Instagrammable photography ideas at home: Top tips from travel content creators!

Are you ready for some instagrammable photography ideas at home? I have teamed up with some of the most amazing travel content creators who have created stunning photos indoors! Can’t wait to share these with you as well as some tips on how YOU can create better indoor photos too! Hope you feel inspired after this and I would love to see what you create so feel free to DM me on Instagram with your creations! Read on to see how using colanders, changing perspective and making the most of golden hour can help you with you indoor photoshoots! There are also some mirror photography tips, or head to my blog post on mirror photography ideas for LOADS more information!!

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• I use a Canon 77D for all my photos!
• My favourite lens is the Sigma 17-50mm f2.8

The first indoor photography tip is to use props!

As travel people (I miss Bali SO MUCH!), we are all used to the background being epic enough that we often don’t even need props! However, when you are taking photos at home and indoors props can make it much easier to take photos. I am obsessed with my new hat and it has made some of my photos I took indoors in Uluwatu much more interesting. For example, if I was just lying in bed it may not have been as interesting, but with the hat covering my whole body and my legs only poking out, it makes it a much more interesting photo!

Play with colours and contrast

I am guilty of not thinking about my outfit before I take photos and sometimes end up blending in with my background! This time, I knew my background would be all white so I chose an orange outfit to make sure I contrasted. While we are at home now there is plenty of time to decide which outfit will work best and plenty of time to play dress up! It is also fun at this time to get dressed up and put some ‘holiday’ clothes on. So go for it get dressed up and take some photos indoors and pretend you’re getting dressed up to ‘leave’ the house!

Roxanne and Maartje from Once Upon A Journey share their tips and photography ideas at home:

Change Perspective!

Our best indoor photography tip is to change perspective! It literally and figuratively makes a huge difference! We’ve seen awesome shots of people rotating pictures 90 degrees, or even 180 degrees. For a 90 degrees rotation, make sure you pose with a wall for a fun effect and lift a leg or something. For a 180 degrees rotation, think of anything that would be fun upside down!

A perspective-change we tried is to take a picture from above. Don’t simply set up your camera on eye-level, but try to make it special. We used our canopy bed to lay our tripod on for a bed-shot, we set up our camera + tripod upside down in the staircase for another shot, and we have even seen people fly drones indoors (do NOT do this if you aren’t trained). It’s actually a lot of fun if you force yourself to see things from a different perspective in your own home! 

(If you do want to fly a drone soon then head to my post on drone photography tips for some ideas on how to get creative!)

When we don’t travel, we cook! Learn some Dutch recipes with us!

Ellie from The Ginger Wanderlust shares her indoor photography tips:

Edit the wall!

My top tip for taking photos at home is to maximise your editing! You don’t need an “instagrammable” wall in your house to take beautiful photos, you can create your own! Ideally you will use a plain wall that is near a window for natural light. Take the photo of your choice in front of this wall and then you can change the colour and design of the wall when editing! If you need some inspiration on what to take then check out my 24 home photoshoot ideas!

How to edit a wall:

Step 1 – Highlight the wall using the brush tool in Lightroom (I prefer to do this in the Lightroom app as it’s easier to highlight the wall).

Step 2 – Once the area is selected you can play around with the warmth, tint and colour until you reach the desired look. I would also recommend decreasing the clarity and texture and increasing the whites a bit.

Step 3 – If you wish to make your wall even more exciting you can use the PicsArt app to add stickers! For example orange slices, flowers or rainbows!

Chiara from Trips and Heels shares her indoor photoshoot tips!

Photography ideas at home tip: Use the Golden Hour

Creating indoor photography is not easy, especially when you usually create travel/ outdoor photos like us! The conditions and light are not the same. Also, in the outdoor photography, the background is very important contrary to indoor photos where you will more focus on the subject. The background at home is not so interesting, so you have to be creative to highlight the subject. It’s a real challenge and it’s really exciting. It’s really something new for us and we love it! We are having so much fun creating at home! This quarantine is definitely something great to try new things and get creative!

Play with rays of light and shadows!

Here are several tips to create awesome indoor photos! The first one is to play with the light and the shadows. Observe how the light of the sun is entering in your house and what is the best time of the day to have a ray of light on a wall or even on the floor. Then, you can imagine something to do with this light. Personally, to create this photo, we have waited for the golden hour (30 minutes before sunset) to have a golden light on the wall.

Then, the second tips to create an original photo is to play with objects. This can be a glass, a window, a plant, a lamp or even a bottle. We opened the window to orient the light and played with the ladder that we have at home to go on the roof. Try everything you have in mind and don’t limit your creativity! There is no rule, the goal is to create something that seems great to you!

What setting to use for indoor photography?

For this photo, we used a 28mm (but a 35mm is perfect too). And concerning the settings, we put the camera on A (aperture). Then, F 2.0 because it’s dark, so you need to open the aperture to allow the light to enter the lens. Next, concerning the speed 1/100 to avoid a camera shake and let the ISO 100. Add a soft edit to make pastel colours and voilà!

Instagrammable photography ideas at home – tips from Carla – Travel By Carla Vianna

Shoot close to windows!

I’ve found that one of the best ways to stay sane during quarantine is to push myself to get creative. Now that my spring trips have been officially cancelled, I am faced with a new dilemma: what the heck do I post on Instagram? I can post old content that might not necessarily showcase my best work, or create new content … indoors. I’ve never been an indoor photographer, so I’ve taken this time at home to push myself out of my comfort zone.

Midday can also be a great time for indoor photography!

My biggest photography tip for at-home photography is to use all the natural light available in your home. For me, that means setting up shots as close to the two windows in my apartment as possible, or only shooting around noon, when my apartment is receiving the most sunlight. Don’t be afraid to move furniture around to allow that natural light to flow into your photo. If your home is tiny like mine, you may need to use the same light-filled corner more than once. That’s when props come in! Using different props such as wall decor, plants or a mirror can help make your at-home photos feel unique from one another.

Top indoor photography tips from Sanjukta from Ode To My Travels

Play with shadows!

To shoot Indoor the most important thing is to train you eyes to see the beauty around your house. Before you start taking photos identify the natural light sources of your house for example the windows and doors. You will have to know the light coming through them and make sure to note the timings during the day when they are soft and has a warm glow to it because the colour of the light is not the same throughout the entire day. The light is usually soft and golden during sunrise and sunset and it’s harsher during the day.

Use objects to create fun shadows!

Once you are sorted with the light source, identify objects that can create patterns with shadow. Shadows are really fun to play with and can create super dynamic photos. Some of the objects you can create shadows within the house are colanders, lace textiles, nets, curtains, plant leaves, window blinds etc.

Use a mirror!

Another object that I love to shoot with for indoor photography is a mirror. Catching the reflection in the mirror makes a simple flat photo pretty extraordinary. You need to take a lot of test shoots to get the perfect angle and control the light but the results are pretty amazing.

What camera settings to use?

As for which lens to use for indoor portrait photography, our favourite is the 50mm f1.4 prime lens. But whichever lens you use the most important is to just have fun with it. Indoor photography is full of DIYs, hacks and are mostly super inexpensive. Just spot the beauty around your house and start shooting!!!

Top tips for an amazing indoor photoshoot from MorgyLH!

Think outside the box – try recreating a painting!

It’s not because you’re stuck home that you can’t take beautiful pictures. The hardest part is always to find some ideas for your pictures. To find some inspiration I mostly use Pinterest but you can recreate an album cover, a famous painting, anything! Just think outside of the box.

What I also love to do is go around my apartment and see what I find while cleaning it. You can find so many props in your house : it can be fruits, some bold jewels, cereals, flowers, paint, frames, even toilet paper! So when I’ve found the prop I want to use for my shot, I start thinking about my outfit and makeup, you can go crazy with the makeup, follow James Charles tutorial and work those brushes. When you’re doing a portrait, every little details counts.

Play with Photoshop!

If you feel like your picture need a little something, you can play with Photoshop or PicsArt to add some decorations. The editing part is when your art comes out. I love to accentuate some part of the shot, change the colour of my background to match with my props, etc. I love the portraits that @costebilly are doing and you can see it’s a lot of editing to get those results. Don’t be afraid to spend time on your editing and make sure your picture stands out.

Truth is quarantine sucks for everyone, but you can use this time to be productive and learn something. Be crazy with your content, it’s now or never.

Fun photography ideas at home from Sandy – Travel Vlogger gone travelling at home!

Use a soft box and recreate your trips at home!

I’ve shot a few really fun pics from home recently such as the one below/above and I actually love them! Number one tip from my side is lighting. My flat does not have a lot of natural light so I have used my soft box in pretty much every picture. In the bathtub, sorry I mean Hawaii photo it even acts as the sun by the pool due to the reflection in my sunglasses.

Where to find Inspiration? 

How to come up with ideas? I simply looked through my old posts on Instagram and wondered how I could recreate them at home, and I went for it. Houseplants help – mine are in almost every picture and they love it (I think). Also I do have a very patient housemate who let’s me take over the bathroom for 2 hours until I have the perfect photo. Oh yeah, you also need time. Self shooting is not easy so don’t rush it. You have a vision and it might just take a little more time to make it come to life.

Last but not least! A few photography tips from Sam at The Blonde Scout!

Set The Scene!

We all take photos in pretty hotels, so why not make your home look like one of these spaces? It is super easy to stage a part of your home, backyard or patio to look like a picture-perfect escape. Gather interesting objects to set a themed-scene or a mood, add some plants or flowers for some depth and make sure there is ample natural light or a light box.

Photography ideas at home: Tie your content to a fun lifestyle project!

This is the time to get all of your creative juices flowing! As a travel blogger, my content always focuses on my trips, but there is so much more to traveling than just the destination itself! It’s about the food, the culture, the fashion, the traditions… so try to create some of these “travel” experiences into lifestyle projects at home! I loved creating smoothie bowl recipes inspired from my favourite smoothie shops in Bali and creating a Balinese floral bath at home! If you have a favourite destination, get creative! Check out my at-home activity ideas here!

Plants for the win!

Most of my photos are focused on the outdoors, so bring the outdoors indoors by using plants or get in your garden for photos if you’re lucky enough to have one! Plants and flowers are so versatile and can add some visual interest to a rather flat shot, plus it will add some colour into your shots!

I hope you enjoyed this post on instagrammable photography ideas at home! I hope this has also inspired you to go and create, you don’t have to travel to take amazing photos! Remember to use shadows, natural light and get some fun props in there too! Don’t have a fun coloured wall? No need! Head up to Ellie’s section to see how you can change up the colours. Don’t have natural light? Use a soft box! Where there’s a will there’s a way so go for it and I can’t wait to see what you create at home!

Pin these photography ideas at home for later!