Photography

• Consistent profile aesthetic
• keeping the original aspect ratio of the image
• inserting images with different aspect ratios in the same carousel post.

No big secret there.

Adding a white border around the images gives it some visual separation from the things around it. Theres no background colors or anything else visually adjacent to the image that can effect your perception of it (colors/tones/etc.)

I do it a lot just to see how it would look printed and framed

Traditionally, a white border made sense in a darkroom, making it easier to handle wet prints without leaving tong and fingerprint marks on an image.

Hi! I do this and there are a few reasons why. I shoot 3:2 and want my photos to retain their entire frame. I add white bars to the side which, after you have posted a few, helps break up the images on your profile as people scroll. And when I add my post my story, the white bars on the side naturally run into the white bars IG will add to the top and bottom, making a nice frame.

TL;DR I do it because I like the way it looks and it helps convey what I see as a photographer.

Hey I do it.

So I mainly do it because of the Format. I don't want to limit myself to 1:1.

Also because of copyright (people won't just screenshot your stuff and upload it somewhere else)

And somehow Astehtic. I just like the look of a framed picture.

Looks good in some cases?

I hate 1:1 and Instagram doesn't support 3:4 in portrait mode, only 8:10 and I rarely shoot in 8:10. I'm not going to change the composition of my images to fit some standard Instagram decided on and have refused to fix. So borders on everything

I think they make the image prettier

It originated because photo print paper is white.

I do it cuz I like it.

3:2 is a very common aspect ratio in photography, so I add white space to preserve the full composition within the 4:5 maximum that IG has.

I do this primarily to maintain the original aspect ratio since Instagram stubbornly insists everything be square. That's first. But secondarily I find it feel like my film days when I would matte photos after developing them. The end product feels more finished to me and overall more pleasing. It's like that little drizzle of sauce on the plate at a fine restaurant. It may not have any real function (or here maybe it does) but it's for the aesthetics.

I'm always surprised how many people are unaware that Instagram has allowed custom aspect ratios for many years now.

Style

It kind of draws your focus to the art and reduces how much the surroundings affect it. I like it for prints, but not so much for online; not that it's wrong

It can look nice. It sets the photo apart from everything else around it, just like putting a photo in a nice picture frame.

Also, it sometimes alleviates the problem of posting multiple images of different sizes. Instagram likes to make all images conform to the ration of the first image chosen. If you put a border around images, you can adjust the size of the photo with the border to keep images consistent.

The white border give that feel of a classic hand printed photograph. The printing easel would mask the paper around the edge of the sheet of paper and leave the border. Very early in photography you would also see black borders on prints when they were contact prints from a negative held flat on the paper with glass, and the clear border of the exposed part of the negative would produce a black border.

In the printing industry and publishing/press fields the images would often have a rule line around them, a thin black line to especially stop a bright image bleed into the white paper and help the image stand out. A white border will help an image stand out from a dark background.

Any border helps to isolate an image from it's environment like a frame on a wall. It give the image it's own space and helps people to focus and concentrate on the subject. It contains someones attention. In a context like Instagram it hopes to stop you scrolling away and spend a few seconds appreciating the work. It certainly got your attention.

I do this. I don’t like how IG (and Glass) put the edges of the picture right up to the edge of the phone and all the type.

You can generate a very subtle one in Lightroom Mobile on export. Hit the export icon, look for “Add Border and Share” and select Save Image.

My personal recipe is, use the 4x5 preset, add a #6 border. Looks nice.

Matter of taste, I guess. I have black borders on all my framed prints.

Art galleries do this. They give some breathing room and space between each piece causing you to focus on one piece at a time. Imagine if museums tried to cram as many artworks as possible on one wall. That's what instagram is like sometimes.

I prefer a colored mat that matches the focus of the image.

Aesthetic only…

I do this on posts where I am doing portrait and landscape aspect ratios. Instagram will let you use custom aspect ratios but you can only use 1 aspect ratio throughout your post. And it’s got the added benefit of looking nice and making your profile look a bit neater

It’s to get the 1:1 aspect ratio, and it’s supposed to make your profile look nicer on light mode with everything laid out

Because default image is 2:3 and insta is 4:5

I love white framing IRL. But on online formats, not so much.

To my taste, it's only pleasant on instagram if it's consistent and well planed. And even, if a user is in darkmode (I am), it will look strange/ugly.

I prefer to work on the pictures I share to make a crop for instagram.

Personnal taste !

I use borders only to preserve original 3:2 aspect ratio. At the beginning I was cropping my images for IG and all the time I felt that it's wrong and I'm forced to do it. I shoot in 3:2, I initially see my frame in 3:2, if I will change aspect ratio I will get a frame that totally differ from my initial idea. What to do if I got perfect frame in 3:2 and there is just no room to crop? Skip posting? :D

back in the olden days pictures were printed on paper. They had white borders.

I think it's because it gives you an idea of what they will look like printed maybe?

I do it because Instagram won't let you have a vertical and horizontal image in the same post without cropping.

As someone who does this,

I do it so that you can see the full frame of my photo. I take very good care to compose photos that have purpose edge to edge, I don't want to have Instagram crop that and give the impression that I just don't care about a full composition.

Also, if someone is viewing my page as a whole, they can get an uncompromised look at my work.

Try to find posters who just let their photos get cropped in IG/ do the whole "6 slides for 1 photo zoomed in on random places for detail" and compare it to someone who white borders their work (on IG)

Being attentive enough to make a FF composition that flows well vs just throwing shit together because the center of the frame is good enough are two different worlds and two different skill sets.

Using a white border means that if you look at my profile page, you see the full photo in 3:2 instead of the zoomed in 1:1 crop IG would force.