...and here's the second part of my tips and tricks for IG (find the first part here).

2. COMPOSITION AND STYLING

I do like to look at mundane, everyday random snapshots from my friends and also from other IGers fom distant corners of the globe. Still what I personally like the most is a well composed image, with a balanced use of filters and a nicely styled content.
Unfortunately only in a few cases I (hopefully) got that effect in my own pictures, but basing mostly on my favorite IG photographers here's some IG photography tips (assuming you shoot with your iPhone and use IG on iPhone). Ofcourse most of this is just a subjective and questionable matter, a matter of personal taste.

- When shooting with IG in mind (or when selecting a photo from your library) don't forget that the photos on IG are square and not landscape/portrait shape as the default iPhone ones. So you'd better frame your subject accordingly since the beginning.

- I think a photo where the main subject or focus is not perfectly centered is often (although not always for sure) more interesting  than a merely symmetrical one. You can follow the classic rule of thirds or even choose more extreme positioning for your subjects or unusual cropping. The same idea is valid for the blurring filter and text positioning.

- Obvious: the images on your iPhone screen are SMALL. So when choosing your subject keep in mind that it will have to stand out in a small image.

And here's probably the most arguable part of my tips: I tend to prefer pictures with close ups of objects, details, still life (stationery, food, flowers, clothes...), in empty or textured backgrounds  than pictures with big panoramas or architectures or moving subjects. Again, I've many amazing landscapes or very dynamic photos among my favorites, so the above cannot be considered a rule at all, it's just the style o trend I like the most.

- A basic basic rule: if the original photo is not decent there's no editing nor filter that will make a miracle. So ensure to have excellent light conditions (at least with my iPhone 3GS this is particularly critical) and steady hand at least. Sometimes i edit my photos before filtering and posting on IG (typically adjusting lightness and contrast), but I definitely prefer the photos that are not over-edited nor gone through multiple filters.

3. TAGGING TRICK

If you use IG you know that tagging your images is key to give them some visibility, participate to games and contests, meet new IG friends and overall live the IG community.

I didn't figure tags out at the beginning, how and why to tag images was not immediately evident for me. Then I realized there's two main types of tags: the "descriptive" tags ie the tags strictly related to the content of your picture (example: #acorn #wood #fall) and the tags that can help you getting visibility for you images or add them to specific collections (example: #igersitalia) or paticipate to contests (see below). For the tags that describe your specific picture you will have to choose them each time and add them manually. But you might want to add a set of tags that will be always the sam for all your pictures, maybe 10 diferent ones or more. For this group I suggest you to do the following: write them (complete with #) in the notepad application of your iPhone (ie the default yellow "Note" icon). Select all, copy. Then it will be much easier to paste the block of text in a comment to your image than writning them one by one every time!

Sometimes they have phisical or digital prizes, somtimes you'll just win a shoutout, somtimes there's no prize at all but it's always fun to play a game or try a challenge plus it's a good way to discover and be discovered by other IGers. A challenge is simply a call for photos with a specific theme. You will have to read the rules (maximum number of submissions, new photos only or not, deadline, other policies) and then add to your images the tag provided.

To find these challenges and many other activities and initiatives (including charity ones) I suggest you to follow: @instagram_activities @joshjohnson @challengehub @dailycolorchallenge (I participate quite often: a different color is the theme for each day of the week...)

Tomorrow I'll show you some of my favorite photostreams in the third and last post dedicated to IG. What are yours?

The IG photos in this post are by me. Find me on IG @suze_ !