How to Post Horizontal Photos on Instagram Story

Got a stunning horizontal photo that you're dying to share but can't stand how Instagram Stories butchers it with that awkward vertical crop? You're not alone. This guide walks you through several simple methods to post your landscape photos to a vertical-first world, from quick built-in tricks to more polished, professional techniques that will make your content stand out.

The Fast-and-Easy Fix: Instagram’s Built-In Method

Sometimes you just need to get a photo up quickly without a lot of fuss. Instagram has a built-in feature that lets you do exactly that. It's the most straightforward method, taking only a few seconds, though it offers the least creative control.

How to Do the Pinch-to-Zoom Trick

This is the default way to handle a horizontal photo, and it couldn't be simpler. You've likely done this by accident before, but here's how to do it on purpose:

1. Open the Instagram app and swipe right or tap the plus icon on your profile picture to open the Story creation screen.
2. Tap the gallery icon in the bottom-left corner and select your horizontal photo.
3. Instagram will automatically zoom in and crop your photo to fill the vertical screen. This is the part we're here to fix.
4. Now, simply place two fingers on the screen and pinch them together. You'll see the photo shrink, revealing its original horizontal dimensions.

And that’s it. You can move the photo up or down, but you can’t make it any larger than the screen’s width. Once you do this, Instagram automatically generates a background. This background is a simple color gradient that it pulls from the dominant colors in your photo to create a visually consistent, if basic, look.

Pros and Cons of This Method

• Pro: It's incredibly fast. Perfect for when you need to share something in the moment without opening another app or spending time on edits.
• Pro: No extra apps required. Everything is handled right inside Instagram.
• Con: You have absolutely zero control over the background. You’re stuck with whatever color gradient Instagram decides to give you.
• Con: It often looks a bit plain. While functional, it doesn't have the designed, polished feel that helps a brand or creator stand out.

Taking Control: Creating Custom Backgrounds Within Instagram

If the auto-generated background isn't doing it for you, there are a couple of clever workarounds you can use without ever leaving the Instagram app. These tricks give you more say over the look and feel of your Story, making your content feel more intentional.

Method 1: The Sticker-on-Solid-Background Trick

This technique uses Instagram's "Create" mode and the photo sticker to let you choose your own solid or gradient background color. It's a fantastic middle-ground between the super-quick pinch method and a full-blown design app.

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Open the Story creation screen. Instead of choosing a photo, tap the "Create" option (the one labeled 'Aa').
2. Your screen will fill with a default gradient. Tap the small colored circle in the bottom-right corner to cycle through different background colors and gradients. Stop when you find one you like.
3. Now, tap the Sticker icon (the square smiley face) at the top of the screen.
4. Scroll down through the sticker options until you find the photo sticker. It looks like a little circle with a gallery icon inside, showing your most recent photo.
5. Tapping it will open your camera roll. Select the horizontal photo you want to post.
6. Your photo will now appear as a 'sticker' on top of the custom background you chose. You can pinch to resize it, drag it around, rotate it, and place it anywhere you want.

The best part? Tapping on the photo sticker itself will cycle it through different shapes - like a circle, star, or rectangle with rounded corners - giving you even more creative options.

Method 2: The Blurred Photo Background Effect

This is an incredibly popular aesthetic you've probably seen other creators use. It involves using the horizontal photo itself as a blurred, full-screen background. It looks professional, is visually pleasing, and keeps the focus on the photo you're sharing. It takes a few extra steps, but the result is well worth the effort.

How to Create the Blurred Background:

1. Start a new Story and select your horizontal photo. Let it fill the screen in its default zoomed-in state.
2. Take a screenshot of your screen. This screenshot captures the zoomed-in, cropped version of your photo. Now discard this Story by tapping the 'X'.
3. Start a new Story. This time, select the screenshot you just took from your camera roll. This will be your full-screen background.
4. Now, to layer the original photo on top, tap the Sticker icon and choose the photo sticker again.
5. Select your original, uncropped horizontal photo from your gallery.
6. Pinch to resize and center your horizontal photo over its own blurred counterpart. You now have a centered image with a thematically relevant background.

Pro Tip: For an even better look, find a free photo editing app (like Snapseed or even your phone's built-in editor) and apply a blur effect to the screenshot before you use it as your background in Step 3. A gentle blur makes the centered foreground image pop even more.

For Maximum Polish: Using Third-Party Design Apps

When you want complete creative freedom and a look that’s perfectly aligned with your brand, it's time to turn to a third-party design app. Tools like Canva, Unfold, or Adobe Express are built for exactly this purpose and make creating professional-looking Stories easy.

The General Workflow in a Design App

While the exact buttons differ slightly between apps, the basic process is always the same:

1. Open your app of choice (we'll use Canva as an example since it's widely popular and has a great free version).
2. Create a new design. Search for and select the "Instagram Story" template. This will give you a blank canvas that is perfectly sized at 1080x1920 pixels.
3. Upload your horizontal photo to the app and drag it onto your canvas.
4. This is where the magic happens. You now have full control:
   • Change the background: Set any background color you want, use a color picker to match a color from your brand guide precisely, upload a branded pattern, or even use another photo as the background.
   • Resize and position freely: Place your horizontal photo exactly where you want it. Maybe you want to leave more space at the bottom for text or a question sticker.
   • Add Branded Elements: Add your logo, custom fonts for text overlays, and other graphic elements that align with your visual identity.
   • Use Templates: Many apps come with pre-designed templates. You can find layouts made for sharing photos which include stylish frames, text placements, and other design elements, allowing you to just drop your photo in.
5. Once you are happy with your design, export the final image as a PNG or JPG and save it to your phone's camera roll.
6. Open Instagram, start a new Story, and upload your perfectly formatted image. There’s no pinching or adjusting required. It fits perfectly.

Using a dedicated app feels like the most work, but it offers the most reward, creating content that looks intentional, professional, and completely custom to you.

Why Does Posting Horizontal Photos This Way Matter?

Is going through these extra steps really worth it? Absolutely. This isn't just about being particular, it has legitimate strategic benefits for anyone using social media to build a brand, a business, or an audience.

• It Preserves Creative Intent: A beautiful landscape, a well-composed group shot, or an architectural photo often loses all its power when aggressively cropped. Presenting it in its original format respects the composition and tells a better story.
• It Establishes Brand Consistency: Using custom backgrounds from a design app lets you enforce your brand's color palette and typography. When followers see your Stories, the consistent look instantly clicks as yours, building brand recognition even in ephemeral content.
• It Stops the Scroll (or Tap): In a sea of full-screen vertical photos and videos, a formatted Story with borders or a distinct layout stands out. That brief moment of pattern interruption is often all it takes to make someone pause and actually engage with your content instead of mindlessly tapping through.
• It Allows for Smarter Content Repurposing: Your best photos might already exist in a horizontal format on your website or in a client gallery. These techniques let you leverage your high-quality assets across all platforms without having to reshoot or settle for a bad crop. A photographer can showcase an entire album's feel in one story, or a blogger can reuse a hero image from a post.

Final Thoughts

From a simple pinch-and-zoom to a fully branded design template, you have plenty of options for posting horizontal photos on your Instagram Story. Choosing the right method depends on your goal&mdash,whether it's speed and convenience or creating a polished piece of on-brand content that helps you stand out from the noise.

After creating all these beautiful, perfectly formatted horizontal Stories, it’s frustrating when your social media tool makes scheduling them a pain or, even worse, fails to post them on time. At Postbase, we built our visual calendar and scheduling tools specifically for today's content formats, including Stories, Reels, and TikToks. After you perfect your design in Canva or Instagram, you can drop it into our intuitive visual planner, see how it fits with the rest of your content, and trust that it will go live exactly when you schedule it, every time.