Tag: quick tip

Instagram Quick Tip: Video Cropping

About a year ago, Instagram moved into the realm of video sharing. Now, not only can you share your favorite photos with the world, but you can also share your favorite 15-second video clips. If you are already familiar with Instagram, you know that the format of this photo/video-sharing app allows you to post a square-shaped image. This sounds reasonable enough, until one day, you load an amazing panoramic or vertical video onto Instagram and discover that the automatic square-shaped cropping results in some of your body parts or some of your amazing view being cropped out of sight.

The image on the left is a screenshot of a video that I took on my iphone. Looks great, right? The image on the right is a screenshot of the automatic cropping that occurs as soon as the video is loaded into Instagram. My legs and hands are cut off!!

No need to panic. Gone are the days of having to re-shoot your video to adjust your distance from the camera. Here are two of our favorite video cropping apps to help you navigate the Instagram world of square cropping.

Video App 1: Squaready for Video App
Download the free “Squaready for Video” app onto your phone. Upload your video into the app, and it will automatically put your full video into a square shape by adding borders in the color of your choice. This is a great option if the subject of your video occupies a large portion of the frame, as shown in my example. This app allows you to maintain the entire image without any square cropping at all. When you upload your video after using the Squaready app, your video will appear in Instagram as shown below. As you can see, I’ve chosen white borders to fill in the empty portions of the Instagram square.

Video App 2: Video Crop & Zoom
The second video app that we love is the “Video Crop & Zoom” app. This app allows you to zoom in on any portion of a video and crop it into a square shape for Instagram as shown below. By having the capability to zoom in on the subject, you can eliminate unwanted background/foreground.

Although this process is a bit more time consuming than just loading the video directly onto Instagram, I prefer having a video that fills the full square frame.

Download one or both of these apps! You may find that both of these apps are helpful in different situations.

If you would like to see any other Instagram Quick Tip topic covered, please leave us a message!

July 14, 2014
Instagram Quick Tip: Color Splash

Here’s another fun and simple app that I like to use from time to time: Color Splash. This app converts your color photo into a black and white photo, and then allows you to manually add splashes of color back into your image.

When would you use such an app? I find it most effective in two cases. First, your image contains a bright pop of color that you want to accentuate. Second, the bright pop of color in the full color version of your photograph is getting lost amongst many other colors in the photo.
Take a look at my original photo. It’s fine as is, but the bright pink color of my top is competing with the green grass in the background. By converting the entire image to black and white, I can remove the background noise and focus on my clothing.

The app itself is quite easy to use. Once your photo is loaded into the program, it automatically becomes a black and white image. Click on the “color” button, as shown on the bottom of each photo below. Enlarge the image and begin adding color to the photo with swipes of your finger. If you make a mistake, click on the “gray” button to erase the misplaced color. The final effect is a dramatic image with a bright splash of color exactly where you want it.

April 29, 2014
Instagram Quick Tip: Self-Timers for Everyone!

When I wrote my first Instagram Quick Tip article, I assumed that everyone was taking their own yoga photos with a self-timer. It has come to my attention that my assumption was incorrect, and it’s probably worthwhile to start at the beginning for any newcomers to Instagram.

If you are wondering who takes my yoga photos, the answer is me.

I take the vast majority of my photos using the interval timer function on my Nikon DSLR camera. I set my timer to automatically take a photograph every one to two seconds while I get into various poses on my mat. While it is wonderful to have a Nikon with a self-timer, it is unnecessary! Even if the only camera you own is the one that is part of your smart phone, you can take your own yoga self-portraits with an interval timer that you can download from the App Store.

On my iPhone, I use a free app called “Camera Timer”. I’m sure there are multiple interval timer apps available for either iPhone or android, so if you cannot find the specific app called “Camera Timer”, don’t panic.

Once you download the Camera Timer app, you will see that you have a single shot option or a multi shot option. I use the multi shot option every time. Why would you ever take one photo when you can take five?

First, set your “countdown”, which is the amount of time that you think you need to get from your phone to your yoga mat and get into your first pose. You might need anywhere between 10 and 20 seconds. Play around with this number. You can also set your “period”, which is the length of time between photos. I prefer two seconds between shots. Finally, you can decide on how many photos you’d like the camera to take. Five photos always seems like a good number to me. Once you set your “countdown”, “period” and “shot”, you are ready to go. Place your phone into a short glass (as explained in my first Instagram Quick Tip article) , and start your timer!

April 7, 2014