How to make a photo dump for Instagram and TikTok
A photo dump is a carousel post on Instagram or TikTok with a loose mix of photos from one stretch of time, like a weekend, a month or a trip. It looks casual, but the good ones still follow a thread. In Exposure you make one in four steps: pick your photos, open a template or an empty layout, arrange the photos across the slides, then export and post.
The 4-step process
- 1
Pick a time frame and your photos
Decide what the dump covers, for example last weekend or one trip, and pick more photos from that stretch than you need. A good mix has people, places, food, small details and one or two shots that didn't quite work out. Sort them roughly by when they happened, so the post reads from start to finish.
- 2
Start from a template or an empty layout
Go to the Layout tab, create a new layout and choose "From Template". The monthly recap templates are made for photo dumps. October 2, for example, puts small round photos on the days of a calendar under an "October Dump" title. If you'd rather design it yourself, start with an empty layout: 3:4 portrait for Instagram, 9:16 for TikTok.
- 3
Arrange several photos per slide
Put two to four photos on each slide, let some of them run over the edge into the next slide so the carousel reads as one strip, and add a frame or sticker from the library where a photo needs it. One short line of text, a date or a place name, is often enough.
- 4
Export and post
Exposure exports every slide as its own image. In Instagram, create a new post, tap Select Multiple and add the slides in order. On TikTok, select the slides in order when you upload, and they post as a photo carousel. Instagram allows up to 20 slides per post, TikTok up to 35.
Photo dump ideas
A dump with one thread is easier to follow than a random selection:
- Month dump: the best moments of one month. The monthly recap templates are built for it.
- Week in review: one ordinary week, day by day, with the weekly recap template.
- Trip dump: one place, from arrival to the last evening. See the travel recap templates.
- Year dump: twelve months in one carousel. The year in review guide shows how.
- Theme dump: only food, or only your outfits.
Photo dump templates in Exposure
A new monthly recap template comes out every month. The monthly recap page shows the monthly layouts from the app, and the weekly recap page shows the weekly one. For your own layout, the seamless carousel guide explains how to connect photos across slides, and stickers help with the details.
What to write in the caption
Photo dump captions are usually short: a date, a place, one line that sums up the stretch. If you want to write a few sentences about what happened, the AI caption guide shows how Exposure turns your notes into caption text.