Admit it, you’ve created the perfect image you wanted to share with the world, but then you head to Instagram and find it clipping certain bits. It’s frustrating when you try and upload your photo and are presented with the obnoxious square box. Choose between chopping your feet or head out of the final image. It’s impossible to have both. Or, so we used to think.
Getting all snap happy
It’s happened to all of us don’t worry. However, it hurts every time. The moment you get that incredible shot and suddenly, you’re left picking which bit to crop. Oh, it did used to be much worse though. Remember the days when we absolutely had to use white backgrounds with every image to even have a chance of having half of you in the image? Thankfully, we’ve come a long way since then. There are literally apps for everything. Including saving your photos from being snipped.
Instagram have changed things a little for us. It once was even more restricted than it is now. You couldn’t zoom out to allow more of your image in. Hopefully you know what I’m talking about here. If not, head to Instagram, pick a random photo and pinch the image in the lower left corner to zoom out. You’ll be able to have more of the photo included, but it’s still likely to crop some of it. There was once a time when it was zoomed in or nothing. Hence, all the tragic borders all the way around the image. You know the ones? People would try and get creative and turn them into different colours.
Now, there are so many apps that can save the day. However, the best thing you can do is shoot in square mode. Smartphones have fully evolved, even to include Insta happy snapping. Simply keep your platform in mind before taking those photos. Since smartphones have such high camera quality these days, it’s hard for many people to tell the difference between a DSLR shot and an iPhone shot. Not only that but it’s no secret adding it to social media decreases the quality anyway. So, the best advice we can give it to shoot in square right from the start. That way you don’t have to make any compromises.
The lifesaving app
Ok so, if you’ve shot normally and created the best images, but they’re not the right size, no need to panic. The images can be saved without the dreaded C word (cropping). *Shudders* There’s an app called Square Pic which you can go ahead and download. Without having to pay a penny you can get your photo ready for Instagram’s layout.
If pinching and zooming out doesn’t work, you might need to add a little bit of a white border. Don’t worry though, it’s not a full frame border like we mentioned earlier. This one won’t be noticeable at all. We promise.
When you zoom out on an image before uploading it, a white border will appear around the longer sides. For example, if your photo is portrait, a white border will appear around the two portrait sides. So using Square Pic you can add a little white border to the top and bottom of the image – the shorter sides. Just to ensure no cropping occurs in the process. It’s that simple. Just upload your image, add a little white border and save it. It will then blend right in.
It’s important to note that not every method will work for every image. It might be that a certain photo doesn’t look right square, and you need the definition of a portrait or landscape photo. Or you might have a strict theme running through your Instagram account where its square or nothing. Whatever works for you. However, there are apps for literally everything you could need. So no photo is past saving.
