With the festive season now in full swing, our social media feeds are starting to fill up with beautifully decorated trees, arty shots of presents, mulled wine and those winter walk, bobble hat selfies. But just how much time are people really spending editing their photos to give others envy of what appears to be a ‘perfect’ Christmas?
According to research from ASUS, Brits spend an average of 2 minutes 47 seconds editing each photo they post online. Sharing an average of 46 posts a year on Instagram, this means 2 hours, 8 minutes and 3 seconds are spent a year, perfecting pics before they’re posted. In fact, men spend more time editing and filtering their photos than women – 2minutes 52 seconds compared with 2minutes 45 seconds respectively.
Liverpudlians are the speediest editors, as two-fifths (42%) said they spend less than a minute deciding on the right filter for their photos. Meanwhile, people from Leeds take the most time to perfect their pics, spending 4minutes 11seconds editing per snap.
Finding “the one”
The research also found that it takes women seven attempts and men five attempts to capture a selfie that they’re happy to post on social. And almost a quarter (23%) of 16-24 year olds edit their photos to make themselves look “more attractive” in pictures, while 16% said they edit their images to create an aesthetic they feel is fit for Instagram. However, one in five (19%) said it’s their landscape shots they would like to improve the most. There is actually various pieces of equipment for smartphones that can aid people in taking better shots, for example, looking over on www.drdrone.ca or a similar website for gimbals to stabilize phone pictures, could be one way to improve landscape shots.
Taking the perfect snap is a responsibility that 80% of Brits share with their partners, who take up the role of photographer approximately once a week. Each shoot requires an average of three to four attempts to get a good shot, and ASUS found a third of men (32%) get frustrated when their partner asks them to take multiple shots. The results suggest the ‘boyfriends of Instagram’ may prefer to step away from their documenting duties.
Siobhan Ferguson, photographer and Founder & Editor of @prettycitylondon commented: “I joined Instagram not long after the platform launched in 2010. I was hooked pretty quickly, loving how easy it was to tell a story through a series of filtered squares. It’s so important to have fun with photography, it constantly inspires me to get out and explore! It is of course tempting to ‘follow the likes’ on platforms such as Instagram, but I constantly strive to share authentic content full of photos that I love to take”.
If you’re lacking in festive photo inspiration, look no further as influencer and photographer Pretty City London has revealed her ultimate tips for taking the most insta-worthy shots during the season:
· Don’t zoom before taking a snap – tempted to zoom in to get a closer shot of your mince pie or to avoid something in the background? You should always crop the picture afterwards as opposed to zooming to avoid a pixilated image
· Exposure – the lighter it is outside (especially in snowy conditions!), the lower your exposure should be – you can always edit the picture after taking it if it appears too dark initially
· Explore the camera features on your phone to take better shots. The ZenFone 5 phone from ASUS uses the power of AI to quickly analyze the subject and match it to one of its many scene types, optimizing the camera settings for almost any kind of shot from sunsets to animals The result is effortlessly perfect photos, anytime and anywhere
