Tips for Sharing Bird Photos Safely and Effectively Online Part 2

^{Note: This tip comes from Audubon’s article - Follow These Dos and Don’ts to Show Off Your Bird Photos on Social Media}

Hashtags are a great way to expand your reach, but it’s a good idea to research them before you start tagging away.

For Instagram, hashtags like #Bird and #BirdPhotography, with millions of posts, may seem like obvious choices, but don’t stop there. Take time to find niche hashtags with posts in the thousands related to the bird. Let’s say you’re posting a photo of a Yellow-Rumped Warbler you took during migration season in a forest.

You’ll want to start with warbler-specific hashtags like #WarblersOfInstagram and #YellowRumpedWarbler, then add ones relating to migration like #WarblerMigration and #MigratoryBirds, and finally search hashtags about forests, including #ForestBirds.

Don't overedit your photos to follow trends or gather ‘likes.’

We’ve all seen those oversaturated photos of birds that almost don’t look real (see above).

Though they seem to be the ones trending online, you don’t have to edit this way to gain attention. Instead, try making subtle edits that highlight the bird and its environment.

Many photographers don’t understand aspect ratios—think about it like this. A 5x5 inch photo will not successfully fit into a 5x7 inch frame because the aspect ratio (length x width) is different. Different cameras create different aspect ratios. An image from a full-frame camera has a different aspect ratio than one from an APS-C camera, etc.

Before posting a photo or video, check the platform’s cropping preferences to ensure a crucial part of your photo won’t be left out.

For instance, Instagram allows three aspect ratios for photo posts: square posts with a 1:1 ratio, landscape posts with a 1.91:1 ratio, and portrait posts with a 4:5 ratio.

But if you want to post the same photo on Twitter, you will want to crop your image to its preferred aspect ratio of 16:9.

Experiment with different platforms or types of content.

Although it’s typically best to pick one or two platforms to focus on building a following, that doesn’t mean you can’t try out new ones to see what works with your content.

Want more? If you want to learn more about bird photography, and capture beautiful shots of your own, we recommend downloading and printing out Photzy’s 10 Bird Photography Cheat Sheets (Special bonus available now!)