Social media has given us a great opportunity to share our photos with the world, and this week we’re going to show you how to use Instagram – the best photography app for both pros and enthusiasts alike.

Although it’s possible to use Instagram on your browser, it really comes into its own when it’s installed on your phone. It’s a great way to take advantage of the improved optics of your phone’s camera to share those special moments of your life with your friends and followers.

Did we say followers? Yes, when learning how to use Instagram, it’s important to understand that it’s not just a place to share your photos with your family and friends, but it’s also a social media platform with which to build up a following. Some celebs have millions of followers, but don’t worry, you’re not expected to compete with them! Concentrate on following people you’re interested in – perhaps with the same hobbies, or photographers and artists you admire – and you’ll soon find people following you back.

You can find interesting accounts by using the search function. People will often add hashtags to their images and video posts so that it’s easy to find them in searches, and this is something worth doing yourself when you post content.

Don’t overdo this, however, because an overload of hashtags in one image description will put people off. Instead, keep your keywords simple and relevant to your post and you’ll get a better response.

There are two ways to post to Instagram: you can add images from your phone’s gallery or you can shoot directly from the app. To begin tap the + icon and you’ll see ‘gallery’, ‘photo’ and ‘video’ options, so let’s choose ‘gallery’ to add something from your library to get you started.

Once you’ve selected an image from your stored shots and clicked ‘next’, you’ll see lots of filter options. It can be fun to play around with these, but, to be honest, the Instagram community is starting to tire of them, so use sparingly if you want to please your followers!

Click ‘next’ again and you’ll have the opportunity to write a caption (remember to go easy on the hashtags!), tag people and share with other social media apps. Click ‘share’ and you’re done!

To shoot directly from the app, simply press ‘photo’ instead of gallery and repeat the above procedure.

Really, there’s very little else to it! Once you’re comfortable with using it, you can experiment with the ‘explore’ feature for relevant content and accounts – we’re sure that you’ll find it addictive! And of course, one of the great advantages once you learn how to use Instagram is that you can choose any photos you’ve edited and send them to us for printing on canvas.