Imagine this scenario: You’ve been tasked with collecting photo assets from a trade show event. The photos will be used for social media and that’s all the direction you get.
This is a fairly common assignment for us, so naturally we look for ways to get it done correctly and efficiently, the first time around. This post will help you compose high-quality photos that can be used across multiple social media channels with minimal editing and retouching.
Photographic Composition – Landscape
Rule of Thirds. Divide the photo into three equal spaces with horizontal and vertical lines. Think about a basic grid pattern while you’re taking your shot, as in the example below. Place points of interest where the lines intersect. This allows the viewer to look more deeply into the image and draws the eye to explore multiple elements. If the subject is centered, then the viewer’s attention focuses on the symmetry and has no place to go from there.
Fill the Frame. Don’t be afraid to get close to your subject when you capture an image. Modern cameras take extremely high-quality images but, even so, filling the frame with your subject is one of the best ways to make your photos pop.
Photographic Composition – Square
Some composition rules remain the same when composing for a square shot, others differ. The main thing to take into account is symmetry, which works better in a square frame. You can still apply the rule of thirds and others mentioned above, but don’t be afraid to center the subject in your frame.
Composing for Social Channels
Twitter. When you upload a photo with a tweet, Twitter automatically crops a 440×220-pixel preview image that displays in-stream. How Twitter crops the image is a little bit of a mystery, but the algorithm will crop images so that dominant visual elements, such as faces or high-contrast objects, are displayed in the preview pane.
Twitter’s recommended image dimensions are 1024×512 pixels, because that crops down nicely to the preview size. Given the recommended image and preview sizes, it’s pretty safe to say landscape or square photos work the best on Twitter.
Facebook. Facebook is pretty versatile in displaying photos, so what you need to consider is how the image will display in a timeline preview, before users click to expand them.
Square and landscape-oriented photos will look best in Facebook timelines because they fill the entire width of the preview stream. Portrait photos, however, are displayed with a blank space to one side, which creates a haphazard, unfinished look that should be avoided.
Instagram. Instagram displays photos in a 640×640 square and that’s it. By following the tips mentioned above, you’ll be able to work within Instagram’s format fairly easily.
Composing the Shot
Can you guess from the channel discussion above which camera orientation lends itself best to all channels? If you guessed landscape, you’re right.
Photos framed in the landscape orientation give you the opportunity to follow basic photography composition rules and provide the flexibility needed to crop for each channel, without compromising the contents of your photos.
The post Size Matters: Optimizing Photographic Composition for Social Media appeared first on CMD Agency Blog.
