Embrace the Candids: Why 'Natural' Photos Make Great Memory Moments

If you’ve spent any time on Instagram, you might be getting as tired as the rest of us of the “fake” influencers plaguing the site. The term “fake it ‘til you make it” has well and truly taken over, and we are now swamped with photos of not real experiences and unrealistic filters, featuring bodies that are sculpted into unrealistic standards by photoshop.

So, we are championing the candids! Show us something real and caught off guard for photos. Read on for our reasons why candid photos are better than staged.

There is being shy, and there is being fake. Marketing data over 2021 saw that a lot of social media users are in fact getting sick of big influencers and their unrealistic lifestyles. There are a lot of reasons why. Users can no longer trust influencers when they try to influence, assuming they’re greedy enough to shill anything, they are promoting lifestyles and bodies that aren’t realistic to achieve, sometimes to dangerous results, and just in general it means their audience cannot connect with them.

With candid photos, people catch you in moments where you weren’t prepared, showing the real you, flaws and all. Whether it’s you being goofy or embarrassing yourself, your audience will feel a better connection to you, because we’ve all been goofy or embarrassing at some point in our lives.

Candid photos make for great moments that you can look back on and get a story from. With staged photos, the story is that you set up a situation and took a photo. If there’s an anecdote in there, it’s hidden or off camera.

Meanwhile, candid photos allow you to see the story for yourself. You will see that someone said something so funny it got everyone laughing, or that your auntie’s dance moves are unbeaten, or that your brother fell face-first into the pool.

You can even take it a step further and print out your favorite photos from your Instagram account. If you’re interested, find out how to print Instagram photos here.

You heard me. Nature can take practice. If you’re someone who has trouble trying to hide from the camera, you might just need a little practice. Don’t be caught off guard the next time someone whips out their phone and finds you are giving a smile that makes you look like someone’s pulling back your mouth with hooks. Just spent an hour alone with the camera, trying to look candid.

There are a few tips you can use to do this, like taking a few deep breaths. If you just calm down, and maybe forget about what you’re doing for a second, you’ll be able to smile naturally, and the camera will be there waiting when you lift your head, smile, and click in one fluid motion.

Another is laughter. That’s a little more difficult alone, but you can maybe put on your favorite stand-up comedian or Vine compilation on the TV for some easy laughs and let them out at the camera.

Next time you’re faced with a camera, you can even crack a joke to get everyone laughing and see how the photos light up.