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Work-in-Progress Photography – Your Way Ahead

Work-in-Progress Photography – Your Way Ahead

You devote a whole lotta love to creating your designs and products – and of course a whole lotta work. Often, it’s not about the result, but about the process, itself—let alone the fact that work-in-progress posts make for intriguing footage on social media. That said, we reach out to you with a smart and straightforward tutorial on how to excite and delight your followers with work-in-progress footage.

Work-in-progress photos and time lapses tell the story behind your designs and products. The process of how you got from point A to point B is obviously well known to you, but sharing it with your fans and followers allows them an exclusive and interesting look behind the scenes. Being able to track your creative path gives your followers a better understanding of the finished product. Most importantly, they will find it easier to appreciate and develop a connection to your work.

Having tackled a few Instagram tips and Facebook marketing strategies already, we now present you with 3 effective tricks for work-in-progress shots:

Plan what you want to say

There are various formats available to document the process of creation on Instagram:

  • You can always take a single image during your creative process, but a series of images will do an even better job when illustrating your process. The before/after comparison of i.e. the path from a pencil sketch to a fully-vectorized design or a finished product just looks plain impressive. Check out the Instagram app Layout for creating a photo serial.
  • Generate special effects with sequenced images. Start with a panoramic view of e.g. your workspace, then get closer step-by-step and show the tools and materials you use in fine detail. Finally, show a close-up image of the design.
  • You can also upload 60-second clips to Instagram. Create a time-lapse video with software like Apple Final Cut Express or Adobe Premiere Pro. Producing a clip form a recording of the complete creative process looks pretty impressive when played faster (make it fit 60 seconds). Or combine many individual photos into a single GIF.

Play with effects

  • The lighting and the background of your pictures is half the battle:
  • Ideally, take your photo during the day, as natural light reproduces the colors more authentically
  • Be part of the picture yourself. A ‘hand in action’ lends a human touch to the picture
  • Depending on your brand’s character, you can focus on its characteristics with props. Showcase your down-to-earth workplace, and you’ll convey a spontaneous and creative character. An arrangement of products, materials or decorations as a still life epitomizes a playful or stylish attitude
  • Do you use special pens, paints or brushes? Show people what you’ve got, and describe certain techniques you use in the captions

'shaking things up' in my studio & working on a new design. ???

A post shared by jesi (@jesiiii) on

See your design with different eyes

  • Take several shots from different angles (from either side, front, over your shoulder, low angle or bird’s eye), and ask somebody to help you so you can be in the picture
  • When taking photos of your digital work or Shop view, avoid diffuse reflection of light by changing the screen’s position
  • You, yourself, are the best poster child for authentic advertising of your products. It’s a good idea to reinvest part of your commission and order selected products with a design. Take pictures of these in use, and get great footage for promo banners and the final image of your work-in-progress series
  • Instagram offers you 32 different image filters. You can manually enhance the desired effect with changes of contrast, saturation and brightness.

How are work-in-progress snapshots received by your followers and customers? Any other social media tips or tricks you want to know more about? Let us know in the comments!

 

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