I Upped My Instagram Game and Boosted My Following – Here's How You Can Too

For me, lighting comes above everything and is the biggest impact on a great picture. Even if the background is great, if it’s facing the wrong way for the lighting, it’s a no go (unless you want to do some serious editing after and it will still never look as good). I feel natural light is the best and I take nearly all of my photos outside or by a window in order to get the perfect glow. You will need the sun to be facing you, if the sun is behind you, you will be back-lit and that's not going to help anyone!

The world is your backdrop and I'm not short of beautiful backdrops in Dubai, from pools, to beaches, to skylines, I'm spoiled for choice. I really try to use these to my advantage and they are often my best performing pictures (as trust me, I know people don’t always just want to see me!).

Work your angles girl! Angles can totally change a photo, taking a photo from a low angle can make it a little more dramatic and make your legs look longer. Taking a photo from a higher angle can make you look thinner. Creating different angles with your body and face can hide the bits you’re not so keen on and accentuate your killer features, so find what works for you.

Move over David Bailey. I take some of my pictures on a digital camera but a lot of my recent photos are on the iPhone 8 Plus. Both my camera and iPhone work well and it shows that you don’t need a big professional camera to take nice photos. iPhone 8 Plus and iPhone X both have great cameras and also have Portrait Mode which is pretty amazing.

Give yourself options. I always take a lot of photos in one spot so I have lots of options to choose from (even though I’m probably going to use the first one but that’s not the point!). I will then go through and favorite all the best ones and delete the rest so I’m not left with 50 of the same photo on my phone. That’s not good for anyone’s memory.

VSCO is an app which allows you to edit your photos and add presets (filters) to your photos. Some of the preset packs are free but most of them you have to buy in-app. VSCO’s filters literally transform your pictures. I was actually a late adaptor to VSCO but now I love it and have never looked back. Find your perfect filters and its an easy and quick way to edit your photos with their amazing presets.

My Instagram is very much light and bright so I turn up the brightness on all photos to lighten everything up and make everything pop. This is totally about preference as some people like their photos a little darker but whatever works best for you and your Instagram, try to keep it the same throughout.

Snapseed is great for changing specific parts of a photo. I often use this if I want part of the photo a little lighter or darker. This allows you to select and change it without affecting any other parts. You can also change the saturation of specific things in the picture using this tool, which I sometimes use to make the sky a little bluer or the grass a little greener. I think it's pretty cool!