Why Does Instagram Crop Multiple Photos?
When posting a carousel on Instagram, you may notice that all the photos within the carousel must have the same orientation/size, or else Instagram will automatically crop them.
This limitation has been a source of frustration for content creators over the years, as they have expressed their dissatisfaction with the lack of a feature that allows for different orientations of photos within carousels.
However, it is important to understand that Instagram has maintained this policy to preserve the originality and consistency of the app.
While it remains uncertain whether Instagram will modify this policy in response to user complaints, this article will delve into the topic of cropping multiple photos in carousels. Additionally, we will explore indirect methods to overcome the issue of cropped images.
Contents
Portraits and Landscape Photos on Instagram
When uploading a photo on Instagram, you have the flexibility to choose between three formats: square, landscape, or vertical. The most common format is the square format, with dimensions of 1080×1080 pixels and an aspect ratio of 1:1.
For landscape photos, the recommended format is 1080×566 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 1.91:1. On the other hand, vertical or portrait-oriented photos should have a format of 1080×1350 pixels, with an aspect ratio of 4:5.
These options allow you to have creative freedom in selecting the format that best suits your aesthetic preferences for individual photos on your profile page.
However, when it comes to carousels, the ideal format is 1080×1080 pixels with a 1:1 aspect ratio across all the photos in the album. If any image in a carousel exceeds this 1:1 ratio, Instagram will automatically crop it to enforce consistency and smooth transitions within the carousel.
When it comes to carousels on Instagram, there aren’t many tricks or workarounds available to achieve different orientations for the photos. The best approach is to be mindful of the images you select for the carousel to ensure that Instagram’s cropping does not negatively impact them.
How To Make Your Different Photos Fit in a Carousel
If you have photos that exceed the 1:1 aspect ratio and want them to display correctly in a carousel on Instagram, you can utilize a photo editing app to resize them.
There are numerous photo editing apps available that offer the functionality to resize images to different aspect ratios, including the square format commonly used on Instagram. These editing apps allow you to resize your image while ensuring that everything from the original size remains visible.
You can choose to use a photo editing app or explore online tools. There are several free photo editing apps available on the Play Store for Android and the App Store for iOS. Look for an app with good reviews, download and install it to get started. Alternatively, you can search for online photo editing tools using your preferred search engine and explore the top results for your chosen tool.
Once you have resized your photos to fit Instagram’s desired format, you can confidently proceed with posting a carousel without worrying about Instagram’s cropping interfering with the intended display.
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How To Post Multiple Photos/Carousel on Instagram
Instagram allows users to post up to ten photos at once, which are displayed as a single tile on the app.
This collection of photos, known as an album or carousel, enables viewers to slide and view the remaining pictures after the initial photo, which serves as the face of the tile. Carousels are commonly used for photo dumps, storytelling, and showcasing multiple products.
Creating a carousel is simple. Just follow these steps:
- Tap the “+” icon at the bottom and select “Post.”
- Tap on the “Select Multiple” button located at the top of your gallery.
- Choose the photos and videos you want to include, ensuring that you do not exceed ten items.
- Tap “Next” or the right arrow.
- Proceed with editing the photos/videos. Once finished, tap “Next” or the right arrow.
- You can now tap “Post” or the checkmark icon to share your carousel.
- Prior to posting, you have the option to rearrange the order of your photos and videos. Simply hold a photo/video and move it to the desired position within the carousel.
Furthermore, you can tag people differently for each photo by tapping on the “tag people” option. It’s worth noting that you can only add one location and one caption to the entire album, as they will apply to all the photos/videos in the carousel.
It’s important to remember that the likes and comments received on the carousel will apply to the entire post, rather than being specific to each individual photo or video.
Once the carousel is posted, you cannot edit the order in which the photos were posted, nor can you delete a photo separately from the others. However, you do have the ability to edit the tags and caption that you applied to the entire carousel.
Conclusion
Instagram currently does not support the use of different aspect ratios for carousels or albums.
Therefore, if you want to include photos with varying aspect ratios in a carousel, you have two options. Firstly, you can use a photo editing app to adjust the sizes of your photos to match the desired aspect ratio. This will ensure consistency within the carousel. Alternatively, you can be mindful of the photo sizes you want to post, selecting images that already align with the same aspect ratio.
By following either of these approaches, you can maintain a visually pleasing and cohesive appearance for your carousel posts on Instagram.
