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How to Maintain an Aesthetic Instagram

By DU Beat January 18, 2018

If you’ve been looking for a new hobby lately, then keeping a visually pleasing Instagram account could be the one for you. It is a fun, gradual, and productive exercise and here are six tips to help you do that.

Choose a theme and layout: The first step in inculcating this hobby is to decide the layout. Write all your ideas down and choose the ones you want to experiment with. It may range from having highly saturated photos to greyscale or from cropped to bordered. Decide if you want to particularly put out thematic photos like travel, food, fashion, or simply your daily shenanigans. You can also use the 3×3 or 3×1 grid layout. Tip: Try to experiment with boomerang videos for your Instagram feed.
Your filter is your religion: Consistency is the key! It is essential to use the same filter in all your photos. Perhaps, even write down and memorise the level of contrast, brightness, sharpness, and other editing tools you use. The sense of neatness and evenness will enhance the pleasing effect of your feed.
Stick to two-three colours: Another way of adding evenness and consistency to your photos is always having a set of colours that are present in all your photos. Depending on your theme, they could be neon or neutral ones. Tip: If you have pictures that don’t have the decided colours, create a spam account and post it on that. Or, use the ‘multiple images’ feature.
The discipline of cropping: Instagram aesthetics is all about discipline. Always remember to crop or add border your photos in the same manner. Experiment with a variety of borders and background designs to create a fresh look.
Adopt a schedule: A lot of Instagrammers make the mistake of posting new photos every day. As it turns out, these photos look forcefully themed rather than easing into it. Tip: Click lots of photos and upload the best and most relevant ones at the end of the week.
Learn photography skills: A very productive result of maintaining an organic feed is to follow other accounts that are similar to yours and get inspired by their work. Learn the basics of lighting, angles, and poses and use them to your advantage. Tip: Before going on a trip, Google your destination so that you familiarised with the location, and can prepare accordingly. For instance, if the location has great night scenes then you can pack the equipment most suited for night photography.

If you keep working consistently, then chances are you can get recognised and stand a chance to become a public figure. Moreover, companies are often looking for recruits who can help them maintain an Instagram marketing account for their product lines. If not that, it will definitely give you a sense of confidence and discipline like never before.

Feature Image Credits: Drew Scott

Varoon Tuteja

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DUB Speak

About My Abstinence From Social Media

By DU Beat December 31, 2017

Recently, I realised that I have become addicted to social media. The signs had been all there. I found myself scrolling through Facebook and Instagram inadvertently most of the time. I could not stop the urge to open my social media accounts every half an hour and check the new updates.

I would like to use the term ‘addiction’ for this urge because that is exactly what this is. We, without even realising, slowly become addicted to the social media. We like to know what is happening in someone else’s life with whom we might have not even exchanged more than few words. Subconsciously we even start comparing our lives with theirs and become disheartened by how different or unadventurous our lives are. This, as I clearly do not need to point out is all but a facade. We realize the truth and from time to time even put a check on ourselves. There is a brief moment of clarity where we decide to abstain from social media. Alas! We “rush to fall into snares of delusion all over again.”

So when I had this brief moment of clarity about a month back, I decided to delete all social media applications from my mobile phone. This time my decision was firm to not revert to old ways. However, I did not delete my accounts. I also had to keep my WhatsApp because well, it is an occupational hazard. Since I could open my accounts only on my laptop, the access to them was restricted due to the inconvenience involved. The first week was hard, I must say. But after the fifteenth day, I realised that I had more time on my hands. I finally took to reading some of the books which I had not been able to time for. Without the distraction of the chaotic world of social media, I also found time to put into words some of the ideas that had been floating around in my head.

Yes, I agree that it is not possible to completely avoid social media. In fact I believe that one shouldn’t so because in a way or so they are essential too. But what I have discerned in some past few weeks is that we allow ourselves to get completely hooked to it. One of the reasons might be that we are seeking too much validation from everyone around us. Perhaps, this best explains our constant need to upload snippets from our lives for everyone to see. Some days back, I read about a study from Microsoft Corporation in a TIME article. It said that since 2000 the average attention span has dropped from 12 seconds to 8 seconds. This essentially means that even a goldfish known for being ill-focussed has a longer attention span at nine seconds. So I hope that if you too are suffering from this addiction, you decide to take a step towards curbing it. I assure you from my experience that life will become more productive and meaningful.

Feature Image Credits: Matthew Muccio

Anukriti Mishra
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DUB Speak

How Instagram Proves to be Useful for Budding Photographers

By DU Beat December 4, 2017

Instagram has become a rage in the young millennia’s life. Every new cuisine one tries, every new book one reads, every new dress one buys, the world gets to know about it through Instagram. It has become a new platform for people to kick-start their businesses. It is a way for people to give way to their hobbies and passions. For a photographer, his/her Instagram account is a digital profile of his/her work. Unlike the old times, one does not have to carry their portfolio around but simply an Instagram account.
Here are some useful tips for those budding photographers to help them grow their followers and reach.

Be Consistent
As a photographer, one must pick up a specific theme/ genre whether it is nature, fashion, architecture, wedding, etc. Being consistent in one’s area of interest brings out the expertise in the photographer. Gaining expertise in one area attracts more clients looking for an expert photographer.

Make a Plan
As an Instagram blogger, the quote “out of sight is out of mind” holds unequivocally true. One must be regular in uploading their artwork. Uploading daily can bring a sense of permanency to your presence. One can schedule days and plan the number of posts which need to be uploaded, so the followers are aware of one’s progress and routine.

Make Use of Updates
Instagram constantly rolls out with various new updates. Making use of Instagram stories, its new filters, and other features like boomerang, superzoom, or stop-motion can help a photographer in putting out more work. Staying up-to-date with new updates will not only show your extemporisation skills but also serve as a guide for your audience, building a consistent follower base.

Location
Making use of the location update, a photographer can attract local businesses. Local businesses even sponsor a photographer(s) to increase their outreach.

Create a Clientele
A budding photographer must follow others to learn about their work, or if one is in the fashion arena, one must follow popular social media influencers. DM them for collaborations or show interest in their work by posting comments.

Bio
Keeping one’s bio interesting yet crisp can go a long way. Always provide contact information to keep all avenues open.
Using Instagram in a creative and smart way can go a long way in expanding one’s business. One gets to promote their hobbies or passions which can change into full-time professions with the help of Instagram.

Feature Image Credits: NBC News

Prachi Mehra
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Vansh Sabharwal
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Varoon Tuteja
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QWERTY

QWERTY: Must have tech for freshers in DU

By DU Beat July 30, 2016

College life is driven by a lot of factors. Although, technology is not a very major one, it helps you to keep tab on various aspects of your college life. So, here’s the first part of the list of the hardware that we think would really help you in your undergraduate journey:

Smartphone
Source: pixabey.com

With time changing more swiftly than weather, a smartphone is a must for all new fuchchas out there unless you want to get on back foot for losing out on the random WhatsApp chats and latest class time updates and last minute changes declared by your popular class representative (CR). From taking a perfect selfie to calculating your monthly expenses, your smartphone can be the gateway to the world.

2. Earphones

From the drum beats of the theatre society to the noises of students bunking classes, you have to face a whole new level of distractions while trying to concentrate on something in college. In this situation a good earphone can come as a great rescue in time. With a great combination of right volume and right music it has the power to shift you to a different world where you can focus on your work in hand. No doubt some awesome companies like Google, Facebook and apple have earphone vending machines on their office premises.

3. Power Banks

From waking you up in the morning for the 8:30 classes to satisfying your soul with music during break within classes, your phone works harder than you. With WhatsApp and Facebook notifications pinging up in every ten minutes your phone’s battery life is going to get tired like you at the end or even middle of the day. A good power bank can ensure that your lifeline i.e. – phone doesn’t go out of its life and make your life more difficult. Go get one, before you decide between whether to make a last call of the day or to play your favourite song.

Having the right hardware is just not enough. One needs to know how to use it. Else it’s just dead weight that you’re carrying. So here’s the first part of the list of apps and software that would really help you in your undergraduate journey:

For Social Needs

WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat – These are the four pillars of a good social life in not just DU, but in any university across the nation. Most of you, are already on Facebook and WhatsApp. Instagram and Snapchat are the ones on which many of you still aren’t. For an all-round social life, you need to be on the other two as well. You’ll realise their importance once the fest season comes. So register yourself right now and like the DU Beat pages (Yes! That is essential for a very cool social life as well. True Story!).

2. For Documentation and Project Needs

Open Office & Libre Office – These three are free license office suites which will help you to do all your digital assignments, presentation, reports and projects on Laptop or PC. Microsoft Office suite is one the best but it is paid. These are the best free alternatives.

3. For Utility

Truecaller – If you have an active social life in college or you’re involved in various co-curricular activities, you’ll need to filter out the incoming calls. This app comes in handy. It’s a universal caller ID which gives you the name of the person along with some additional information. User can also block numbers, making it an excellent ‘pervert management tool for girls.

ColorNote– The app is one of the best apps for taking quick notes and messages on your phone. You can make check lists and can even pin your TODOs in the notification bar. It’s available for Android and Windows phone. Similar variants are available for Apple iPhones easily.

Pocket– The ultimate apps for bookmarks. There are various links leading to articles about plethora of things on various social networks which will resonate with your personality. This app helps you save such links so that they can be read anywhere, on any platform or device. You can even save them offline and load it later. All you need to do is save them under your pocket account.

We wrap up the first part of our tech list here. Stay tuned for more. Do tell us about your personal experiences with apps and software in similar categories.

Image credits: natashascrazylife.blogspot.com

Kavach Chandra and Srivedant Kar
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