How to Share Your Photos on Twitter and Get Helpful Feedback

We love to take photos. And some of our photos turn out to be very good. We experience the pleasant feeling of seeing one of our shots turn out well. Maybe, we think, exceptionally well. A moment of delight. Satisfaction. Sometimes even wonder. There is a smile on our face.

We want to share our photos with others so we send them to some of our family and friends. But sometimes we get the feeling that it would be helpful and interesting to get a more critical response.

We can lose our interest in photography quickly without positive feedback. We all are our own worst critics. That is human nature. If we don’t feel like we are improving, or moving ahead with our skills, it can be hard to keep going day after day and working on our photos.

A Solution Called Twitter

Some of us -cough- might be spending a lot of time on Twitter already. And some not so much. But we all know about this social platform and it can be an excellent tool for us to use. Twitter has millions of users. There is the potential of our photos being seen by thousands of people, perhaps hundreds of thousands.

If you are trying to make an income from your photo hobby this in itself is one good reason to learn and use Twitter. But even if making money is the farthest thing from your mind, you should still share your photos and learn the ins and outs of hashtag use on Twitter.

What are Hashtags?

The secret to effectively using Twitter is learning about and using hashtags. No matter what your photography objective, with a little time you can discover many types of interesting people and groups. There are people who you can interact with and who will happily offer feedback and advice.

Here is a list of some of the common Twitter hashtags for photos to get you started:

#foto
#landscape
#people
#photo
#photog
#travel
#wildlife
#photography
#nature
#travel
#image
#PhotoOfTheDay
#LandscapePhotography
#art
#Canon
#Nikon

Working With Twitter

For example, the follow screenshot was one of the first ones that came up in a search on #photo.

As you can see, there are also a number of other hashtags included with this tweet. As you start exploring the photographic hashtag world on Twitter you’ll find that one hashtag can lead you to other related ones. You can then follow up on the ones that interest you.

Also, you can retweet the image and send it to your followers on Twitter. Or you can comment on the photo and potentially start a conversation with the photographer that took the image.

I don’t recommend putting more than a half dozen or so hashtags on any image you post. Three or four would probably be even better. Try to find different sections and groups of people who enjoy and post different types of photos. It does not take long to become involved in interesting conversations and to get good feedback from the Twitter people you meet.

It is Easy to Tweet an Image

As you get started, don’t worry about having to do a lot with your photos. Simply click the ‘Tweet’ button. The click the Camera Icon and choose the photo you wish to upload. Add the hashtags you want to include. You don’t need to do anything more if you don’t want to. But you could add some text about the photo or to ask for feedback. Also, you can add a listing of the camera settings that you used to take the photo if they would be of interest to others.

Including the shutter speed, aperture setting, ISO and so on can help prompt feedback from others.

Here are the Twitter image file size and file type requirements:

Photos can be up to 5MB; animated GIFs can be up to 5MB on mobile, and up to 15MB on web.
Twitter accepts GIF, JPEG, and PNG files.
Twitter DOES NOT accept BMP or TIFF files.
Your photo will be automatically scaled for display in your expanded Tweet and in your gallery.

Here is a link to Twitter’s site with their complete explanation of How to post photos or GIFs on Twitter.

Just Do It

Learning about the different social media platforms and using them to share your images is time well spent. You will have the opportunity of seeing many photos, both good and maybe some not so good. You can learn from this. You can get new ideas about the types of photos you would like to take in the future, or new techniques you would like to try.

And by sharing your photos you can see what others think and discuss their reactions.

It is not a contest. It is just an easy and fun way to share and learn. It is a new way of rediscovering photography.

Take the plunge. Tweet your first photo today.