It’s hard for me to talk about Instagram without gushing about its deceptively appealing attributes and sweetly addictive nature. After 2 weeks of compulsive pointing, shooting, sharing pics, I am no longer capable of reporting objectively about it. However, I invite you to read on for my take on why it’s unique and why it’s set to establish itself as a must-have app.
Instagram made its debut just weeks ago on 6 October 2010 and is rumoured to have gained close to one million avid users in that short time. Available only for iPhone at the moment, this is a decidedly astonishing number. The already countless number of great photography, cameras, filters and effects apps notwithstanding, Instagram has merged photography and iPhone to form a special kind of love affair. One where ease and aesthetics rule.
The best way to describe it is to say that it’s like twitter for photos. A pic is your 140 characters. Choose or take a photo, use one of the app’s built-in filters and share with others around the world, as well as on your choice of social network (facebook, twitter, flickr) or email. Post something and you get instant gratification in the form of comments, likes from others who view what you post instantly. I find myself checking my Instagram feed several times daily, to see what others have posted, comment on the ones I like and just to marvel at the ideas and snapshots posted.
Most share what they are doing at the moment (hence the similarity with twitter or facebook) so it’s like getting a visual tweet. Sweet! Others post pics from their personal archives. So if you’re like me, you’ve spent the past weeks scanning old images to find something worthy of instagramming, like this pic I took using the Lomo-fi filter.
The built-in filters are quite gorgeous, ranging from contrast-enriching or sepia-inducing filters to the classic black and white and 70s retro. Here’s another example – the Lord Kelvin filter.
The app works exactly like it’s supposed to. The UI is easy on the eyes, uncluttered and intuitive. Sending feedback is in-app and painless.
You can quickly build of your cred within the community. The obvious way is to post stunning pics – these will get noticed, liked and then with a bit of luck get on the “Popular“ page – which is a real honour! Instagrammers are quick to notice good posts and you’ll soon be in tune with the leading photogs and find true delight in their postings from their corner of the world. View my latest pic on its unique Instragram page using the Earlybird filter.
What has surprised me most about my Instagram obsession is that it has inspired me to want to become a better photographer. I have found myself experimenting with different effects and angles, as well as techniques such as tilt/shift – a fascinating way to create the illusion of image objects as miniature.
Also, I have splurged on additional photo apps such as Diptic, TiltShiftGen and Spica and have also learned to appreciate other apps like PS Express which I use to prepare photos before instagramming them.
You will find plenty of masters of all kinds of techniques in the Instagram community, who are more than happy to give tips.
There are only a few additions I almost hesitate to recommend, for fear they ruin the simplicity of the concept a) a profile page for each instagrammer b) a way to see which pics made the „popular“ page and when and c) a way to view all posted pics on a webpage sorted by filters or categories.
Instagram is already such a perfect little app that I’m afraid that the makers will spoil it in a future update. I so hope they don’t. And I have a good feeling they won’t.
Instagram is available for free on the App Store.
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TAGS: images, Instagram, iPhone, Photography
