How to Instagram Your Drinks

Rule No. 1: Don’t Instagram every drink you have

Be selective: not every Beer or Cocktail (hurts to say, but not even Whisky, and especially not latte) you have is picture worthy. Share only the ones that are special in some way.

Get up close

Don’t take photos of your drink as you’re a few steps away from it, returning from the restroom. Show us a detail we wouldn’t normally see. It’s the difference between recording an event that happened and introducing us to a new way of looking at something we’ve seen before.

For some added drama, take photos from unusual angles, like high or low.

Show and tell

A picture is worth a thousand words, but a picture with a couple of dozen words attached is worth at least 1,024 words.

Tell us about the drink. What are the ingredients of the cocktail? Why is that dram of Scotch special? What is the occasion for the Champagne you’re having?

Unless you're on some secret mission in which case you'd better turn off the phone, or don't want to reveal your favourite cocktail bar, make sure to use geo-tagging to let people know where to get that drink.

Light it up

Like most other things, drinks take best photos when there's plenty of light. Natural light or a glass lit from behind usually work very well.

That being said, lunchtime is not the most common time to drink cocktails and the bars are often dark, so try to make it work with what you have. Even a table-candle can help, but avoid the temptation of ever using a flash.

Be careful with Instagram filters,

sometimes they wash out the colours. With a good photo, you can even go #nofilter.

Note: This post is an edited excerpt of the article that was originally written by Luke O'Neil for The Boston Globe. Read full article here.