightroom
The first thing that I do is process my pictures typically, and prepare them for how I publish them, or upload them to my site. You could evaluate that process in previous articles in this exact same post-processing section. I will not duplicate every one of that here.
Once you have actually finished with every one of your post-processing of the images, then you could begin picking the photos that you intend to prepare for posting to Instagram.
In the Collection module, choose all the photos that you want to post to Instagram, and also develop a brand-new collection of them. You can call it anything that you like, yet I suggest that you use "IG" in the name, either at the beginning or the end, so that you remember what it is for.
When you have actually chosen them, and have actually created a brand-new collection, you need to experience as well as see if you could crop any of them to a 1-to-1 proportion. You can use the crop tool for that, and pick 1 × 1 as the proportion.
The ones that can be exported as 1 × 1 in proportion, can be refined exclusively in Lightroom, and can use your routine watermark (I utilized mine on the instance below). These will certainly be exported at 650px x 650px.
The ones that are able to be resized as squares are easy, and that is all you have to do for them in resizing. For all these, you could leap down to Tip 3-- DropBox, as well as skip Action Two-- PhotoShop.
For the images that do not look great in a 1-to-1 ratio, you will certainly wind up exporting these at 650px on the long edge, yet with no watermark on them. See the setups below. I suggest that you export these into a dedicated folder. Once they are exported, you will proceed to Tip Two-- PhotoShop.
Step Two-- Photoshop
The entire point of this action is to position your image on a 650px by 650px background, as well as to add your watermark to the bottom of the square. Doing it by hand is a tiresome procedure if you attempt to do it manually, so I suggest that you perform a set process as well as utilize an activity to automate the process, which will make it simple to repeat over and over.
If you aren't sure the best ways to produce Activities in PhotoShop, you will need to review that initially. When you understand the process after that the complying with instructions will certainly make sense to you.
Your activity will certainly have to do the complying with points in this order:
- Open your picture from your import folder and also lots it to a layer. By default, it is packed as a background. I replicate the background to a new layer, and call it "vehicle", leaving the opacity at 100%.
- Then it has to open up Image > Canvas Size and set the elevation to 650px.
- Develop a new layer, as well as label it "black".
- Fill up the "black" layer with the black shade making use of the paint container device.
- Use File > Open to open your watermark logo that you want to place below the picture. Position it on a new layer as well as name it "logo".
- Move the "logo" layer listed below the auto layer.
- Move the "black" layer below the "logo" layer.
- Close the watermark that you previously opened.
- Conserve the completed 650px by 650px image to a brand-new folder somewhere on your disk drive (you will have to have actually currently produced this folder before producing the action).
- Close the documents in Photoshop.
Once you have the activity, you could open PhotoShop at anytime, and also run the File > Automate > Batch Refine command, and also choose the folder where you have saved the photos that were not already at a 1-to-1 ratio.
Tip 3-- DropBox
As soon as you have actually exported every one of your photos, you need to obtain them up to Instagram There are programs that enable you to publish from your COMPUTER to Instagram, however I discovered that I had problems getting the hashtags to work appropriately when I utilized them, and I had to start a new account to deal with the hashtag issue. The solution was to simply remain to utilize my smartphone and use the Instagram app to post the pictures, however to do that I had to have the pictures where my phone could access them. The simplest way was to make use of DropBox to get the images where my Instagram app could access them.
Go to DropBox.com and sign up for it. Download the app to your phone as well as login to it. Utilize the DropBox.com web site to submit your photos to your on the internet storage. I recommend that you make use of folders to organize your images. In my instance, I have a "Photos" folder, as well as inside it, I have an "Instagram Photos" folder. Inside that folder, I create folders as I need them, in order to separate the images into smaller sized, much easier to watch, sections.
As soon as you have actually uploaded a collection of photos right into DropBox, you are ready for the next step, and that is to order your smartphone and open the Instagram application.
Step Four-- Instagram
Now, you need to already have the Instagram as well as DropBox applications on your mobile phone, as well as you are ready to post among your pictures on Instagram.
Open the app, and click heaven switch in the middle of the symbols below the display. The take picture screen will pack, as well as in the lower left-hand edge, you will see an icon that looks like a "landscape/mountain" symbol (simply to the left of the "take a photo" button). Click it, as well as it must motivate you to "Pick a Resource" for your picture, and also the DropBox symbol must be presented as one of the selectable resources. Click it and you will certainly see your DropBox folders as well as data provided in a file web browser. Navigate to the photo that you published that you intend to post to Instagram and also select it.
From there, you upload it to Instagram much like you would certainly any other image that you just took.
Step 5-- DropBox
This last step is not called for, but extremely suggested. In order not to lose track of just what you have submitted currently, you must return right into DropBox and erase the photo( s) that you have actually currently published. This will certainly make it less complicated in the future to not publish the same photos numerous times.
Conclusion
That's it, my entire process to preparing my pictures for Instagram. It's not complicated, yet adhering to these directions will ensure that you are uploading photos in the very best top quality that Instagram could sustain.