Style and mood: how to have an impactful Instagram feed

Because your primary goal is to make a statement. The photo style of your Instagram account is what will make it unique. It's the mood of your account. But why is it so important to create a harmonious feed?

Find your style and mood to have an impactful Instagram feed

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Because your primary goal is to make a mark.

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The photo style of your Instagram account is what will make it unique. It's the vibe of your account. But why is it so important to create a harmonious feed?

Simply because it will allow you to attract attention to your account and to stand out from the competition, by creating a strong visual identity. But above all, a harmonious feed will allow you to convert visitors to your account into followers. Because the first stake of any Instagram account is indeed this one: to develop its community. It is then the style of your photos that will catch the eye of your target when they will stroll through their news feed, and that will incite them to click to visit your profile and discover your impactful feed.

It's crucial that your account doesn't fall victim to the compulsive scrolling that is so unique to Instagram and its users. If you've never heard of "Scroll & Stop", know that it's the way the whole world uses Instagram. We "scroll" the feed down and stop on the content that catches our attention. The goal of creating a harmonious feed is to make your target stop on your photo because it stands out from the others by its atmosphere, its style and its colors. So obviously, the quality of the photos posted is a key factor of success (we have already talked about it on this blog), but the most important thing is to create an atmosphere that distinguishes you from others.

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First good news: you don't need to be a photographer to create a killer Instagram feed.

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What is important is the atmosphere that emerges from it. And there are all kinds: natural, vintage, dark, black & white, bright, cold ... We know it may seem abstract said like that, so here are some examples to illustrate our point:

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So what defines a mood? How do you choose yours? What questions should you ask yourself and what tools should you use to make sure you get it right?

We see it all together in this article.

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What defines a mood and how do you choose your own?

The 3 elements to consider when choosing a mood to apply to your photos are:

The colors, which are found in the color wheel and which will be discussed in detail in the following section.
The saturation, which corresponds to the intensity of the chosen colors.
The brightness, which corresponds to the brightness of the selected colors.

To choose your mood on Instagram, you're going to put aside the colors and focus on the other 2 parameters: brightness and saturation. Whatever colors you choose, it's the degree of saturation and brightness that will create the mood of your photo.

In order for you to be able to differentiate between the two, you should know that as the brightness increases, your color will tend towards white, and towards black as it decreases. As the saturation increases, the colors appear purer, and as it decreases, the colors appear more washed out or pale. Place the slider at 0 and you will have gray, at 100 you will have your color at its highest intensity. Example on a yellow-orange color:

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So to choose your mood, you're going to have to think about how bright and saturated you want your colors to be. So, in order not to make a mistake, here are some questions to ask yourself to choose the atmosphere to give to your Instagram account ?

What will be shot and posted on your account? (objects, landscapes, faces, animals...)
What is the environment in which your photos will be taken? (outside, inside, in the middle of nature, in the city, on a construction site, in offices...)
What mood do you want to bring out in your photos? Something warm and bright? Or rather something dark, minimalist and sober? Or retro? Colorful?

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All these elements will play into your mood.

For example, it will be difficult to create a bright feed if 90% of the pictures you take are taken in the forest or late at night.

A tip: take inspiration from the Instagram accounts that inspire you and analyze them. Focus on the elements mentioned above: colors, saturation, brightness, the environment in which the photos are taken, etc.

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What colors to choose for your Instagram account?

As you can imagine, the choice of colors to highlight on your Instagram account is of major importance. Saturation and brightness will allow you to create a specific atmosphere, but defining your colors well will bring consistency and harmony to your feed. So if you haven't already done so in your graphic charter, start by choosing 2 to 3 colors. But how to do it?

There are 3 methods to choose your colors: complementary colors, monochromatic colors or analogical colors.

The technique of complementary colors is to choose colors that are opposite: orange and blue for example.

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The monochromatic color technique consists of choosing a single color but in different shades.

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The technique of analogical colors consists in choosing 3 colors which follow one another on the wheel of the colors.

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To choose your colors, we advise you to use the "Color Wheel" tool, from Canva, which will help you to find the best combination of colors by applying the technique you have chosen among the 3 we have just presented.

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So what are the questions to ask yourself when choosing your colors?
What background will you have on your images? What colors will be associated with it?
In what situations will you take these pictures? Time of day, outside light, presence of people or not...

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Example: If you are used to taking pictures of forests or mountains, it will be difficult to bring out orange or yellow. Conversely, it is difficult to bring out black when all your photos are taken outdoors and in daylight.

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The background of your photo

The background of your photo and the moment in which it is taken will have a great importance in the retouching that you will carry out. To help you in the choice of your colors according to the background and the environment in which your photos will be taken, we advise you to refer to this visual:

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This visual tool will help you choose which types of colors to use depending on your background. If for example you tend to take pictures in the forest or in the mountains, it is relevant that you go for a green color spectrum. If it's the sea or the sky, go for blue.

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Now that you have understood how an Instagram account mood is determined, that you have understood the principles of saturation, brightness, and that you know how to choose its colors, we will take 2 Instagram accounts with different moods and analyze them together:

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