#IGWorkshopWeekend is a fun and inspirational workshop for photo and Instagram enthusiast.
Our Awesome Planet, in partnership with Purveyr presents #IGWorkshopWeekend, a workshop on the Introduction to Instagram Culture, Shooting Stills and Spaces, and Traveling & Mobile Photography. Learn from the most admired Instagrammers in Manila Jelito de Leon, Mark Conanan and Kimi Juan.
Here are some helpful tips straight from @jelitodeleon, @kimijuan and @mavinconanan…
The weekend workshop of IG fun and learning was held on August 1 & 2, 2015 at Club Balai Isabel, lake Taal, Talisay, Batangas.
Guest speaker Jelito de Leon @jelitodeleon is a Food and Lifestyle Photographer and an AB Photography graduate from De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. He uses an iPhone 6 for Instagram.
Here are some of the important tips @jelitodeleon showed us on “Mobile Photography Basics“:
1. Hold Your Phone Right: Find a comfortable position where you can perfectly stand (or sit) still and hold your phone properly.
2. AE/AF Lock: Use this to lock the exposure of your photo. This is also used to lock your focus. When shooting scenes/portraits that don’t move a lot, use this so you won’t have to always tap to focus.
3. Flash or Natural Light?: Use flash only when you really need to use it. When shooting, always make sure that there is enough light to light your subject. When there is not enough light, you usually end up with a noisy and usually a blurred photo.
4. Tap To Focus: Tapping to focus is one of the most important things you always have to remember when taking a photo. Tapping your screen and setting where you want your camera to focus will really help you get the sharpest image.
5. Clean Your Lens: We usually don’t notice it when we look at our phone camera lenses at first but when we look closely, we will see that our lens is dirty which make our photos look hazy and unsharp.
6. Zooming: It would be better if you took a photo zoomed out and you just crop it during post processing. It will give you a sharper and clearer photo.
7. HDR: When you don’t need it, turn it off. The common mistake of a lot of people I know is that they usually think that when they turn on HDR, they get a higher quality photo. That is not the case. We use HDR when we want to shoot a scene that has a lot of contrasts. HDR evens out these contrasts so it wouldn’t look too harsh in the photo. A good example is when you want to shoot a landscape. Let’s say mountains. We use HDR so that we get the details of the sky without making the mountains look very dark.
And some of the tips @jelitodeleon showed us on “Shooting Stills ad Spaces“:
1. Don’t worry, you can crop that out: Usually, when we take a photo of a place, we try our best to include everything. Specially when we want everyone to see how nice the place is but when we do, we usually end up with a very cluttered photo of the place.
It’s okay to not include everything in the photo Select an area that you are drawn to the most and focus on that. It’s going to look more pleasing and it will look less cluttered.
2. Have Enough Light: When shooting spaces, make sure the place is well-lit. You don’t want to end up with a very noisy photo. If possible, open windows (and or lights)
3. Keep your camera still: Make sure when taking photos of places, you are holding your camera in a comfortable position (better if it’s on a tripod!) to avoid camera shake and you don’t end up with a blurred photo.
5. Keep your lines straight: Make sure that all lines (specially the ones in the middle) are straight. It makes a huge difference when taking photos of places.
6. Places & People: Sometimes, the only thing that’s missing in your shot is the human element.
7. “Chase” Light: Again, it’s important to make sure your subject or scene has enough light.
Usually, best time to take photos of still (in my opinion) is around 7-9AM or 3-5PM
Use light to your advantage to add drama to your photos specially when you’re using natural light
8. Styling: Styling your scene might be a bit tricky but when you get the hang of it, it’s going to get easier. When shooting scenes, it is important to make sure your scene isn’t too bare or too cluttered. Add elements that have height to make it more relaxing to the eyes.
9. Styling (Flatlays): Styling your scene might be a bit tricky but when you get the hang of it, it’s going to get easier. Make sure that your subjects have space. Let each of your subjects breathe and give enough negative space so your scene won’t look too “cramped”
Be aware of the colors in your flatlay.
When placing / styling your subjects, just like any other scene. It is easier for the eyes to see “heavy” subjects on the bottom of the photo than seeing them on top.
*When doing an impromptu flatlay, for props, best to check what you have in your pockets / what accessories you have on you. These little details add more character to your photo.
10. Make your scene feel “natural”: When shooting your subject, add elements to your subject to make it feel more natural and not too staged.
For business owners who use Instagram for their business, one tip is to make your product photos on Instagram more relatable to your audience.
The next speaker is Marvin Conanan @marvinconanan, a co-founder of www.purveyr.com.
He shared to us his opinion about the “Things We Should Know About Instagram Culture“.
1. To Capture and Share the World’s Moment.
2. Instagram is not merely for social media users: For some they use instagram as their portfolios.
3. Anyone’s Gate to Modern World Fame.
4. It’s a Small World of Similar Interests.
5. A Gathering for Instagram Interests and Exploration.
6. You Don’t Actualy Need To Follow Back: Most of the times instagrammers likes to have an organized feed that suits their preference, so don’t feel bad if they don’t follow back.
7. Instagram has no Character Limit For a Reason: It’s a micro-blogging hack for some people who love to read.
8. You Are What Your Explore Page Looks Like: Search & Explore to better tailor it to you. For example, we may show you photos liked by people whose posts you’ve liked or posts that are liked by a large number of people in the Instagram community. It’s also a great way to find good artist and photographers that share similar interest with you. That way you’ll get the best of both worlds.
9. Hashtags are Multi-Functional: Create your own personal hashtag, so it will be easier for you to find pictures you can get back to.
10. Featured Accounts get at Least +10,000 Followers: If you are new, you get featured.
12. For the Most Part, it’s better to Think Inside the Box.
13. Considering Having Two Instagram Accounts: We have friends, we have events that we go to. A personal account is is a great idea for sharing anything to your friends and family. While you should be strict on your other account. Have a theme, practice your art and creativity by taking the time to post something beautiful.
14. There are a Thousand of Ways to Photograph Life: See a different look in the world, show something different when you go to places, change in terms of perspective.
15. Consistency is mostly for non-followers: Be consistent, but not so consistent that it gets boring.
Kimi Juan @kimijuan is graduating student of De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, her style of photography revolves mostly on her travels.
Here are some of the important tips @kimijuan showed us on “Mobile & Travel Photography“:
1. Apply the rule of thirds, center your subject, leading lines and depth to your composition: To give variety in your landscape pictures.
2. Always visualize the shot you are going to take before you take it: Research, how does the place look like.
3. Create a Scale: add a subject to show comparison.
4. Lighting is Everything: If your light is bad, everything is bad. The sun waits for no one- if u see go run and shoot it! It’s best to shoot during the golden hour 6pm-9am and 4pm-6pm to show color of your subjects.
5. Curating your feed. Create your own style. Think about your shot, and upload the pictures when you are sure.
6. As long as your comfortable about your photo, as long as you like it. Do whatever your comfortable doing.
The workshop didn’t end there, students get to apply what they learned from shooting around the Club Balai resort.
We saw some students practicing flatlay on the wooden panels.
Students even got their photographs criticed by Jelito, Kimi and Marvin.
