Last Updated on 02/25/2017 by Chris Gampat
Instagram just launched their latest update and it is one of the biggest changes yet to the world’s most popular photography network. This new gallery post-type opens up a fresh avenue for professional photographers to tell stories and promote their work.
Need some ideas on ways to make use of these new gallery features? Well, you have come to the right spot. Today we have compiled a list of 5 ways for professional photographers to utilize Instagram’s new gallery post feature. Let’s get into it….
#1 – Before & After
We know a lot of photographers like to post before/after images showing what their client looked like prior to the shoot and then how they looked during the shoot. Another example would be an image before being processed and then after being processed. This new gallery post feature in Instagram would be a great way to share your before/after sequences now instead of trying to cram both images into one frame.
Post the before and after in one gallery and then your fans will be able to flip between them easy peasy. This is a great way to up interaction on your page and shows people the value of your work.
#2 – Mini-Stories
For many photographers, especially the good ones, a photo series is all about telling a story about the subject. These new galleries allow up to 10 images to tell a story, without cluttering your feed. This can also be a great way to challenge yourself to see if you can tell the story you want to tell in a compelling way with up to 10 images to do it.
#3 – Wedding Events
Those of you shooting weddings know there is a lot of great stuff you can share, but on the old Instagram this would lead to a cluttered feed and way too many images from one wedding. Now, with these galleries, you can break up parts of your wedding (Bridal Portraits, Groom Portraits, First Look, etc) and post a gallery of images from that portion, while only taking up one frame of your IG feed.
This doesn’t just have to be for weddings either, maybe you are a portrait or boudoir photographer and your client had multiple wardrobe changes, or you shot in multiple locations. Break them up and do a gallery for each one. This is a great way to show more of your work without overwhelming your fans.
#4 – Portfolios
You can use galleries in conjunction with hashtags to curate specific mini-portfolios to show off your best work on a given niche. For example, if I was wanting to highlight my men’s boudoir, I could create a custom hashtag #anthonythurstonmensboudoir or something like that, and then post IG galleries with that hashtag.
Then if I wanted to direct someone to that portfolio, I just drop them that hashtag and they instantly have access to all of my mini-galleries featuring my boudoir work with men.
#5 – Behind The Scenes
I don’t know about you, but I love shooting and sharing BTS photos and video. But to be honest, it can clutter up a feed quickly and take attention away from your actual work. So now you can make use of Instagram’s galleries to share more BTS imagery and video without having to worry that it will take away attention from your real work.
—
These are just a handful of ideas that we have come up on how to possibly utilize these new Instagram galleries to better promote ourselves and our businesses. It will be interesting to see how others use the new feature and what ideas work best.