大象传媒 Scotland - 大象传媒 Scotland - One Instagram influencer鈥檚 pursuit of the perfect photograph 鈥� and the negative impact it鈥檚 had on her self-esteem

One Instagram influencer鈥檚 pursuit of the perfect photograph 鈥� and the negative impact it鈥檚 had on her self-esteem

11 December 2018

Photographs on social media often portray the ‘perfect’ image – but how much work has gone into composing that picture?

Lucy Simpson is in pursuit of the perfect photograph. Her Instagram obsession began as a bit of fun: she used the platform to share photos with her mates.

But when she discovered the high quality of other users’ images, Lucy realised she wanted her own photographs to look stunning too.

She now spends her time carefully crafting the images she shares online.

‘It can make you critical of your body’

“I do Instagram purely because I enjoy it, not for the likes or the validation,” Lucy explained on Personal Best.

鈥楶eople think I鈥檓 obsessed with myself鈥�

Lucy Simpson on the downsides of being an Instagram influencer.

But she admitted there are downsides to spending so much time as the subject of her own photographs.

“It can be detrimental to the way I look at myself.

“Spending that much time trying to make yourself look as perfect as you can in a picture makes you forget that you don’t actually look like that.

“It can make you quite critical of your body because you don’t look as good as when you’re squeezing in your stomach, or wearing that much make up, or contorting your body to make you look thinner.”

Plan ahead
“No one’s going to like a low quality picture. So not blurry or cluttered. I like my pictures to be against a clean white background with good natural lighting.”
Think about helpful accessories
“If I’m taking pictures of myself I’ll have my phone set up on a tripod and put it on timer. For one of my favourite pictures I had to strap about three selfie sticks to my wall to try and get an overhead shot!”
Experiment …and be patient
“I’ll take a million different pictures in a million different poses and hopefully I’ll get a good one at some point.”