This last section is for those of us who absolutely live on the internet. There is absolutely no need for a camera to social media scheduler if you’re just documenting your daily life, but for the growing number of us who use social media at their day jobs, using a scheduler makes the process so much easier.
A social media scheduler is really the last step on getting your image out to the world. At this point, it’s already run almost the full gamut of camera to social media. Your photo or video has been shot, edited, and tweaked to perfection. Now, it just has to go live!
Using a social media scheduler helps social media managers wrangle multiple platforms and accounts at once, but it isn’t necessarily a key part in today’s social media strategy. With more and more apps focusing on engagement-based algorithms, your posting time is slowly beginning to matter less than the content itself.
I recommend dipping into a few basic social media schedulers—even if you’re just a casual user. Knowing that my post is going up later helps me stay in the moment, because I know I can always edit it to perfection once I get home. I love Later for scheduling my Instagram posts, but I’m constantly being recommended Buffer and TweetDeck (built in to/owned by Twitter), too.
Stay grounded in the moment
Social media has become a huge part of daily life. However, your TikTok views, Instagram likes, and Facebook shares don’t have to rule your life. By streamlining your workflow, you can stay in the moment while cutting down the amount of time you spend on social media.
Easy editing programs like Adobe Lightroom and VSCO for mobile will help you get your photos ready for sharing, which you can schedule to go live whenever you’re ready.
The better your camera to social media process gets, the less time you can spend on it—leaving you more time to stay in the moment.
Explore smartphones and cameras online at Best Buy.
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This post contains images from theNotice and @thenotice, courtesy of the author. Head image from @eaterscollective.
Modern life exists in two spheres: the physical world and the internet. Many of us turn instinctively to social media as a place where we can connect with others, whether they’re friends far from home or our loved ones just down the block. We use social media to do everything from share photos of our best moments to creating an online brand to build our careers upon. Taking a photo from a camera to social media can be a process that you need a little skill for, which is where this little reference sheet comes in.
When you’re sharing with friends and family, taking something from camera to social media is simple: just snap, caption, and post. But for those of us who want their online presence to follow a cohesive mood, you’ll need to look at each image individually and as a whole. Following a narrative lets viewers create a solidified picture of you in their head, which can help you snag a role as a content creator—or an enviable depiction of that dreamy vacation that you took for your honeymoon.
How to pick a social media-friendly camera
For high-quality snaps, I recommend using a camera to take your photos. Smartphones are great, and their quality is phenomenal, but having a camera can give your feed an extra edge. (Another great option? Using a smartphone app that lets you control your aperture and depth of field.)
DSLR-quality photos will give you a crisper picture, with more detail and less pixelation. Having a better depth of field is key; that is, it’s important to draw the viewer’s eye to the key part of your photo. A standalone camera will do a great representing true-to-life colours with a little bit of white balancing, and your shots will have a more even exposure balance across the frame. Best Buy has a great DSLR buying guide that you can reference if you’re looking for a new camera, but honestly? Even an introductory point-and-shoot camera will do the trick.
To pick a camera that’s perfect for social media posting, all you have to do is make sure that said camera has Wi-Fi capabilities. It’s a feature that’s available in pretty much all cameras on the market right now, though photographers using an older camera may want to update for the social media age. Even if your old camera still takes beautiful photos, having the ability to send an image from your camera right to your smartphone is unbeatable. Travel cameras and smartphones even offer durability and a compact size, which is often helpful for social media posts.
Wi-Fi image transfer and remote shutter apps for your camera or your phone help you create a mobile photo studio while on the go. They’ll let you snap, edit, and filter a high-quality shot within minutes, so it’s ready for posting.
When to use your smartphone
I prefer to shoot with my camera, but I do leave it at home whenever possible. If I’m going to be out for the whole day and I don’t want to lug my camera body around, or if I’m going somewhere that I really don’t want to be disruptive at, then a great smartphone camera is the perfect compromise.
Smartphones are a great way to take a snap of your date night dinner without startling everyone in the restaurant. Most phones have a pretty impressive camera attached, but you’ll have to tweak your shooting style to suit them: smartphone cameras have extremely wide lenses because they’re so small. The look they deliver is perfect for apps like Snapchat, TikTok, and Instagram Stories, but sometimes has a less than polished edge.
My rule of thumb is to shoot with a DSLR for evergreen content: things like your LinkedIn profile picture or newest blog post. However, I rely heavily on my iPhone for all of my social snaps, and let’s be honest: a smartphone is just the right choice for anything that’s going to be filtered or dubbed on social media!
Batch processing your images from camera to social media
My favourite part about taking an image from camera to social media is looking at the before and after in a great image-editing app. There’s something deeply satisfying about taking your shot to the next level, whether it was shot on a smartphone or a Wi-Fi enabled camera.
Social media platforms are designed to prefer high-resolution images. I recommend aiming for images that are at least 1080px on their largest axis in order to cut down on pixelation, but not to go too big: some apps can handle a super large graphics file, but others will lose quality past a certain point.
For image and video editing, using the right software for the job cuts down on the time you spend editing. I love apps like Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, as well as their mobile counterparts (Adobe Lightroom and, surprisingly, PicsArt). Video and 9:16 will benefit from apps like Adobe Premier and InShot, but don’t be afraid to use the built-in editors of apps like TikTok and Instagram, either. You may be surprised by how powerful they are for basic edits!
Great photo apps to take your shot from camera to social media
I tend to edit images in large batches on my computer because I run a blog and schedule multiple posts at a time, but it’s not uncommon to want to edit your images on a mobile device. (In fact, mobile devices has superseded desktop usage in the US since 2013!) My favourite filtering app is VSCO, which allows you to control photo basics like temperature, exposure, and contrast alongside adding varying degrees of filters.
Whether you’re using a desktop app or a mobile one, there’s plenty of different ways to make your images pop. I’m currently favouring Instagram filters—so much so that I’ll record a video on Instagram even if it’s for use on a different app. I love its wide user base of aesthetically-inclined individuals who design beautiful filters for the masses.
Social media schedulers