It takes a village—or just a genius eye!
If you've visited Reese Witherspoon's Instagram page lately, then you've probably spent a good amount of time audibly sighing in front of your various screens. Her use of color, her beautiful children—not to mention her fierce sense of humor—are all too glorious to resist!
Which is exactly why Us Weekly rang up pro photographer Paul Costello, who's worked with the Oscar-winning actress on her Draper James imagery, to break down her feed for Us—and to help you up your own Instagram game.
"Reese has a great eye and amazing style," Costello shared. "Those two facts about her are mostly why her Instagram is so good! She also has a cheeky sense of humor that really comes across on her feed—you can tell how sweet and funny it is."
So it's about beauty and personality! Read on for more insight from Costello, inspired by Witherspoon's best square pics.
Go the Distance
Costello noted that the actress loves to give fans a close-up view of her world, which—contrary to what you might expect—sometimes means panning out. "Reese plays a lot with foreground and background juxtaposition," he said, using a photo from her recent trip to Rome as an example. "Here we get a whole cityscape and an intimate personal moment, creating a super evocative, artistic picture."
Taste the Rainbow
Sure, black and white pics are gorgeous. But colorful photos—especially color-blocked snaps—are particularly striking. "In this picture, Reese takes advantage of the colors here—opposites on the spectrum—that really pop against each other," the shutterbug explained. "Green is the opposite of pink, so they make perfect companions. Another beautiful opposite-spectrum combo is blue and yellow."
There's Nothing Wrong With a Little Editing
While Costello began his assessment of this beach snap admiring the actress' use of a vanishing point, he quickly turned to another strength: her use of contrast and color saturation. "I've never understood the weird brag about #NoFilter. Who cares!" Costello told Us. "You want people to experience something evocative, and if that means adding a little contrast, so that the sky looks as blue as it does to you while you're standing there, then by all means crank that contrast!"
Keep It Simple
Stop to smell the roses—in life and on Instagram. "Here, Reese gives a great example of keeping the background simple so that you can really focus on what's happening in the picture. Looking at the picture, you can almost smell that rose!" the photographer gushed. "It's all about the simplicity of the composition, helping people to focus."
Whose Instagram page are you totally obsessed with? Tweet with @UsWeekly using the hashtag #stylebyUs!
