I’ve seen that professional photographers use white borders around their photos on Instagram, why do they make their photos smaller by doing that? To preserve image quality?
If that is so why don’t they just use standard 1:1 , 3:4 or landscape mode which ig supports instead of custom crops
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I use borders only to preserve original 3:2 aspect ratio. At the beginning I was cropping my images for IG and all the time I felt that it’s wrong and I’m forced to do it. I shoot in 3:2, I initially see my frame in 3:2, if I will change aspect ratio I will get a frame that totally differ from my initial idea. What to do if I got perfect frame in 3:2 and there is just no room to crop? Skip posting? :D
Adding a white border around the images gives it some visual separation from the things around it. Theres no background colors or anything else visually adjacent to the image that can effect your perception of it (colors/tones/etc.)
In addition, a white frame left and right allows a portrait image to be shown in full aspect ratio. Instagram displays portraits at 1080 x 1350 pixels, 4:5 aspect ratio. Which is fine on a crop sensor camera, but full frame images are 2:3, 4x6 etc.
So for full frame images, a white frame allows you to display the full image. Or at least, that’s partly why I do it. The separation is a thing too.
It legit looks better. I used to scoff but after trying it and looking at them side by side I’m on board.
Unless you’re a dark mode user, then it can look really jarring
I do it a lot just to see how it would look printed and framed
I suppose you could add an extra wide border at the bottom to make them look like Polarids :-)
Traditionally, a white border made sense in a darkroom, making it easier to handle wet prints without leaving tong and fingerprint marks on an image.
Not to mention it’s where the paper gets held down in the cropping easel.
Hi! I do this and there are a few reasons why. I shoot 3:2 and want my photos to retain their entire frame. I add white bars to the side which, after you have posted a few, helps break up the images on your profile as people scroll. And when I add my post my story, the white bars on the side naturally run into the white bars IG will add to the top and bottom, making a nice frame.
TL;DR I do it because I like the way it looks and it helps convey what I see as a photographer.
I was wondering what white bars you’re talking about. But then I figured I’m using dark mode.
Art galleries do this. They give some breathing room and space between each piece causing you to focus on one piece at a time. Imagine if museums tried to cram as many artworks as possible on one wall. That’s what instagram is like sometimes.
I prefer a colored mat that matches the focus of the image.
Aesthetic only…
I do this on posts where I am doing portrait and landscape aspect ratios. Instagram will let you use custom aspect ratios but you can only use 1 aspect ratio throughout your post. And it’s got the added benefit of looking nice and making your profile look a bit neater
It’s to get the 1:1 aspect ratio, and it’s supposed to make your profile look nicer on light mode with everything laid out
Because default image is 2:3 and insta is 4:5
I love white framing IRL. But on online formats, not so much.
To my taste, it’s only pleasant on instagram if it’s consistent and well planed. And even, if a user is in darkmode (I am), it will look strange/ugly.
I prefer to work on the pictures I share to make a crop for instagram.
Personnal taste !
- Consistent profile aesthetic
- keeping the original aspect ratio of the image
- inserting images with different aspect ratios in the same carousel post.
No big secret there.
And also copyright tho like to prevent people from screenshoting and claiming your work as theirs.
Yeah, this definitely is not true.
This is not how screenshots and resolutions work. And that’s definitely not how copyright works.
How?
They’d only have the low res screenshot apposed to a raw file or high-resolution jpeg.
back in the olden days pictures were printed on paper. They had white borders.
I think it’s because it gives you an idea of what they will look like printed maybe?