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Do you want some creative Instagram background ideas for your next photo? Do you want your posts to stand out in the Instagram feed?
Sharing beautiful photos and well-designed images is the key to being successful on most social media including Instagram. The better your photos look, the more they will stand out. This in turn will increase engagement, traffic and sales.
While creating these images, some people pay minimal attention to the background. This is a huge mistake, especially on Instagram where images with more background get 29% more likes than those without.
Therefore, to help you get more engagement, traffic and sales I have created this list of Instagram background ideas for your photos…
Do you want some free Instagram background images? Click the below blue button to download 5 Instagram background images.
These images are pre-optimized for Instagram. You can use them to create beautiful-looking Instagram photos in seconds. All you need to do is upload them onto your favorite image editor and add your text and photos and then schedule using a popular Instagram scheduling tool, like Hopper HQ and Publer.
In some cases, you can do a quick edit by removing the original background in your photos and using the background ideas we shared below.
#1 Foam boards:
Foam boards make convenient Instagram backgrounds for photos. They come in various sizes and colours. If you take a lot of photos of people you can use bigger ones. While smaller ones will do for most products and content.
You can also purchase different colours to experiment with. Make sure you start off with the light ones as the aforementioned study found that lighter images get 24% more likes on Instagram.
If you want to experiment with darker colours you can get them too.
The colours that will work best are white, black and grey. As they are neutral colours and go well with everything.
A couple of other great benefits of foam boards are that they are long lasting and light. This makes them easy to carry around.
Using a foam board you should be able to create a gentle looking photo like this one from Etsy.
It’s a great photo with plenty of background space. The simple white-colored Instagram background gets the sloth toy to standout. It’s very cute!
The Etsy Instagram account regularly posts creative photos that get lots of likes on Instagram. Check them out for inspiration.
Your foam board can be one solid color or it can contain multiple colors. I recommend that you get a couple of neutral color foam boards that are white or black as they offer a minimalist solid background that goes well with anything and one colorful one that represents your unique brand. Plain backgrounds are also easy to replace if you want to make edits. Any free online background removal tool can easily see the contrast between the plain background and the image in front and make a clean removal.
#2 Paper:
Paper is another great Instagram background option. You can use various types of paper. They can range from book pages, newspapers, wrapping papers, menus, and so many more. You can even take printouts of designs you like on paper and use them as backgrounds.
Paper also comes in environment friendly options too. If you are looking for that white background for Instagram that is also easy on the environment you can use paper made from sustainable sources.
The Dum Dum Donutterie regularly posts photos like this with their custom wrapping paper in the background.
It is a nice way to brand their photos too.
#3 Cloth and other fabrics:
Cloth and other fabrics make great Instagram backgrounds for photos. They can range from blankets to clothing to towels. And you can use various colours here too. It would be a good idea to pick clothing with texture more often as images with high amounts texture get 79% more likes.
Here’s a nice photo from Chobani with a piece of cloth in the background.
#4 Wood
If you are looking for a natural background, wood is one of the best Insta background options. You probably already have it in your house in the form of your table or chopping board.
You might frequently see it used as background for Instagram photos with food in them. But they can be used to display other things too.
Like in the below photo from Emily Boyd Jewellery.
A lot of things will look good on a simple background made of wood. So, try experimenting with wood in the background to see what your photos look like.
You can also purchase digital backgrounds with a wood-like appearance if you want to use them in your designs. These will be great to design ads and other marketing material that sell digital products as you can’t really take pictures of them.
#5 Walls:
Walls come in so many shapes, colours and designs. They make wonderful backgrounds for Instagram. If you come across an interesting looking wall do not hesitate to take some snaps for your Instagram account.
If you are very strict about branding and colours you can have a wall designed just for your Instagram backgrounds. You can even use wallpaper.
The Topman Instagram account regularly posts photos of models standing in front of walls while wearing Topman clothes.
Doesn’t the above one look very interesting?
#6 Water:
Another option for a natural Instagram backdrop look is water. This could be water in a pool, bathtub or bucket or even a lake. It will be highly beneficial if your water looks blueish as images that have blue as the dominant colour get 24% more likes than red images.
Hence, if you have a pool or lake nearby make the most out of it.
Here’s a great photo from Mango with a lake in the background.
It looks very natural.
#7 Nature:
Creating a background filled with nature should be easy. Your Instagram account can also be all about photos with nature filled backgrounds. As nature can range from a few plants, to grass, to the sky, flowers, mountains, and so many things.
Nature can be very soothing to the eyes.
The above photo from Mango is a great example of using nature in backgrounds.
Here’s a simpler one from Madewell.
They just took a photo of a model standing on grass wearing the shoes they want to promote. It’s simple and beautiful.
#8 Fresh produce:
Using fresh food like vegetables, fruits and nuts can also work. They give your photos that fresh look. The backgrounds can consist of one type of fruit or vegetable or they can be a mixture of a couple or more that look good together.
You must already have some fruits and vegetables in your house which you can use. You can also take photos directly at the supermarket if they are okay with it.
This photo from Innocent Smoothies is a great example of how fresh produce can be used to spruce up Instagram backdrops.
All the different fruits look good together.
#9 Flooring:
Flooring comes in so many designs, patterns, colours and textures. Hence, it is a great option for your Instagram background photos. Today onwards pay attention to the floorings you walk upon daily. You will come across plenty of backgrounds for Instagram.
Here’s a photo from Naps Design that shows a dog bed on some flooring.
It’s simple flooring, but it gets the bed they designed to standout.
#10 Paintings:
Paintings make great Instagram backdrop photos. You can buy them from painters or you can make them yourself. The design options are endless here.
Here’s an example of something you can create from pwhs.
#11 Metallic surfaces:
Metallic surfaces can also be used as backgrounds for Instagram posts. But you must be careful with picking the background and adjusting the lighting. As highly glistening ones will outshine other components and make it hard to get your message across.
Here’s an example of a photo with a metallic background from Fenix For Interiors.
The background doesn’t glisten much. This is how it should look.
#12 Blurred background
Sometimes you can just blur the background a bit. It could be any of the backgrounds above. The main benefit of blurring an image is that it gets the main elements of the image to stand out. Like in this photo from thedailykelsey
As you can see Kelsey Heenan is sitting in the front, but the background has been blurred. I am not sure what the background is, but I am going to guess it is a gym because she is in her workout attire and the things look a bit like exercise bikes.
This is the main benefit of blurring the background. The background adds to the appearance of the photo, but it gets the person or the item (if you are promoting a product) to standout better.
So, try blurring your background and see if it gets you more likes and comments.
If you’re new to design, blurring might seem like a complicated task, but it is pretty easy to execute by using a tool like Canva.
#13 Instagram story background:
Instagram lets you add backgrounds to your stories. After you upload the photo or gif, Instagram automatically adds a background color. If you don’t like this default color, you can use the brush icon and pick a color for your background and adjust the gradient. There’s also a photo dropper tool that lets you drop one of the colors from the photo into the background. It’s a good option if you want the background to reflect your color palette.
You can do this on both Android phones and iPhones. There are many color options here. Play around with them until you find the most suitable one.
Here’s an example of a story with a background from Livingstov.
#14 Pre-designed Instagram background images and templates:
You can always purchase pre-designed background images from stock photo sites and then place photos of your products or some text using tools like PromoRepublic or Photoshop. Read my review of how to use PromoRepublic to create and schedule images on Instagram.
This is the best option if you’re in a hurry. It’s also effective if you’re creating quote images or you just want to wish your Instagram followers. These images can be created in seconds.
Barnes and Noble regularly use background images like this to create and share quotes and messages.
If you want some free beautifully designed background images, make sure you click the below button and download the 5 I have created.
They are pre-optimized for Instagram. To use them all you need to do is add some text and/or photos using your favorite image editor and you can then schedule them on Instagram.
Now make the most of these Instagram background ideas
These are 14 great Instagram backgrounds for photos. But you don’t need to use all of them. Just pick one or 4 themes that will suit your products and brand best.
So, closely observe your products and brand and decide on which of the above Instagram backdrop ideas will suit you best.
Another option would be to experiment with all the background photo ideas above to find out ones get best results.
Also pay attention to what other businesses, brands, and social media influencers are posting. It can lead to new ideas. If you ever see an interesting background you can take a screenshot and create something similar later.
Which of the above Instagram background ideas do you like best? Which Instagram backdrops are your currently using? Please leave your comments below.
Do you want Instagram story templates and in-feed post templates?
Bonus: Click Here to Download 22 Free Easy to Use Social Media Visual Templates for Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, LinkedIn, YouTube and more!These Instagram templates are made with Canva. You can simply drag and drop in your text and design elements and use them. After that you can directly share them on Instagram or download a png version and schedule it.
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