(chill techno music)
- It's the new Instagram update.
Oh, it's fire.
So so dope.
Welcome to the video.
(rock music)
What's up, every--
(clicking)
I can't deal with that for, ya know,
however long this video is gonna be.
Don't mind my new.
It's a new fashion trend.
(clicking)
Ohhhhh.
Four, the magic number.
I told you guys,
gaff tape works for everything.
What's up, everybody.
Peter McKinnon here, and welcome back to
another tutorial video, challenge video,
community video, where I am
very excited to present
a challenge to you.
You at home watching right there.
I'm knocking on your monitor.
Today we're talking about Instagram.
The grid life.
Being able to actually transition through
different seasons and colors and styles
on your Instagram account,
and we're gonna turn that into a challenge
to hopefully push you guys
and challenge you guys as photographers
for the month of October.
I'm quiet excited about it,
so without anymore delay or anymore gaff tape,
my new fashion trend,
let's jump right into today's topic.
Instagram grid challenge.
I'll say it again,
Instagram grid challenge.
OK, this jackets just--
(clicking)
I look completely ridiculous,
so I don't know if I should even keep this on at this point.
Can't do it.
Let's begin.
OK guys, welcome back.
Today's topic as you can clearly see
and have seen by now is Instagram.
The grid.
Being able to craft and I guess,
ya know, curate a certain group of photos
that all look great together.
I would argue that 2018 now,
when people come to your account to view your profile
and checkout your work as a photographer,
a body of work,
they're gonna look at those top nine photos
and make a very quick decision if they like your style,
if they like your aesthetic or not.
Now for those of you who are like
I don't use Instagram for this reason
and that to me is not even fun
and that's not even why I downloaded the app,
that's totally cool.
That's why we all have separate accounts
and second accounts and third accounts,
so that we can post the photos of our dogs
and our iPhone pictures 'cause we're all shooting everyday.
All of that stuff doesn't necessarily though
make it onto my Instagram
because I treat my Instagram as my current
2018 updated portfolio of images.
That's why all the stuff you see me post
on my main account, my grid,
are professional photos.
Photos that I go out to take,
photos that sometimes I'm paid for,
personal photos, passionate photos.
All the stuff that I do professionally goes there.
With that being said,
I have tried to maintain a certain grid flow,
if you will, throughout the last
I would even argue like five years of posting.
I've tried to make a consistent flow of images
that all match and the aesthetic goes together.
It blends very, very well without harsh cuts
into different colors or different styles.
My style has changed over the years,
but I've tried to, you know,
make a nice gradient
as that style changes on Instagram.
And that's kind of where I think
the challenge I'm going to present you comes into play.
You see fall is my favorite time of year,
and I think a lot of photographers would agree with that
and a lot of people would agree with that.
Fall is just a really great season.
It also provides incredible
color palettes for Instagram, for photography,
because the leaves are changing
and there's just so many different things
to photograph that look way different
at this time of year then they even did two months ago
and than they will in two months from now.
So I am going to start transitioning my grid
into the fall season,
which means yellows and reds and browns and oranges
and those deep, deep rich colors of fall,
but the problem is right now
my grid is very summer time.
It's kind of like blue and white and green and earthy,
so the challenge is for me
to find a way to bridge that gap
so I can move my photos into
a fall kind of aesthetic
and then keep that going until winter comes
and then obviously I'm going to transition
into white because I live in Canada
and that would be the logical thing for me to do.
So I wanna extend this challenge to you guys.
I would love to propose that we do the PM,
the #pmgridchallenge
and whomever wants to participate
will also do the following.
You will transition your Instagram grid into fall vibes
and fall colors throughout the month of October,
and at the end of the month I'm going through
everybody that's used this hashtag,
find the photos then go to your account
and I want to see how you've seamlessly transitioned
into fall and then maintained that fall vibe
throughout the month of October.
I'm gonna pick winners at the end,
and the winner I'm going to feature your account
on this channel and I would love
to kind of FaceTime you
so we can chat for like an hour
and I can talk to you about photography
and you can talk to me about photography.
Maybe you have questions for me.
Maybe I have questions for you.
That's what I want to do
with this #pmgridchallenge.
You get the feature and then we'll have an hour of FaceTime.
I think it will be really, really fun.
I think this would be a great exercise
for everybody who doesn't necessarily
stick to a theme on Instagram.
Even if you do stick to a theme
maybe this isn't the theme you stick to.
Maybe you've never done anything like this,
but I think as an exercise,
as a photographer, you will learn
a lot from doing this.
It's the same reason people do the 365 challenge,
and if you've never heard of that
it's taking a single photo every day for a year.
Now the hard part isn't necessarily
taking a photo every day.
We all take photos every day,
I'm snapping photos on my phone everyday,
on my camera, those shots sometimes
never see the light of day,
but the real exercise in the 365 challenge
is finding things to shoot come day 274, 310.
By that point you feel like you've shot everything.
You're like I've done landscapes,
I've done food and coffee and people
and pets and everything under the sun.
I've got like 60 more days to go,
like what am I gonna photograph?
That's where you actually start to learn
wit the 365 challenge 'cause it really
drives you and pushes you to find new ways
to see the same thing, at times.
So that's what I think this
Instagram grid challenge will do for you.
Because after you've shot the classic fall leaves
and the fall trees and the fall paths
and the lakes and the pumpkin spice latte
or whatever else that's orange and red and yellow,
you're start to think to yourself,
"Well, hmm, it's been like seven
"days now into this challenge
"and I've already shot all the staples,
"so now what am I gonna do?"
and maybe it's not necessarily something
directly fall related
but maybe it's fashion related
and there's a fall palette
with the clothing that your friends are wearing,
or maybe it is landscapes
and you haven't done landscapes yet,
or maybe you're shooting some automotive stuff
but those cars happen to complement that grid.
So I want you guys to not only think
about specific fall themes and features,
but what else can you fit
into the fall theme that isn't necessarily
fall themed but will still match
and that's where the fun happens.
So if you guys are down for this
use the #pmgridchallenge.
At the end of the month,
probably around my birthday which is October 28,
write it down,
I'm gonna go through, we're gonna pick a winner,
we're gonna feature that account,
we're gonna kind of do a little critique,
like the B-roll challenge on this channel.
It will be a long video,
but I'm really, really excited for it.
So a couple tips along the way.
To visually help you understand the
transitioning into the fall colors,
here's my Instagram account.
Let's break it apart so you can see it clearly.
Now these photos right here
are still following my summer theme.
They are still blue.
They're still kind of light and airy.
They got a little bit of white in them.
They aren't necessarily rich, fall vibes.
But if we get rid of those
and bring up the fall colors,
these specific shots,
I've now been slowly introducing into my grid.
Soon these types of photos will take over
and these white ones--those ones--
those will just be a thing of the past from the summertime.
'Cause if we scroll down right here
you can see all of these don't look anything
like my current photos right here.
So that's how you specifically
and strategically start to take your photos
and mix in that new style
until that new style takes over completely.
And that is where the challenge sets in.
That's where it becomes fun.
That is the hard part.
That's the difficult task.
And that's what I want to look at
when I browse your accounts.
I want to see how well you guys did that transition
and how well you were able to maintain it
throughout an entire month.
So just to touch base again
on a few ideas on how to do this.
I want you to remember that it
doesn't necessarily have to be fall specific.
The fall vibe and the fall theme,
the fall aesthetics is what I'm looking for
and what I want to challenge you guys with
but that doesn't necessarily mean you can only
take pictures of trees and leaves and that's it.
Also look for things that have that fall palette
that you can photograph that will match the fall theme.
It sounds confusing,
but it means maybe your headphones are yellow
and your yellow headphones are sitting on
some brown leather seats in that old truck.
You snap that photo.
That will have a fall theme.
Headphones and truck don't mean fall,
but mixed into photos of trees and cottages
and pumpkin spice lattes and whatever,
then it will match.
The same thing goes for fashion.
If you have a fall palette with regards
to the boots that you're wearing
or the shirts that you're wearing
or the hats, whatever.
Those things also dictate fall colors and fall vibes.
So really use your imagination
and try to stick to this theme
for the entire month of October.
I'm super excited.
I'm going to be doing the same thing.
Now at this you're already a few days into October
so better get going because
I've got a little bit of a head start on ya.
That is today's video, guys.
That's how to properly, I hope,
blend one theme on Instagram into a new theme
and change that palette
and maintain an aesthetic.
And I think that's important as a photographer,
and like I said at the beginning
if that's not your jam,
if this isn't your thing and you don't want to this,
that's totally cool because,
I mean, you can use the app for whatever you want.
This is just how I like to use it
because like I said, this is what's fun for me
when it comes to photography.
I love being able to take a bunch of photos
and then think to myself
how do I properly curate these
and put them into an order that's going to be pleasing,
make the whole grid look nice,
make my photography look nice as a whole body
not just an individual photo.
And how can I maintain that
and then switch it and change it
and flow it over the years so that it just keeps going.
And for me, that's what I enjoy about Instagram right now
and using social media plus photography in 2018.
With that being said,
hit that like button if you like this video.
Smash it if that's something that you're into.
2018 style!
Three more months of saying that
before we gotta change it.
Subscribe if you aren't already,
and I will see you in the next video.
K, hop to it.
Let's go.
See ya later.
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