( CNN ) By the time Kim Kardashian set out to `` break the internet '' in November last year , a photo by 23-year-old Conor McDonnell had already got there -- with a little help from Kim 's music superstar husband Kanye West . McDonnell is the self-taught photography star behind Instagram 's most liked photo , showing the couple 's embrace at their May wedding , which has earned more than 2.4 milllion `` likes '' to date . The Liverpool native has had a breakneck rise to success since his first Instagram post in November 2011 , snapping the likes of Drake , Justin Bieber , One Direction , Mumford & Sons , Snoop Dogg , and Red Hot Chili Peppers , while traveling the world on private planes . Lasting relationships with stars Ellie Goulding and Rita Ora have followed , and candid snaps of the photographer 's globetrotting , access-all-areas life have seen him accumulate over 25,000 followers on his personal account . Not bad for someone who told CNN Ones to Watch he started photography `` by accident . '' Fresh from accompanying Calvin Harris on tour in South America , McDonnell shares his five top tips for anyone who wants to grow their Instagram fan base and take great photos on the go . From finding the right lighting , to which filter to chose : play the Instagram videos below to find out how to supercharge your pictures for social media success . `` Good lighting for me makes a shot . If I 'm taking a portrait of someone , I 'd much prefer to use natural lighting than a light bulb or manufactured lighting ! '' `` I make use of the rule of thirds quite a lot : if you imagine the screen split up in three thirds , you place the subject in one corner . There 's a lot you can find about it on the internet . '' `` There 's a patch here of very bright light and just behind it there 's dark . Trying to expose it right can be tricky but on the iPhone you can do it quite well just by tapping the screen and dragging the exposure up and down . '' `` I 'll upload a photo to an app called Snapseed , edit the brightness and contrast in that a little bit , export it . And then open in another app called VSCO Cam , which is my favorite app on my whole phone . '' `` On VSCO Cam there 's tons of filters , the one I use the most is probably `` P5 , '' then I can edit all sorts ... And once I 'm done I just export it and post it on Instagram . '' `` I know photographers who use a lot of hashtags , and hashtags can work if you want to build up your follower base , because a lot more people will probably see a photo than if you did n't hashtag it . ''
Conor McDonnell is the young photographer behind Instagram 's most liked photo . The image shows a group of people in an area that looks like it could be part of New York City, but it's actually just a street scene from Northern Ireland.