The Slightly Wonky Bright Instagram Photo Series

September 22, 2020Social Media

Here's a quick look at all 15 images from the "Slightly Wonky Bright" photo series.

I feel like I had some good ideas going into this photo series, but as I've alluded to in some other posts, I feel like I got a little off track somewhere. I started this group back in May (2020) and there are some great individual photos in this series, but I don't feel like they necessarily all belong to a single aesthetic or design style. They are all on a light background (almost), but they don't really feel like a matching series or set.

There are 15 photos (plus three textures) in the group, so I guess 18, if you count them all — and this follows my 5x3 idea, where there's five different categories, and three images in each category. When you look at these in groups of three, they all seem to match — it's the five different categories that feel a little mismatched. I think that sums up my feeling really well about this group… because when I look at them presented here in this article in three across groups — they look like they belong more "together" than when I see them in one large 15 photo group.

Let's take a look at those five categories (and the texture squares), in a "three across" format with their stats.

I did a row of different colored beans as a "break" between the dark photos from the last group and this group. These beans came from two packs of "Seven Bean Soup" bags, (that I separated by hand), to get three different colored photos. These were received surprisingly well. Thank you everyone!!!

A row of beans! These beans came from two packs of "Seven Bean Soup" bags... that I separated by hand!

First up, there is a "baked goods" category with some traditional Focaccia, Roasted Strawberry Muffins, and Blackberry Scones.

This line of baked goods includes photos of Focaccia, Roasted Strawberry Muffins, and Blackberry Scones. The Blackberry Scones post also included a quick link to a recipe on the DFW site.

There was also a loosely themed "soup and salad" category, which — was probably a little too loose. I should have just stuck with one or the other... three soups, or three salads.

The Soup and Salad category includes an overhead shot of some Spicy Chicken Tortilla soup, a Caesar Salad double-wide (that slides side to side on Instagram in order to see the whole image), and another overhead shot of a Blackberry Salad with Walnuts.

Next, some product photos! I posted a series of Unicoi Preserves jars. These did not collect quite as many "likes" as some of the other photos, but I'm not really surprised by that.

I'll be doing a larger article on this soon… (I'm still in the middle of some theoretical testing)… but the crux of the issue is this — while large "front and center" product photos are really important for e-commerce platforms, they seem to be met with a little trepidation on Instagram and other social media platforms — when they are posted on any account other than the account of the company that makes that specific product.

I have a feeling, that showing the product jars next to some food items that the product is being used on — will do a little better. It's just a hunch for now. We'll see after the next group gets going.

A line of three product photos of these Unicoi Preserves Jars also featured a link to an article on the DFW site, about shooting product photography. That article is called "Comparing Two Lighting Set Ups for Unicoi Preserve Jars" and can be found in the "Product Photography" category on this site.

Here's group of three that I was really excited about, because I just got this cool little bundt cake pan and had sooooo many ideas about flavors and topping combinations. As a group, these collected the most likes… and the little "Orange Bird Cake" received the most likes of any other photo in the series — 166 likes and 75 comments!!!

The photo did have a stop motion movie clip in the stack as well though. I don't know at this time, if that had any impact on how many times it was viewed.

Awe, it's widdle Orange Bird!!! This series of three mini bundt cakes all included recipes that are located here on the Digital Food Works site (in the "Recipes" section). From left to right, a Blood Orange Mini Bundt Cake with Vanilla Poppyseed Drizzle, a Dutch Chocolate Mini Bundt Cake with Mocha Drizzle and Roasted Hazelnuts, and a Raspberry Mini Budnt Cake with Raspberry Vanilla Glaze and Almonds.

Finally, a series of drinks! I do love drink photos… they can be challenging sometimes (because of the glass reflections) but there are so many "design" aspects, lighting options and camera angles to explore with beverages.

In my drinks category this time around, I featured a Blackberry Tequila Spritzer, a tall Iced Coffee, and a Raspberry Spritzer. Both Spritzers included mini recipes in the posting itself.

Closing Stats

The most liked photo in this series of 15 was the Orange Bird Bundt Cake (which also included a link to a recipe page on the DFW site). It received 166 likes and 75 comments. The post on Instagram also included a stop motion movie clip.

I'm going to close this article in the same way I've closed the other "Instagram Recap" articles… with some general stats. But these really aren't scientific or absolute… they're just a reference as to how this one DFW account has been progressing.

This group of 15 images (18 if you count the bean textures) resulted in a 16% increase in followers over the course of about 120 days.

The average number of likes per photo was 120 (2,161 total likes divided by 18 photos).

The average photo "like to follower ratio" was around 12% (i.e. for every 100 followers, 12 followers "liked" or interacted with the image). That's down 4% from the previous "Dark and Moody" photo series.

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