Today I got the idea in my mind to try out doing a seamless multi-image post on instagram. The idea is to have multiple images put together seamlessly into a much “wider” image, using the image carousel feature. There are a bunch of creative reasons you might want to use this feature, but I think this can simply be a fun way to get people to engage more with your posts.
Starting off - The Initial Photo
You might be starting off with a panorama you created in photoshop or in camera, or you can also crop from just about any horizontal photo. The important thing here is to crop your image to a 2:1 ratio (or 3:1 if you want to go with three image).
To do this, you are going to want to bring the file into lightroom, photoshop, or a similar app that allows you to set an aspect ratio or exact dimensions. If you want to do it all on your phone, you can create a custom-sized document in the app canva and essentially set the image as the base image and double tap to move around if necessary, I would go with photoshop or lightroom if possible though.
Duplicate The File
Once you’ve done that, you will want to get that file to your phone, if it isn’t there already. You will then need to duplicate the file. This will allow you to use the left half of the image for the first image, and the right half for the second image.
In the Instagram app
Start as you normally would when making a single image post (the center square with the plus in it at the bottom of your app
Slide the image over to only show the left half.
Next, click the image carousel icon and select your other copy of the cropped image
Slide image to show only right half of the image
Posting
I would suggest making all edits prior to duplicating the image for consistency. Post as you normally would with whatever caption you want, maybe a little note about “swiping” to see the whole image. Have fun with this technique.
Why?
There are a couple of reasons to use this technique. The main one being to display a larger version of a panoramic image, if you were to do it with a single image you would be limited by the width of the screen and your image would be much shorter. This would allow you to see the whole image, but at a significantly smaller size where detail will be lost and the expansiveness of the image will be lost as well. You could theoretically put a third image that is the full image on a white background that fills out a square as borders on the top and bottom of the image.
Another advantage of this technique is that it can create a more interactive post that might even require swiping between the images to see the full picture or read the full image, literally and figuratively. Creating engaging and interactive experiences is an incredibly valuable way to share your photos.
I plan to share some other ideas on how to use this process in the future. However, when it comes to fairly straightforward photography this is great for panoramas or cropping in on a wide part of the image. Give it a try, have fun, and share your results.