Your guide to creating photo dumps on Instagram for your brand
Summary/Overview
What is a photo dump?
A photo dump is when a collection of images is posted on Instagram as an album or carousel post, usually consisting of four or more images or videos. The content is generally unedited, not specifically curated, and not uniform. Photo dumps do not need to be polished or professional looking (and often aren’t). The beauty of the photo dump is in its low-pressure, fun, and authentic nature. A photo dump might be used to show what you’ve been up to in the last month and can feature a variety of types of content.
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Why are photo dumps on Instagram currently trending?
Instagram content has historically been expected to be polished, curated, and perfected, especially when it comes to content made by brands and influencers. Photo dumps are a way to embrace imperfection, allowing you to show off a more human side. Carousel posts are also a popular content format in general and tend to perform well in the algorithm.
Further reading: 9 tested tips to boost your Instagram engagement in 2023
How brands can use photo dumps
Although photo dumps are most popular amongst celebrities and influencers, brands can definitely get involved too by posting photo dumps of their behind-the-scenes content, screenshots of industry articles, team content, any mistakes or funny moments from the last month, etc. Photo dumps can be a great way to show the human side to your brand that doesn’t take itself so seriously.
How to create the perfect photo dump
What do you put in a photo dump?
- Variety of content types: Feel free to include a mix of photos and videos.
- Variety of content: Photo dumps don’t need to be uniform or feature images that are related to one another. Feel free to include a mix of content featuring photographs, screenshots, memes, blurry pictures, high-quality shots, illustrations, portraits, landscape pictures, and more.
- Be thoughtful with your first image: The very first image of your photo dump is the most important as it will influence whether users stop scrolling to look through your entire post. It’s best to either pick out the most interesting or intriguing picture to grab your audience’s attention, or you can use a more polished image that will fit in with the rest of your Instagram grid.
- Keep it casual: The best part about the Instagram photo dump is in its laid-back, “not trying too hard” nature. Photo dumps show off real moments with a general disregard for the image quality or aesthetic.
Further reading: Your guide to Instagram image sizes
25 best photo dump captions and ideas for brands
1. “Keep scrolling for a surprise”
2. “#Photodump”
3. “Summer 2022”
4. “A week in California”
5. “Team goals”
6. “It’s a wonderful life”
7. “It’s giving work/life balance”
8. “Wait until the end”
9. “Spot the dog”
10. “Another day, another photo dump”
11. “Keep scrolling for a secret”
12. “Onwards and upwards”
13. “Those who work together, stay together”
14. “Working hard or hardly working”
15. “How many times can you spot [pick out something that is recurring in the images]”
16. “If you can’t beat them, join them”
17. “Take chances. Make mistakes.”
18. “When you love your job, you never work a day”
19. “Keeping busy”
20. “Never take life too seriously”
21. “On that grind... some of the time”
22. “Working 9-5"
23. “Colleagues = the friends we didn’t choose”
24. “Keep hustling”
25. “There is no ‘I’ in team”
Photo Dump FAQs
What do you put in a photo dump?
Photo dumps are for sharing a mixture of unpolished and not curated images and videos from your life.
Is the Instagram photo dump trend here to stay?
Social media has been slowly making a shift towards more authentic content and Instagram photo dumps are an outcome of this shift. Social media users and influencers in particular are tired of posting content for likes and attention and beginning to find the joy in posting for themselves. The photo dump trend has been born out of a desire from creators to be able to post the content that makes them happy, as well as a desire from users to see more genuine and less polished content. As a result, the photo dump trend looks like it’s here to stay for the foreseeable future.
How many pictures is a dump?
A photo dump generally has at least four photos or videos, and at most 10 photos or videos. There’s no such thing as having too many photos or videos in your Instagram photo dump — in fact, the more the merrier.
What do you say when you post old photos?
When posting old photos, it’s popular for people to include either #Throwback or #ThrowbackThursday in their caption to signify that the images are from the past. Others might opt to simply include the dates from when the pictures were taken in the caption.
What is a photo dump Story?
A photo dump Story is when a photo dump is created but uploaded using Instagram Stories instead of being published as a carousel post on the feed. Photo dump Stories mean that all images will appear in individual Stories for followers to click through.
How to make a photo dump on TikTok?
Although photo dumps are more popular on Instagram, a photo dump can also be published on TikTok using “Photo mode.” TikTok’s photo mode allows you to post lots of images in a carousel format for viewers to scroll through. To make use of photo mode, select the “Switch to photo mode” option when creating a TikTok using images.
Alternatively, you can easily create a slideshow video for TikTok to showcase your photo dump images and videos by simply creating a TikTok using images from your camera roll and remaining in video mode.