02.12.2014

How To Make Minimalist Instagram Photos – 7 Simple Steps

02.12.2014

How To Make Minimalist Instagram Photos – 7 Simple Steps

Hello. I’m Tony Hammond and I have the most obvious Instagram name ever – @iamtonyhammond. Despite it’s lack of creativity it took me approximately three whole hours to think up that name.  Please don’t hold that against me.

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Anyway, as Santa orders his elves to work quicker and the jingle bells get more jingly, over the course of December I’ve been kindly asked to blog about all things Instagram.  So…if you have managed to read this far then I’m presuming you might be interested in Instagram too like I am. So first up, I’m blogging about my minimal photos as I am regularly asked how I create them.

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So once I’ve taken a superquick snap I go home, grab a coffee and a chocolate biscuit and begin to edit. There are a million photo editing apps (obviously I’ve exaggerated the number to make a point) but there’s only a handful I use and trust.  Because of the speed of capturing my photos I need apps to manipulate them into something worth viewing. I rarely post anything without it going thru an editing process and in all honesty my creativity really begins and ends with the editing.  I ‘see’ the final composition during the editing process and can also get new ideas as I play around with the image.

The best way to illustrate my technique is to take you thru an example. I’ll use a photo I took recently on a holiday of a typical-Tony-topic – birds on wires…

  1. Imported the raw photo into Camera+ app and cropped it to focus in on the birds and added the mono filter (making the picture black and white helps bleach out the sky texture later). See Photo1.

Photo1

  1. Uploaded the photo into the Snapseed app. I used the Selective Adjust function to bleach out the sky. Rotated the picture to straighten the wires. Saved it camera roll. See Photo2.

Photo2

  1. Uploaded the photo into Diptic app and rotated the top wire to add more symmetry to the picture. Saved it to camera roll. See Photo3.

Photo3

 

  1. Uploaded the photo into TouchRetouch app – I can’t tell you how useful this app is – and deleted the unnecessary bits and bobs that spoil the composition. Saved it to camera roll. (You’ll notice I also deleted a few more birds from the final picture but this was done in exactly the same way). See Photo4 and Photo5.

Photo4

Photo5

  1. Uploaded the photo back into Camera+ and using the Tint function tried various colours. Saved them all to the camera roll to choose my favourite later. See Photo6.

Photo6

  1. Having chosen my favourite coloured photo uploaded it into the Instagram app, added Sierra filter and frame, the (really obvious) caption and then posted. You’ll have to check out my Instagram account for the final version of the photo though.
  2. Have another coffee to celebrate. And maybe another chocolate biscuit.

I hope that’s been of some use. Obviously not all my photos are created in the same way and I have a couple of other useful apps which help tweak and change photos but the basic steps I edit with are as mentioned above. If you are tempted to drop by my gallery, please make sure you say hello or post a suitable emoticon.  If you’re even tempted to try and create a minimal pastel picture then tag me in it as would love to see it. We could have a virtual coffee and discuss apps or Instagram or whatever. It’ll be fun. I hope to hear from you in the comments on my Instagram account.

Tony Hammond

I’m Tony Hammond. I’m UK based. I’m a total Instagram-addict. I love chocolate biscuits but I hate the rain. Find me on Instagram at @iamtonyhammond and say hello. 

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