Shane Pow's Guide To Becoming The Best #InstagramBoyfriend Ever

For the benefit of those who are stuck in Friendster zone, an Instagram boyfriend is not just any regular beau. A basic boyfriend tells you that you look great in that new dress; an Instagram boyfriend snaps ’grammable pics of you in your OOTD. A basic boyfriend buys you flowers; an Instagram boyfriend hunts down the perfect brick wall backdrop to take a photo of his bae with the blooms.On holiday, a basic boyfriend takes just one photo of you at each spot; an Instagram boyfriend takes at least 200 shots.

In this day and age where everyone and their mother is a social (media) butterfly, a picture paints a thousand likes, and an Instagram boyfriend is the next level boyfriend that every OOTD-loving millennial wants — or wants to train her current boyfriend to be.

Okay, so Kimberly, 26, didn’t whip Shane, 27, into an Instagram boyfriend. (In fact, the true photo buff between the two is the child actress-turned-987FM-jock.) And Shaneberly assume Instagram boy/girlfriend duties in equal amounts, but Shane readily — and smittenly — admits that “she’s better at taking photos.” For this Powerly couple, it’s purely out of convenience that he’s the lensman behind her posts. Kim opines: “We’re the people that we hang out with most frequently, so that’s how it happened.”

SHANE POW: If your girlfriend is a better photographer than you, just listen to whatever she tells you to do. That’s my best advice (laughs). If she doesn’t have an eye for photos, then you have to find quirky angles and work around it. Phone cameras are good, but I find it very easy to take nice photos when I use a very good DSLR camera — the lens and all that help a lot and the photos turn out very nice. If we have to take photos that are more important, like paid posts and adverts, then we use a better camera.

S: “[In the beginning], I’d take the photo and she’d say: “Not bad. But can you take one more?” (Guffaws)
KIMBERLY WANG: No, I’d say, “Can you take one more…but do this and this?” Sometimes I get really pissed off. Like, “Dude! This photo is really ugly. What happened to the composition?” (Chuckles)
S: I’ll tell her to do a test shot and I’ll take it from there.
K: He does have an eye for photos, but sometimes it’s about technicalities, like adjusting the ISO. Sometimes, I’d tell him to just try. He’ll take different angles and there are nice surprises. So you never know. He’s gotten significantly better at it now.
S: She’s very keen on photography so it’s very easy for her [to take pictures for me].

K: My idea of a nice picture is very different from his. He doesn’t post a lot of the pictures I took that I like. I take a lot of mood shots, rather than conventional shots. I like photos where he’s caught unaware.
S: She’s a nine out of 10. I took away one point ’cos she can get very angsty when she’s taking my picture.
K: He likes to do certain poses that make him look really weird, like his body is contorted. So I’ll tell him, “Eh, lift up your neck leh! Why your neck like that one?!” (Giggles)