Top 14 'Clutter-Cutting' Minimalist Photo Tips to use for a Clean and Calming Instagram Aesthetic - Goh Ling Yong
Ever find yourself endlessly scrolling through Instagram, only to feel a wave of visual exhaustion wash over you? The explosion of colors, chaotic compositions, and jam-packed frames can feel overwhelming. In a world saturated with noise, a clean, calm, and minimalist aesthetic feels like a breath of fresh air. It’s a visual reset button, not just for your followers, but for you as a creator.
Minimalist photography isn’t about emptiness; it’s about intention. It’s the art of saying more with less, of cutting through the clutter to focus on what truly matters: a compelling subject, a beautiful line, a captivating texture. By deliberately removing distractions, you create images that are powerful, serene, and incredibly sophisticated. This approach doesn't just make individual photos look good—it transforms your entire Instagram grid into a cohesive and calming visual experience that draws people in.
Ready to trade the chaos for clarity? Whether you’re shooting with a high-end DSLR or just your smartphone, these principles are universal. We’ve compiled the top 14 'clutter-cutting' minimalist photo tips to help you refine your eye, simplify your compositions, and curate a clean and calming Instagram aesthetic that truly stands out.
1. Embrace Generous Negative Space
Negative space is the undisputed king of minimalist composition. It’s the empty area surrounding your main subject—the blank wall, the open sky, the clear water. Far from being "wasted" space, it’s an active and powerful element that gives your subject room to breathe. It directs the viewer's eye exactly where you want it to go, creating a sense of calm and preventing the frame from feeling cluttered.
Think of negative space as the quiet pause in a loud conversation. It provides balance and emphasizes the importance of what is present in the photo. When you intentionally use vast, empty areas, you make your subject feel more significant and impactful. A single figure on a massive, empty beach is infinitely more powerful than the same figure in a crowd.
How to use it: Start actively looking for it. Instead of just focusing on your subject, scan the entire scene for clean, uninterrupted backgrounds. Position your subject off-center, perhaps in the lower third of the frame, leaving the top two-thirds as an expanse of empty sky. This technique not only looks clean but also evokes feelings of freedom and solitude.
2. Focus on a Single, Strong Subject
The essence of minimalism is "less is more." To achieve a clutter-free photo, resist the urge to fill your frame with multiple points of interest. Instead, choose one—and only one—hero subject. This could be a single flower, a unique piece of architecture, a person, or even an interesting shadow.
By isolating your subject, you give it the full attention of the viewer. There’s no competition for focus, no visual noise to decipher. The story of your image becomes instantly clear and more potent. This singular focus is what gives minimalist photography its confident and direct appeal. It shows that you, the photographer, have made a clear and deliberate choice about what is important in the scene.
How to use it: Before you press the shutter, ask yourself: "What is the one thing I want people to see?" Once you have your answer, eliminate everything else. Get closer to your subject, change your angle to crop out distractions, or find a simpler background. An image of a single, elegant coffee cup on a clean table tells a stronger minimalist story than a photo of the entire breakfast spread.
3. Simplify Your Color Palette
Color is a powerful tool for setting a mood, but too many competing colors can create visual chaos. A minimalist approach to color involves intentionally limiting your palette. This creates harmony and a sense of deliberate design, which is key to a clean Instagram aesthetic.
You can achieve this in several ways. A monochromatic scheme, using different shades and tones of a single color, is inherently calming and sophisticated. An analogous palette, using colors that are next to each other on the color wheel (like blue and green), creates a serene and cohesive feel. Alternatively, using just two or three complementary colors can create a bold, yet simple, visual pop.
How to use it: Look for scenes that naturally have a limited color palette. Think of the muted tones of a foggy morning, the earthy browns and greens of a forest, or the stark blue of the sky against a white building. In post-processing, you can further refine your palette by slightly desaturating distracting colors to make your main colors stand out.
4. Seek Out Clean Lines and Geometric Shapes
Our brains are naturally drawn to order and structure. Clean lines and simple geometric shapes provide this, creating a sense of visual satisfaction and calm. Incorporating them into your photos is a fantastic way to build a minimalist composition that feels intentional and well-designed.
Leading lines (roads, fences, shadows) guide the viewer’s eye through the frame directly to your subject. Symmetrical compositions create balance and harmony. Strong shapes, like the triangle of a rooftop against the sky or the circle of a plate on a table, act as simple, powerful focal points. These elements add interest without adding clutter.
How to use it: Train your eye to see the world in terms of lines and shapes. Look for architectural details, the horizon line over the ocean, or the distinct lines of a shadow cast on a wall. Use symmetry by placing your subject directly in the center of the frame. This breaks the "rule of thirds" but works beautifully for minimalist shots, creating a bold, balanced, and modern look.
5. Master the Rule of Thirds (Then Break It Intentionally)
The Rule of Thirds is a foundational principle in photography for a reason: it works. By imagining your frame is divided into a 3x3 grid and placing your subject on one of the intersecting lines, you create a more dynamic and visually pleasing composition than simply centering everything. This helps balance your subject with the negative space around it.
However, in minimalism, rules are made to be broken with purpose. While the rule of thirds is a great starting point, sometimes the most powerful minimalist statement comes from dead-center framing. Placing a single, small subject right in the middle of a vast, empty frame can create a powerful sense of focus and symmetry that is undeniably minimalist.
How to use it: Start by using the rule of thirds to position your subject off-center, leaving the other two-thirds of the frame as negative space. Once you're comfortable with that, experiment with breaking it. Try placing your subject right in the center or even pushed to the extreme edge of the frame for a more dramatic and unconventional composition.
6. Play with Striking Light and Shadow
Light is the raw material of photography, and in minimalism, it’s not just a tool for illumination—it’s often the subject itself. The interplay between light and shadow can create shapes, lines, and mood all on its own, without the need for complex objects.
Harsh, direct sunlight can cast long, dramatic shadows that become strong graphic elements in your composition. Soft, diffused light (like on an overcast day or near a window) can wrap gently around a subject, creating subtle gradients and a serene, peaceful mood. Don't just photograph things; photograph the way light hits things.
How to use it: Shoot during the "golden hours" (just after sunrise and before sunset) when the light is soft and the shadows are long. Look for "light pockets" indoors, where a beam of light from a window illuminates a patch of the floor or wall. Use these shadows as leading lines or as abstract subjects in their own right.
7. Find the Hidden Beauty in Textures
When you strip away color and clutter, other details come to the forefront. Texture is one of the most compelling of these details. A minimalist photo isn't necessarily a "flat" photo; it can be rich with tactile detail that adds depth and interest.
Think of the rough grain of weathered wood, the smooth surface of polished concrete, the delicate veins of a leaf, or the soft weave of a linen fabric. These textures provide sensory information that makes your simple composition feel more engaging and real. They add a layer of complexity without compromising the clean aesthetic.
How to use it: Get close to your subjects. Use side-lighting to emphasize the highs and lows of a textured surface. A macro lens (or the macro mode on your phone) is excellent for this. Pair a strong texture with a large area of negative space for a beautifully balanced minimalist shot.
8. Diligently Declutter Your Background
This is perhaps the most literal—and most important—'clutter-cutting' tip. A distracting background can instantly ruin an otherwise perfect minimalist shot. The goal is to isolate your subject against a background that is as simple and non-distracting as possible.
Before you take the picture, take a moment to scan every corner of your frame. Is there a stray coffee cup in the background? A distracting sign? An oddly placed tree branch? These small details can pull the viewer's eye away from what you want them to see. As I've heard creative directors like Goh Ling Yong emphasize, clarity in message starts with clarity in the frame.
How to use it: The easiest way is to find a simple background, like a plain wall, a clear sky, or a calm body of water. If you can't find one, create one! You can use a shallow depth of field to blur the background into obscurity (more on that later). Or, simply change your perspective—crouch down and shoot upwards to use the sky as your backdrop, or stand over your subject and shoot down to use the floor.
9. Shoot from Unconventional Angles
Your perspective can completely transform a scene from cluttered to clean. We are used to seeing the world from eye level, so a familiar scene shot from a radically different angle can feel fresh, abstract, and wonderfully simple.
Shooting from a very low angle can eliminate a messy ground and isolate your subject against the vast, clean canvas of the sky. Conversely, a top-down shot (also known as a flat lay or bird's-eye view) flattens the perspective and turns objects into a collection of simple shapes and patterns, removing distracting background depth.
How to use it: For your next shot, don't just stand there. Lie on the ground and shoot up. Stand on a chair and shoot straight down. These simple shifts in perspective are powerful tools for simplifying a busy environment and finding the minimalist composition hidden within.
10. Edit with a Clean and Consistent Touch
Your work isn't done after you press the shutter. Post-processing is where you can truly refine your minimalist aesthetic and ensure your Instagram grid looks cohesive. The key is to edit with a light hand. Over-editing with heavy filters, extreme saturation, or garish effects runs counter to the entire minimalist philosophy.
The goal of your edit should be to enhance the simplicity that's already there. This might mean slightly increasing the contrast to make lines sharper, desaturating competing colors to unify the palette, or cropping the image to improve the balance between your subject and the negative space.
How to use it: Develop a consistent editing style or use a single, high-quality preset across all your photos. This will tie your entire feed together. Focus on clean adjustments: brighten the whites, deepen the blacks for clean contrast, and ensure your lines are straight. Avoid trendy, heavy-handed filters.
11. Create a Powerful Sense of Scale
One of the most awe-inspiring ways to use minimalism is to play with scale. Placing a very small subject in a vast, expansive setting is a classic technique for emphasizing solitude, freedom, and the sheer grandeur of the world. It’s a powerful storytelling tool.
This technique is a masterclass in using negative space. The vast emptiness of the landscape serves to make the tiny subject—a person, a car, a lone tree—feel both small and incredibly significant at the same time. It’s a visual paradox that is deeply captivating and emotionally resonant.
How to use it: Look for wide-open landscapes: deserts, beaches, snowy fields, or even large, empty architectural spaces. Position your subject (a person wearing a bright color can work wonders here) far away from the camera. This contrast in scale will instantly create a dramatic and minimalist masterpiece.
12. Look for Patterns and Repetition
While minimalism often focuses on a single subject, it can also celebrate order and structure through patterns and repetition. A repeating series of elements—like windows on a building, chairs in a row, or ripples in the sand—creates a sense of rhythm and harmony that is inherently calming and visually clean.
The key is that the pattern should be the main subject, not a background distraction. The repetition itself forms a texture and a composition, guiding the eye across the frame in a predictable, soothing way. Sometimes, breaking that pattern with a single, unique element can create a powerful focal point.
How to use it: Keep an eye out for man-made patterns in architecture and design, as well as natural patterns in leaves, waves, and sand dunes. Fill your entire frame with the pattern for an abstract, textured look. Or, find a pattern and then look for the one thing that breaks it—a single open window in a wall of closed ones, for example.
13. Use a Shallow Depth of Field (Bokeh)
If you can't find a clean background, create one with bokeh! "Bokeh" is the term for the pleasing, blurry quality of the out-of-focus parts of an image. By using a shallow depth of field (a wide aperture, like f/1.8 or f/2.8), you can throw a busy, distracting background into a soft, creamy blur.
This is an incredibly effective technique for isolating your subject and forcing the viewer's focus exactly where you want it. It physically separates your subject from the clutter around it, creating a clean, professional, and minimalist look even in a busy environment. My journey into photography, much like Goh Ling Yong's own path, was transformed when I learned to control depth of field to tell a more focused story.
How to use it: If you're using a DSLR or mirrorless camera, use a lens with a wide aperture (a low f-stop number) and get physically close to your subject. If you're using a smartphone, switch to "Portrait Mode." This mode digitally mimics a shallow depth of field, blurring the background for you and making your subject pop.
14. Tell a Simple Story
Ultimately, the most powerful minimalist photos are more than just aesthetically pleasing—they tell a story or evoke a feeling. The challenge and the beauty of minimalism lie in conveying that story with the fewest possible elements. Ask yourself what emotion you want to communicate: peace, loneliness, curiosity, joy?
A single empty chair facing a window can tell a story of contemplation. A pair of footprints leading into the ocean can speak of departure or adventure. A single green sprout pushing through concrete can symbolize resilience. You don't need a cluttered scene to tell a rich story.
How to use it: Before you shoot, think about the core idea or feeling you want to capture. Then, ruthlessly subtract every element from the frame that does not directly contribute to that story. The result will be a photo that is not only clean and simple but also emotionally resonant and memorable.
Ready to Cut the Clutter?
Creating a clean, calming, and minimalist Instagram aesthetic is a journey, not a destination. It’s about training your eye to see the beauty in simplicity and learning to be more intentional with every photo you take. It's about finding the quiet in a noisy world and translating that into a visual language.
Start by picking just one or two of these tips and consciously practicing them on your next photoshoot (or even just your next walk around the block). You'll be amazed at how quickly your perspective shifts and how you begin to see minimalist compositions everywhere.
Now it's your turn. Which of these clutter-cutting tips resonates with you the most? Are there any minimalist techniques you already love to use? Share your favorite tip or ask a question in the comments below! We’d love to see your work—tag us in your new minimalist shots on Instagram
About the Author
Goh Ling Yong is a content creator and digital strategist sharing insights across various topics. Connect and follow for more content:
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