How to make one continuous picture on instagram

How to make a seamless Instagram panorama

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By Vjeran Pavic

Feb 25, 2020, 7:48 PM UTC|

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Photo by Brennan King, animation by Vjeran Pavic / The Verge

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The Verge Guide to Instagram

It’s already been a few years since Instagram allowed you to post multiple photos simultaneously in a single post. This small change enabled a lot of creative options. One of my favorites is creating seamless panoramas by simply slicing your photo in two — like this one.

If you want to take advantage of this neat little hack, here’s a quick, simple tutorial on how you can pull it off.

Before you start, you’ll need two things: Adobe Photoshop (or another pixel-based photo editor that lets you work with layers) and an elementary understanding of Instagram’s requirements for sizing photos.

First, about the sizing: no matter which photo you upload, Instagram will automatically resize and compress your images. For example, square photos will always end up being 1080 x 1080 and vertical ones will always be 1080 (w) x 1350 (h). So if you want to create a panorama made out of two vertical photos, you’ll need to duplicate the pixels lengthwise, while the height stays the same: 1080 x 1350 becomes 2160 x 1350. Or if you want to create a panorama made out of three images, you’ll use 3240 x 1350. The same applies if you’re starting off with square images, which will fit into a panoramic space with twice the width (2160 x 1080).

Create your panorama

Okay, let’s boot up Photoshop and open up two documents.

The first one should be 2160 x 1350; it’s where you’ll “slice” your photos into two parts. Let’s name the first document “Full Image.”

In Photoshop, you can save document sizes as presets for future edits.

The second document should be 1080 x 1350; this one is where you’ll drop in your single images and get them ready for export. We can name this one “Slices.”
Open or drag your image into the first document (“Full Image”).
Go to “View” in your menu bar and select “New Guide Layout.”
Set two columns with zero width and zero gutter. If rows are selected, deselect them since you won’t need to cut horizontally, only vertically. This will create a turquoise line right down the middle of your photo.

Guides will help you split images in equal parts.

Before we move on to the next step, make sure your “Snap to Guide” is turned on. It’ll make your life just that much easier.
Select the marquee tool on your left hand side (or hit the shortcut “M” key) and drag your cursor over the first half of the photo. If Snap To Guide is turned on, your selection will automatically snap to the turquoise vertical line you created earlier.
Now that you have your selection, you can simply copy and paste it to a new layer on the “Slices” document.
Go back to the “Full Image” document and repeat for the other half of the image.

Now you’re ready for exporting. You can either export each layer at once using Photoshop’s “Layers to Files” option (under “File” > “Export”) or you can export each layer individually. I tend to add a few more layers to the same document, so I batch export those. In case you want to double-check your final export settings, you can use “Save for Web.”

Here are all the layers I’ll batch export.

If you’re using a PC, it might be easiest to save your files to a cloud service, where you can easily access them with your phone. Or if you’re in the macOS / iOS ecosystem, simply Airdrop your exports.

Put your panorama on Instagram

Getting the photos to properly show up on Instagram should be easy enough, but let’s go through that quickly just in case, because there are some things you can easily skip by accident. On your mobile device:

Assuming your exports are indeed 1080 x 1350, make sure you’re about to post vertical photos by clicking on the arrows icon in the bottom left corner.

Don’t forget to enable vertical photos first. Also, you can tap and hold one photo to enable multiple selections.

In order to post multiple photos in one post, either long-press one of the photos or tap on “Select multiple” in the lower right corner of the first photo. You can then select the other photos, numbered in the order they will appear.
And lastly, make sure you selected the photos in the right order... because I have definitely made that mistake at least once. Don’t be like me.

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Posting multiple images to form a seamless panorama

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Instagram Tip: Posting multiple images to form a seamless panorama www.sleeklens.com

Instagram has quickly become the most popular way to share images online. The beauty of Instagram is that it is easy, free and in the palm of everyone’s hands via the ubiquitous smartphone. Whether you are interested in just sharing your daily life and holiday snaps or have a photography business that you want to promote, there is a massive worldwide audience out there that can’t be ignored.

However, the great asset of Instagram is also its downfall. It is designed for mobile phones, so as such there is very little screen real estate to work with. Many landscape photographers, for example, have traditionally been put off by Instagram. How can anyone appreciate their beautiful images on such tiny screens? Well, Instagram has been steadily adding lots of functionality to the platform and this trick makes use of the multi-post feature.

So, let’s say you’ve got this great panorama of a cityscape or landscape you have been to and want to share it with your audience. The problem is, Instagram can’t show the whole panorama. It can only manage a 3 x 2 format landscape, which will look pretty small on user’s phones. There are currently three recommended sizes for images when posting on Instagram:

Square: 1080px x 1080px recommended (600px x 600px min to 2048px x 2048px max)
Landscape: 1080px x 566px recommended (600px x 400px min to 2048px x 1365px max)
Portrait: 1080px x 1350px recommended (600px x 750px min to 1638px x 2048px max)

The aim is to use the full vertical height available on a user’s phone and be able to scroll through the whole panorama. We will use Instagram’s Multi-Post facility. The panorama will be sliced up into identically sized pieces and posted in order. Instagram won’t show them as a folder, but as one seamless panoramic image that a user can scroll through at maximum detail. The trick requires a couple of minutes of preparation in Photoshop, but it’s pretty quick and easy to do. The end result makes your feed look slick and professional.

Slicing up your panorama in Adobe Photoshop

My guidance is for Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop CC, but the same can be achieved in any image software. The vertical, or portrait, aspect ratio in Instagram is 4w x 5h. You firstly need to decide how many vertical slices to break your image into and how you will crop your panorama to fit. I start with a panorama that is already processed and ready to share in Lightroom. I am thinking of posting it as three vertical slices, so in the Develop module I select the Crop Overlay tool and set a custom aspect ratio of 12 x 5. I can therefore easily see exactly where to frame my overall panorama and where the slices will appear. Once you have decided on your crop, right-click and select Edit In > Edit in Adobe Photoshop (select the Lightroom adjusted option if asked).

Making a custom crop in Lightroom. 3 times 4w x 5h = 12w x 5h

With your panoramic image open in Photoshop, go to View > New Guide Layout. Set 3 columns and make sure that width and gutter have no value. Now you should see guides separating the image into three. Next, we need to slice the image using these guides. On the left-hand tools menu, click and hold the Crop tool and select the Slice tool. On the top bar, click the “Slices From Guides” button. You should now see each slice numbered 1 to 3. Finally, we resize our image before saving the slices. We want each slice to be 1080px wide. So click Image > Image Size and type in 3240 for the pixel width in my case. You need to resize for how many slices of 1080px that you have.

Quickly slicing a panorama in Photoshop

Now we save the images. Go to File > Export > Save For Web. Make the export a JPEG, quality of 100 and click Save. Before you save, make sure that All Slices is selected. I save to a folder that is mirrored to an online space that you can easily view on your phone.

Making a seamless multi-post on Instagram

In Instagram, select your first photo slice (Instagram shows the slices from left to right) and tap on expand arrows so that the whole slice is shown rather than the default 1×1 crop. This is critical! Otherwise, some or all of your slices will be 1 x 1 crop instead of 4 x 5 crop and they may not line up in the final panorama. Now tap on the multi-post icon (looks like a stack of images) and your image is labeled as 1. Now tap on the second slice (labeled 2). It should be shown in the 4 x 5 format but pinch and zoom out to be sure. Repeat until all your panorama slices are selected and tap Next.

First image in 4 x 5 ratio

Multi-post rest of images

Make sure they line up

Review the panorama to make sure that everything lines up. You will see white vertical lines between each slice at this stage, but they disappear after you post. You can make image adjustments at this stage, but be very careful to make sure the same adjustments are applied to each image slice. Add an interesting comment, tag the location and any people and post. Quickly review your post. You should see that it the image fills the available screen space and scrolls seamlessly across the whole panorama. Your followers will be impressed! If there is a problem with your seamless panorama not lighting up, delete it and repeat the above steps taking care to make sure each slice is loaded into the correct aspect ratio.

That’s it. You’re an Instagram genius! The only extra thing to think about with seamless multi-post panoramas is that Instagram shows only a 1 x 1 crop of your first leftmost image slice on your feed summary. So make sure there is sufficient interest on the left of your panorama to make people want to click on it and enjoy the full image!

Software used
Adobe Lightroom Classic CC and Photoshop CC (monthly subscription)
Instagram (free iOS and Android mobile app)
Details of all of the equipment and software I use and recommend can be found on my website https://www.adamwest.co.uk/p/inmybag

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Latest Posts

Adam is a passionate landscape, nature and travel photographer based in Scotland. All of the images in this blog are the copyright of Adam West. Click on his name to see more of his work and get in touch.

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How to post panoramas on Instagram*

November 12, 2017 Web services

A little trick will allow you to bypass the Instagram* limitation on photo width.

Uploading a panoramic photo to Instagram* is easy. You can create an Instagram post* with multiple photos blending into one another. It will look something like this.

Panoramic photos on Instagram* are no different from regular posts with multiple shots. They can be made manually or using mobile applications. Here's how it's done.

Preparing a panorama manually

Take a panoramic photo. Most modern smartphones and cameras can do this. Keep in mind that you may need a tripod to get really good panoramic photos.
Open the photo in any photo editor. You can use professional solutions such as Photoshop, Lightroom and their alternatives, or Lightroom Mobile, or any other image editor of your choice. The editor only needs the ability to cut out image fragments.
Use the photo cropping tool to crop your photo to the desired aspect ratio. If you want your panorama to be in three parts, the aspect ratio of the photo should be 3:1. For a six-part panorama, the aspect ratio should be 6:1, and so on. Please note that you cannot insert more than ten squares into one Instagram* panorama.
Cut the resulting image into several squares of the same size. You can do this both in your graphics editor, and using one of these services:

Griddrawingtool.com;
Imgonline.com.

You will receive several images of the same aspect ratio. Now send them to your phone to upload them in the right order on Instagram*. Or you can upload photos directly from your computer through the mobile version of the site. To make a panorama, you need to place the photos from left to right so that the leftmost part of the photo is the first, and the rightmost is the last.

Load panorama automatically

Take a panoramic photo for Instagram* using apps like Swipeable for iOS and InSwipe for Android. They are free, and with them you do not have to bother fussing in graphic editors.

Swipeable

The iOS app lets you create panoramic and even 360° loop photos for Instagram*. Just select a panoramic photo, and the application will divide it into square segments and apply the necessary filters.

Application not found

InSwipe

Powered by Android and has similar functionality - creates seamless panoramas for Instagram*. Photos can be scaled or resized. A grid that adapts to the size of the panorama will allow you to cut images in exactly the right places.

Download

Price: Free

Panoramic shots on Instagram* look pretty impressive. In addition, in mobile applications, sliding from shot to shot in one post is quite smooth, so that several photos seem to be a single whole.
*Activities of Meta Platforms Inc. and its social networks Facebook and Instagram are prohibited in the territory of the Russian Federation.

How to create a mosaic on Instagram*

October 27, 2017 Web services

Turning your Instagram* into a work of art is easy. It is enough to evenly cut the photo you have taken.

What kind of mosaic?

Just look at what @micahnotfound or @c.syresmith are doing with their accounts. You can do the same.

How to do?

Desktop editors

You can cut a photo into equal parts in any graphics editor such as Photoshop or GIMP. Just open the photo in the editor, divide it into equal square parts and save each part as a separate file.

Photoshop

From the View menu, choose Show→Grid. Go to the Edit menu and open Preferences → Guides, Grid and Slices.

You can divide the image into parts depending on the panorama you want to create. Just enter the desired value in the "Internal division by" field.

Now that your image is divided into parts, select and copy the desired fragments into separate files.

GIMP

Go to the View menu and enable the Show Grid and Snap to Grid options. Then click on "Image", select "Adjust Grid" and split the image into parts.

Select parts of an image one by one, copy and save to separate files using File → New → From Clipboard. Use the hotkeys Ctrl + C and Shift + Ctrl + V to speed up the process.

Web services

Divide a photo into equal parts using web services such as Griddrawingtool.com and Imgonline.com. It's faster and easier.

When the image is cut, you can start uploading. Just remember to upload the bottom right piece of the photo first and the top left piece last.

Mobile Apps

There are a large number of mobile apps that create and upload mosaics to Instagram*. With them, you do not have to bother working in graphic editors.

iOS

Grid-it

This application can cut apart photos you have taken or images in your gallery. True, you will have to upload fragments to Instagram * one at a time.