Here is a wrap-up of my professional photos from the past year, as they appeared on my Instagram feed. In the two photo grids below, see what became the money shots gleaming the most “likes” on my Instagram, @daviddlivingston. Looking back over these and the more than 400 photos that I posted, what takeaways can we gain from my followers and use for Instagram marketing?

I have been posting these professional photos from photo sessions that I was hired to shoot, mostly in San Francisco Bay Area homes. I used interior design and architecture hashtags to identify my photos when I posted them. I selected certain photos to add a coherent flow to my feed. You will see some photos that are quirky, some that are simple, some that are very layered. I am hired by great designers to photograph their work and to help them tell the story of each project.

None of my photos shown here had been taken with a camera phone, they all used state of the art digital equipment and underwent extensive Photoshop work, making them publish-ready. Compositionally, by far the most liked composition was the straight-on elevation view. The liked photos all had a natural feeling to them, they were often light filled and had been shot to give them an editorial feeling.

When composing, I carefully selected the lens best for the room and the shot, then I carefully positioned the camera to limit the distortion inherent in photography. You will see here that shooting good architecture helped in getting likes, but you will also see that I used these clean lines of the architecture to frame up the compositions. I am sensitive to the correct scale and placement of objects within a photo and I helped art direct and style the compositions to keep a natural feeling to these photos.

The type and style of the designs I posted ranged from modern to traditional. The most liked rooms had simple clean designs with one or two design statements in the photo. Most often the rooms were white and many shared a pop of color.

Rooms with complicated and layered designs also got likes, though not as often. When they did, I saw more vibrant colors in the shots. Another interesting takeaway from my Instagram followers was that the room type did not matter too much.

My followers on Instagram now provide me direct feedback as what they “like”, that never before in my twenty plus years photographing did I know. From these likes I can layer on a form of compositional strategy when I am framing my photos. Going forward, this knowledge will be used to better serve and direct my clients in photographing not only beautiful photos, but ones that are performing beautifully on social platforms.

As an interior and architectural photographer, I am hired by magazines, designers and manufacturers to deliver publish-ready professional photography. My clients appreciate my multi-disciplined approach to a photo shoot as I help art direct, style and photograph for them. I am based in the San Francisco Bay Area and photograph throughout California, Hawaii and the inter-Mountain region.

I have been the photographer of seven coffee table books of home design, and most months see my work published regionally and nationally in shelter magazines. Please contact me to discuss your project and future shoot.