[DancerPerson]

I read this article on the BBC. I don't get why they view Instagram as a negative thing, like it's an excuse for 'lazy people' to copy the professionals. I personally like the app's effect on the images and find it very creative.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17667891

[Jingers]

People take a photo, apply a filter and then call themselves a photographer.

Yesterday I watched the news and it showed hipsters who owned a retro clothes shop who'd take a photo and then upload it to instagram with a filter applied... smh

[DanBrwn]

"copy the professionals"

What? The Instagram app applies a filter to make the image look like it is taken with an extremely low grade film camera and lens. Such as the Holga and Lomo cameras. Where do "Professionals" use this? Haha


Also I hate to burst your bubble but it is not creative. In the slightest.
Creativity: "The use of the imagination or original ideas, esp. in the production of an artistic work.
You haven't used your imagination at all. You've picked a pre-processed image from a list.

[dslc]

(Original post by Jingers)
People take a photo, apply a filter and then call themselves a photographer.

Yesterday I watched the news and it showed hipsters who owned a retro clothes shop who'd take a photo and then upload it to instagram with a filter applied... smh

A Photographer is somebody who takes photographs.
Instagram is an app for sharing photographs with others.

Every user on Instagram is a Photographer in their own right.


Whether they are good Photographers or not, is a different matter entirely.

[ocelotrevs]

It seems like a pretty cool app to have. Good for randomly sharing something you see quickly out and about.

But it's used as a cheap mask for people who think they're photographers to disguise they're crummy photos and pretend it's something special. There's no skill to it, not even the kind of skill you'd get by using photoshop.

I read the same article as well, and it said a lot of the stuff that I was thinking about it.

[Rest]

Well its a good app but the point is Raw talent photography is totally different from these apps and fake photographics...

[Lucyyy]

I like Instagram. It's a cool little app that anyone can use to jazz their photos up a little, and really, what does it matter if the user has any real talent for photography? If I like a photo then that's that, it doesn't matter who took it or what equipment they used to take it. I don't think anyone thinks they're a photographer for using instagram.. It's a sodding phone app! They're never going to be great quality images anyway but if somebody who otherwise has minimal interest or knowledge in photography can use it and produce a photo that they're pleased with then so what.

[eimmas]

I personally like Instagram. It's fantastic for sharing quick little images and experimenting with a more basic style of photography than I'm used to with my DSLR.

I'll agree, I hate seeing people on there taking photos of their food at a restaurant or themselves in a mirror every few days and calling themselves photographers in a serious sense, but people need to calm down a bit. It's just another platform for sharing photos on... There are plenty of people in the world who have DSLRs and upload to Flickr with, let's face it, little knowledge of photography beyond auto mode.

There's no need to put those people down though. Everyone has to start somewhere. I'm sure we all didn't start taking photos and get perfect shots straight away.

Instagram is just another camera app that lets people take photos and share them. Calm down a bit. If their photos really are that poor, then why not look on the positive side? They make your photos look even better...

[eimmas]

And just like Kevin Meredith is quoted in the article:

"I do use Instagram differently to how I use film or DSLRs. Instagram images can be all about the immediacy of the moment when I want to let people know what I am up to. I generally send my Instagram pictures to Twitter and Facebook. I keep my Flickr stream for 'real' pictures that I shoot with film and digitally."

[TheKieranC]

I use instagram and i have a DSLR and i don't claim to be a professional with either or a professional photographer period. I think if you believe this then you're an idiot.

[DanBrwn]

(Original post by TheKieranC)
I use instagram and i have a DSLR and i don't claim to be a professional with either or a professional photographer period. I think if you believe this then you're an idiot.

So you're saying if we believe you, we are idiots?

[TheSownRose]

I don't use it myself (don't have anything it would work on), but I don't see anything wrong with it in itself, ie, as an app for sharing photos. It's just some people that use it that give it a bad reputation.

[eimmas]

(Original post by DanBrwn)
So you're saying if we believe you, we are idiots?

Think they're saying that if you believe your a 'professional' because you own a DSLR or use Instagram that you're an idiot, not that if you believe people who think that they themselves are.

[evening sunrise]

Professional means you get paid.

Professional does not mean you are actually any "better" though.

The difficulty is that most people who manage to earn a living from photography are "better" than Mr or Mrs Average. However there is significant overlap, and many "amateurs" are "better" than a lot of people who earn a living from photography.

Same point as usual.

Some professional drivers drive F1 or WRC or huge lorries, some ferry people to and from the pub for a few quid, the latter catagory are no better at driving than most members of the public at large and they do not need a better car either, in fact the car is usually older and with a lower performance envelope than many cars driven by amateurs...


BTW: I have no idea what instagram is. 1 billion USD, it had better be bloody good....

I do take some shots with my Iphone (I have a phone set on flickr) if required I edit them "on phone" with Photoshop Express. It is rare for me to use the phone though as I usually have my 4.1 mp cybershot in my pocket.

[DanBrwn]

(Original post by eimmas)
Think they're saying that if you believe your a 'professional' because you own a DSLR or use Instagram that you're an idiot, not that if you believe people who think that they themselves are.

Yeaah, about that. I was actually being sarcastic. But thanks for explaining

[Tallapodee]

http://www.pcworld.com/article/25325...o_popular.html

"Low-Fi Photo Critics
It’s important to consider this low-fi photo trend in context. Not everyone thinks the app has merit. In a Facebook poll of 2000 people, for example, respondents ranked the Instagram photos coming through their Facebook feeds among the most annoying, second only to baby photos.

Jon Seff used a heavy Instagram filter on this photo of his daughter.Those who participated in the Facebook poll saw the Instagram app as too “gimmicky,” producing “unnecessary photographic effects.” Photography professionals such as Olivier Du Tré also have their criticisms, saying that the app's users are lazy in applying its cookie-cutter filters to photos, which is unimaginative and bad artistic practice. For instance, different areas of a photo require different degrees of lighting or color adjustments--but Instagram applies the same adjustments to every photo.

Originally, when the app debuted, photography purists complained that because Instagram took photos with a filter, it lost the image's original data. Now, Instagram lets you save your unfiltered, original photos by default, eliminating that problem.

Instagram aficionados, however, aren’t interested in originals, or in exactly replicating reality. Macworld Executive Editor Jon Seff, an active Instagram user, appreciates the app because it masks the blemishes in his photos and makes the pictures look more interesting. Otherwise, he says, “they’d be boring on their own.”

I agree with most of those points. I don't use it myself but I've been using Photoshop to create that kind of look for years. At least if you're going to do it that way you can use different methods and adjustments that will suit that particular image. So in one way I like it just because I like the look, but then it's annoying that it's popular because I look like I'm just following the trend (silly reason I know).
And annoying because I have someone on fb who posts several instagram photos a day, of themselves, their food, their drawings..just mundane things. It's like they're thinking they can post any crap as long as it has a cool filter because that makes it a million times more interesting.
I imagine it's popularity will dwindle after summer. If it doesn't I'm not looking forward to seeing a hundred identical autumn leaves instagram photos -.-

[aewart]

I'm not offended by the app in any way. I use an SLR myself with a variety of lenses and post-process my photos to a certain extent and creativity but I also use Instagram. It's harmless. Besides, it's handy for those who want to take little photos and replicate some effects that would cost hundreds of pounds to do the 'long' way. They're for sharing exclusively with the Instagram community, so it's for like minded people, and also they're fairly low res so it's not like you're going to turn into the next Ansel Adams overnight after blowing up your Instagram photo onto a canvas.

People need to stop whinging. I doubt it's going to go away any time soon so you might as well get used to it at the very least

*EDIT
Also not every photo you find on Instagram was taken with a mobile phone. You can upload photos from your iPhone which you may have transferred off of your SLR, and after that it's your choice whether to leave it as it is or apply a filter effect.

[TheKieranC]

(Original post by aewart)
I'm not offended by the app in any way. I use an SLR myself with a variety of lenses and post-process my photos to a certain extent and creativity but I also use Instagram. It's harmless. Besides, it's handy for those who want to take little photos and replicate some effects that would cost hundreds of pounds to do the 'long' way. They're for sharing exclusively with the Instagram community, so it's for like minded people, and also they're fairly low res so it's not like you're going to turn into the next Ansel Adams overnight after blowing up your Instagram photo onto a canvas.

People need to stop whinging. I doubt it's going to go away any time soon so you might as well get used to it at the very least

*EDIT
Also not every photo you find on Instagram was taken with a mobile phone. You can upload photos from your iPhone which you may have transferred off of your SLR, and after that it's your choice whether to leave it as it is or apply a filter effect.

Don't know why somebody negged you but thats what I do ;p BlueSlideClarke, follow me

[Jedders]

I love instagram and don't get why people would hate it. It's a bit petty to be getting angry about people using those filters on their pictures. They call themselves photographers? Umm, who cares? I enjoy looking at other peoples pictures and uploading little pictures of my own that I took with my iPhone. Would I have any of these pictures in my portfolio? Lol, no. It's just a bit of fun, no big deal :P

[Chad_Bronson]

(Original post by Jedders)
I love instagram and don't get why people would hate it. It's a bit petty to be getting angry about people using those filters on their pictures. They call themselves photographers? Umm, who cares? I enjoy looking at other peoples pictures and uploading little pictures of my own that I took with my iPhone. Would I have any of these pictures in my portfolio? Lol, no. It's just a bit of fun, no big deal :P

People get annoyed by the fact people are taking photos, editing them with Instagram, then posting these photos onto Facebook, Twitter, and thinking they are God's gift when, in reality, they've taken so awful, pointless photographs.

To put things into context, at my college we have a professional camcorder; the Sony Z1. Because I'm fairly decent at using the camcorder and know how to get a semi-good image out of it, do I call myself a professional because I know how to edit?

No, not until I've learned lenses, camera movement, operating temperature, etc. etc. then I would see myself as a videographer.

The idea of taking a photo and sending it to Facebook, Twitter et al is great. What I do mind is people taking snaps then calling themselves photographers when they're just taking photos on their mobile. Photography is an art form. Not something you can learn in a few minutes with a phone.

Quite why people feel this compulsion to make photos more retarded than they actually are by adding Sepia and Saturisation to their photos The app is great; but Instagram offers nothing innovative we didn't already have.