I’m no expert, but I’ve been wasting Instax Mini film for years so I picked up a few tips and tricks here and there. Here are five of them for newbie owners, or for people who are looking to purchase one very soon.
Photos turn out better in a well-lighted environment.
The Instax Mini takes photos just fine in low light situations given that you use the flash, but the flash tends to obscure the background in a shadow. To get your background to show up in the picture as clearly as the foreground, light it up — turn on the room lights or go outdoors.
Stand two to four feet away from your subject.
The Intax Mini’s lens has no macro capabilities so shooting too close will result in blurry photos. Stand too far away on the other hand, and your subjects will appear tiny in a photo that only measures two by three inches.
Aim slightly lower to center your subject
The viewfinder and the lens in the Instax Mini do not align as perfectly as — say, SLR cameras, so you have to compensate for it. Instead of putting your subject dead center in the viewfinder, try aiming slightly lower. This centers your subject in the final print and eliminates the large headroom you might otherwise get if you aimed straight on.
Avoid extremely reflective surfaces.
Avoid having mirrors, windows, and glass doors in the background. When the flash hits a reflective surface, it will show up as a black spot in your photo (where the light “burns” the film).
Practice FIFO when using film.
If you stockpile film like I do, practice FIFO or “First In, First Out”. Check the manufacture and expiration dates on the box and use the ones that expire sooner before you use the ones that expire later. If you use a film that is past its Use By date, your pictures may have a bluish tint and dull colors.
JPOP Manila 
i just dont understand about “Aim slightly lower to center your subject” topic. can you email me for more details? thanks
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here ya go — hope this helps! 🙂
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Hi, I didn’t understand the part on the reflective surface. I understand that a black dot will appear, but will spoil the camera or the other films? thanks:)
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Hi there! If you shoot directly at a mirror, the black dot will appear in the shot, but it won’t ruin your camera or the rest of the film in the pack 🙂
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Thanks dude! That really help, everything really help! I’m one step towards becoming a pro hahahah:)
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Thanks for the tips! What mode do you usually use for the outdoor/indoor pictures with good lighting? Do you usually change the mode?
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For Indoor, I use the Flash (House) mode but try to make sure we’re still under good light 🙂 For Outdoor, I use Cloudy because cloudy or sunny the Cloudy mode works out pretty well 🙂
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Hi, do you know if I can use the instax on night landscapes? like to take christmas lights outdoors? thanks:)
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Oh they aren’t ideal for night landscape shots — you’ll get very little detail 😦 They are much better for full sun or indoor with ample lights ^^;;;;
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oh thanks, you saved me some film! hahahaha:)
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what setting did you use for the first picture and how about for landscape shots?
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I used cloudy. And just tilted the camera sideways for landscape shots.
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hi, it helps so much,
just to make sure, if i want to take a picture at outdoor such as beach, savanna, it would be better to use cloudy mode and take 4 feet away from the subject? thank you,
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Hi!
Just a note, but your composition tip with the apple is backwards. You actually want to aim HIGHER on the subject, not lower—because the viewfinder is higher, you want to ‘chase’ that with the lens. Aiming lower on the subject will accentuate the wrong composition; you want the lens to be higher as to capture what you are seeing through the viewfinder, which is higher. Make sense?
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Hi there — so I busted out my Instax camera to check if your suggestion that aiming higher instead of lower as I usually did was better. Here are the results:
Aim high on the left, aim low on the right. As you can see, aiming low did center the subject in the middle of the print while aiming high put them closer to the lower edge of the print.
So while your method may work better with other cameras such as SLRs and P&S, it unfortunately does not hold true for the Instax (unless I am missing something really big, but then again I am not a pro photographer — I just go with what works for me personally).
But thanks for the input — much appreciated.
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Hi! Any idea where I could buy not so expensive film?
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I sometimes source my film in bulk from Ebay sellers based in Hong Kong 🙂
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Hi i shot some pictures, super blurry sila. So sabi nila naexposed daw yung film which is hindi ko naman binuksan yung black na lalagyan. Is there any solutions?
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