How to Post Horizontal and Vertical Photos on Instagram

Instagram used to have a set of rules when it came to posting photos, only allowing images to be posted and shared in a square format to fit the grid layout and configuration of the app.

While the profile grid still confines images to a uniform square shape, images on a newsfeed can now be shared in square, horizontal, or portrait mode. So, when scrolling through your newsfeed (or when you open your image in full screen mode) the entire width or length can be enjoyed.

And best of all, there isn’t anything specific you need to do when posting a horizontal or vertical image…

5 Steps to Share a Vertical or Horizontal Photo

Regular posters on Instagram will know that the editing stage of posting is always changing and becoming more sophisticated. Here’s how to make sure that your photo is shared in the layout that you choose.

1. From your Instagram home screen, click on the plus sign in the square at the bottom of the screen (or from your profile page, click on the same icon along the top of the screen and select ‘Create Post’
2. Find the photo that you want to share
3. Its default setting should be to share the entire photo, whether that be in vertical or horizontal mode (switch between a couple of photos in different configurations to notice the difference)
4. Test the square-to-original function by tapping on the button in the bottom left hand corner of the photo, that shows two corner hooks. Clicking on this will bring the photo into Instagram’s classic square mode, with another click taking it back to its original format
5. While in full-photo portrait or horizontal mode, you can zoom in and crop as much or as little of the image as you would like, before selecting ‘Next’ to edit the colouring and then share your image

And there you have it! 

Posting photos to Instagram is a quick process, allowing horizontal, vertical, and cropped square images to be shared with ease. Let us know your favourite configuration and why!

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