Your image is all about how people perceive you, and it’s important to find a balance between how you perceive yourself and how you want others to see you. By creating content that reflects your brand as well as your unique story, you’ll be able to form more powerful bonds with your audience!
We sat down with Sarah Shah, an image expert, author, blogger, speaker, and TV coach to discuss how to cultivate photos and videos that have the biggest impact on your followers. Read on to find out how you can expertly style your content for social media!
Focus on your subject
Your subject should be the focal point of your photo. Having a more colorful or distracting background can shift the focal point of your photo away from the foreground, which can mean that people aren’t really focusing on the intended subject of your photo.
Using portrait mode on iPhone blurs the background of the photographs you take, which can help make your subject pop out more. You can also use a photo editing app like Photo Grid to do things like crop your photos to zoom in more on your subject, or the vignette tool which darkens edges to make the center of your photo pop more. Snapseed is another app that can help make certain parts of your photo stand out more.
Cultivate a color palette
This is where some color theory may come in handy. Having a more simple color palette in your photos can make your statement bolder and clearer. Contrasting colors are colors that are on opposite sides of the color wheel, like red and green. Incorporating these into a photo delivers a high-impact statement.
On the other hand, analogous colors are colors that are next to each other on the color wheel. These include blue and green, and they deliver a calmer effect than contrasting colors, but one that is still high-impact.
Let your creative juices flow
When it comes to photos, there are so many creative ways to visually express information and maximize its impact! You can use a series of pictures to relay a story, or can use a photo as a sticker while delivering information to your audience. The more visuals you have, the better!
You can use apps like MotionLeap to identify which parts of your photo you want to add motion to in order to create a more engaging visual.
Be prepared
When trying to film videos, always be sure to have some props on hand! A whiteboard can be helpful to write down any information, and it’s especially helpful to write any text forwards as well as backwards, as you never know when your camera could be flipped!
You should also carry around different tools to hold your phone, such as a stand, compact tripod, or hooks. There are also some cool tools that can flip images upside down or tools you can use that act as camera shutters for your phone.
Don’t neglect your audio
Especially when filming outdoors, you need to be sure to filter out unnecessary background noise such as the wind so that your viewers can actually understand what you’re saying. Using earbuds and being sure to speak into the microphone can help with that, but investing in some kind of mic is also helpful to have clearer audio in your videos.
Krisp is an app that dampens the sound behind you, and you can even run your own microphone through Krisp if you want that to be the source of your audio. Visuals and audio work together to create an engaging experience for your audience, and you want to be sure that they’re complementing each other to make the boldest, most impactful statement!