Tag: instagram

Instagram Stories: Shoot Daily and Share

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Keenan Gilson

For those that don’t have access to professional gear, it may seem difficult to believe that you can still produce nice images. So much emphasis is put on equipment these days that it can be easy to believe this. As someone who travels often, sometimes I purposefully choose to shoot with the bare minimum. It lightens the luggage and helps you avoid attention. It also forces to you to focus on what’s important when creating images. Things such as lighting, composition, lines, genuine expressions and things like these.

Something that has really encouraged me to shoot like this is Instagram’s story feature. It’s a great little platform that allows you to share your images from your day with those that follow you. It keeps your followers engaged and can keep you in a creative mindset throughout your day. How can we use this feature for our benefit?

In order to show you a real-life example of how this can be done, I decided to run (literally went for a run) through the city of Ho Chi Min in Vietnam with only my iPhone 6. I want to show that even if you don’t have top of the end gear, you can practice, improve your craft and interact with your followers all at the same time!

Instagram Story

Instagram

, in general, is a great way to showcase your work to an international audience. It seems like nowadays Instagram presence and following is a great way to secure jobs and receive income from sponsorships. With that being said, how can we make the most of this app in our everyday life?

First, let’s take a look at what this Story feature is all about. Stories will appear on the top of your Instagram feed in the shape of a circle. Your followers can click the circle and see either photos or video that you posted. They will be present for your followers to look at for the next 24 hours. If your plan is to use this medium to share your images, you will want to shoot knowing you will have to crop to 16×9 later. This can affect that way you compose your shots.

Understanding Your Camera

The next thing you need to do is fully understand the camera you will be using. If you’re using a phone, there are many downloadable applications that allow you to get uncompressed, highly detailed images. Many also allow you to manually control such settings as aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. My goal is to get the best medium exposure possible and having these extra controls allows me to do just that.

Understanding all the possible ways to release the shutter can be extremely useful as well. On all the typical iPhones you can take a photo by pressing the volume buttons (this includes the earphones when they are attached as well). This allows you to take more inconspicuous photos.

Once you have a complete understanding of all the functions that can be used, you can then use them to have full control over your final images.

Editing

Once you have a good amount of images to choose from, it’s time to edit them. The best option is to upload them to a computer but if you’re traveling, there are some excellent options to edit right off of your phone. There are many apps that I could recommend such as VSCO or Snapseed but my favorite one recently is an app called Color Story. It’s a free app that gives you most of the controls you would have on your computer. It also has some excellent free filters and effects.

Application

When I was in Vietnam this past month I used all of these suggestions. I shot every day and shared my images with my followers. They were able to get a glimpse into the wonderful country of Vietnam and I was able to push myself creatively.

If you ever plan to visit Vietnam, I would highly recommend that you learn some basic phrases in their native language. It seemed like no one spoke English at all. Such phrases such as “hello” and “thank you” can be very useful, especially if you are going to be taking pictures of strangers.

I would also recommend that if you don’t have any experience riding a motorcycle that you don’t learn there. It has the craziest form of traffic that I’ve ever seen.

You don’t need the best equipment in order to progress as a photographer. It can be done with a simple camera phone with some forethought and diligence. Take advantage of Instagram’s Story feature which can encourage you to shoot daily and interact with your followers!

Keep learning and have fun!

How to Promote Photography on Instagram

Posted on August 23, 2016 by Kim Suarez

These days, social media is an essential tool to any business marketing strategy. First of all, it’s free. Second, it’s all-reaching, meaning nearly everyone is a user. Last and most important: it works. It works if you know how to properly use it to your advantage. I’ve even heard photographers who have gotten paid work on Instagram or based on their Instagram account.

If you have thousands of followers, you are considered an ‘”influencer” and brands will send you their product or book you for gigs because any image you post is like a free billboard for them, immediately garnering tens of thousands of views in a second.

This influencer status is not reserved only for the elite, or famous, or even the most talented. It is given to those who know how to play the social media game and win. Below are a few tips to using Instagram to promote your photography to achieve this status and grow your business and brand.

Be Yourself

Essential to any business or personal development strategy is to be yourself, to be truthful about who you are not pretending to be someone you are not. We can’t all be that cool, hip style-savvy blogger with thousands of followers who posts amazing pictures of themselves from all over the world. Honestly, there are too many of them anyways now. You are unique, you have a combination of qualities and experiences that no one else has. Give yourself the exercise of digging into these attributes that make you unique, and create your personal brand around these.

Curate and Captions

More important to photographers, since this is a visual social media platform, is that you curate your Instagram. This is your portfolio, and you only want to show your best work. Maintaining a high-quality standard is essential to booking high-quality clients and appearing in high-quality outlets. Be sure to follow the quality of quantity rule here. If you don’t have any quality images to publish at the moment, wait until you do.

In addition, captions and hashtags are important in Instagram posts. You want your caption to add to your story, and humanize the image and yourself. Tell a behind the scenes story of what it took to get that shot, or explain what brought you to that location. The more personal, the better. This will help fans feel more connected to you, it makes you more relatable. It will also build your brand, and give you a stronger presence in your desired niche. Hashtags are also a great way to caption your images, and tie in with Connect and Style below. You can use hashtags which are associated with millions of tags, adding your post to additional pools of images, seen by more users than those who follow you. If you want your images to be seen by magazine photo editors, find the magazine’s Instagram. They all have their own hashtags now, and you can add them to your captions to gain visibility.

Connect and Cultivate

If you do not interact with others on Instagram, they will not interact with you. Set aside a few minutes each day not only to post but to go through others photos as well. Make sure you curate those you follow to stick with your brand category. You want to be associated with these people, so when others see them, they will see you. Continue to build these relationships, and start to form new ones. You’ll never know what this could lead to in the future, whether it be work or investments or just great personal relationships. To tie into the above, liking and commenting on others posts will humanize you, and help others feel more connected to you. It will also help you feel more connected to others, and you can reach out to those you admire for advice or even opportunities to assist.

Style and Consistency

Style and consistency go hand in hand when building a brand, whether personal or business. If you followed the first tip and are being true to yourself, this should come somewhat easily. Being consistent in what and how you post will make it easier for others to define your brand, and to feel more connected with you. They will see images and writing and know it is you before even looking at the name. This is what you want because these you’ve successfully given your brand a consistent style. You want people to think of you when they think of a particular style. This will lead to more booked gigs and a greater understanding of who you are as a photographer.

Being consistent in your Instagram posting also means knowing what time of day to upload, and being consistent in this schedule. Those who are serious about using Instagram to build their brand, research their target market and know when they are looking at Instagram. Timing your upload to post within this time frame is the secret strategy successful Instagram users employ. Doing this alone will greatly benefit your brand’s Instagram presence within your specific targeted viewer pool.

While the above may sound daunting and like a lot of work, it is essential to building a strong and successful brand on Instagram. Those who are successful are not that way by accident. They are very strategic in their posting, community involvement, and research. But, you need to make sure that you are having fun while working at this. If it is not fun for you, you will not maintain the consistency necessary to build a large following. Using Instagram to promote your photography can be time-consuming, but in the end, can make or break upcoming photographers looking to become influencers and authorities in their specific category.

The Evolution of Mobile Photography

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Simran Nanwani

The term “Mobile Photography” has gained more popularity since the past 2-3 years as technology continues to advance in smartphone cameras. Back in time we held smartphones from Nokia/Siemens/Sony Ericson or may be Samsung that had VGA cameras or even basic cameras. In those times, having a camera in itself was a big deal for us. As it gave us the advantage of capturing moments and keeping those memories. Today, our cameras have advanced tremendously that we can even earn some money from Mobile Photography.

The term “Photography” was slightly restricted and specific to only Digital Cameras and DSLRs has now evolved into Mobile. Many photographers who are used to carrying their heavy DSLRs have started to use more and more of their iPhones or other smartphones to shoot.

India Gate – Nokia N97 Yellow Rose – iPhone 3GS

The quality seen in images today in comparison to olden days is huge. Sometime in April, an instagram account and app @doyouskrwt asked a question on Instagram “Mobile Photography is shifting – more and more people are going for a bigger camera. Do you think mobile photography will be a thing the next years or is it going to decrease drastically in near future?” Many people including myself agreed that it definitely will keep increasing considering, “technology advances – smartphones advances – camera in smartphone advances” (Jonathan @kennedyirl). The responses also discussed the quality of images. There is no denying that the DSLRs quality still reigns far superior to smartphones but, having a smartphone nowadays for those who enjoy photography is an asset. Like Florian @flori_anz_enk put it nicely saying “I guess it will be a combination of a great smartphone and an advanced camera. I am using two Sony Alpha 7/a7s for portraits, events, and weddings and for everything else my iPhone 6s. Smartphones are so versatile and you can go into stealth mode when it comes to discrete street photography. I love both and use it for completely different styles of photography.”

Hongkong – iPhone 3GS Flower Market Hongkong – iPhone3GS

Taking photos with our mobile phones has not just become a matter of passion but a trend. Although, many times our Instagram feeds are filled with unlimited and unnecessary selfies and a display of personal activities. Keeping aside the unnecessary, we come across many talents with wonderful feeds not forgetting the various hubs that have cropped up to expose Mobile Photography. Many of these photographers have started a business, gained partnerships with famous companies and achieved recognition. However, this creates a tough competition between Photographers using DSLRs. The popularity of mobile photographers can remain inconsistent as many times their interest in photography is only for a short time span or to gain fame.

Seattle – iPhone 4S by Bridgette Shima (@bridgette.xo)

Personally for me, having the iPhone handy to capture whenever I like has made me enjoy capturing moments even more. I do use a semi-pro-Canon camera which allows me to use manual controls and gives more satisfaction in terms of image quality. The availability of various apps with impressive editing features allows me to capture, create and instantly share on social media platforms. Some platforms like Eyeem allow us to sell our photos which are a great feature for budding photographers.

Fresh Vegetables – iPhone 5 Landscape – iPhone 5

There is a vast difference in the quality of photos that can be seen through the Nokia N97 to iPhone 6S. You will notice with the Nokia N97, the image captured was pretty crisp and clear. The iPhone 3GS has improved the quality of images with more details in the capture. In some instances, the clarity depends on the lighting and exposure. For macro shots simply using iPhone 3GS, as you can see in the Yellow Rose above, it has a perfect composition defining the rose beautifully without needing any major edits. The image quality and composition balance continues to evolve with every iPhone (mobile phone). What I have noticed is from iPhone 3GS to iPhone 6S some of the elements in the camera are stable but, crisper and the noise is far lesser in the current iPhone 6S. Zooming was not encouraged in previous smartphones, however, as you see below, the zoom feature in the current iPhone 6S works well for a mobile phone as it doesn’t compromise the quality of the photo.

Museum Proklamasi Indonesia (Jakarta) – iPhone 6S

Over the years, the pixels have increased to improve image quality and to allow larger size printing. The noise has been reduced to a greater extent enabling us to create spotless images. This allows photographers to be able to have the convenience of capturing without having to carry their heavy gears. Currently, smartphone companies are starting to create smartphone cameras with dual cameras whereby one camera would have higher specifications enabling to take even greater quality photos. Some mobile phone companies also use Carl Zeiss Lens like the Nokia Lumia. The Nokia Lumia is known to have a very good camera despite its limitations as far as editing apps are concerned. An article on Nokia Lumia was written by a good friend Bridgette Shima can be read here.

Raindrops – iPhone 6S

In conclusion, I would say it has been quite interesting to see how mobile photography has progressed and continues to evolve. I wouldn’t say it can reach DSLR quality in a short span of time but having the option of using a smartphone is a big deal for all photographers. Photography is not just a passion or hobby but a profession for many people. Hopefully, mobile photographers can also walk hand in hand to learn from Professional Photographers and inspire all photographers everywhere to keep clicking.

Sharing Your Work – 5 Photography Websites Reviewed

Posted on June 24, 2016 by Leonardo Regoli

It is not uncommon to see two different things advance in parallel thanks to specific technology developments to meet at some point in time and benefit from each other. A good example of this casual relationship can be seen between photography and internet, with both experiencing extraordinary advances in the last couple of decades to finally get to a point where both influence each other as never before.

The impact of photography on the contents of internet is ubiquitous but I want to focus here on the impact that the development of internet and, more specifically so-called social networks, have had on photography in the recent past.

Although the concept of social network is quite broad, for some people, some of the sites I mention here might not fall precisely on that concept. However, the idea (not always the main idea!) behind all of them is to serve as platforms where to share your photography and get some feedback from the community. In addition, they also work as virtual galleries where people showcase their work with the hope to find potential clients. After all, whether your main purpose with photography is a commercial one or not, the feeling of knowing that someone is willing to pay for a picture you made is probably the most objective positive feedback you will get.

I will focus on five websites that can be used for the above mentioned purposes. The opinions stated here are only mine and the numbering of the list is completely random and has nothing to do with how much I like a given site. If the websites have paid options (like special types of memberships), I will not mention them since I am comparing here only the free features.

1. Flickr

Created in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo in 2005, Flickr was one of the first websites meant to share photos (and videos starting from 2008) on the internet. Also, with about 87 million registered users and more than 3.5 million photos uploaded each day, it is one of the most popular websites of this type.

Now, volume is not necessarily good. While your pictures will indeed gain quite a good exposure, 87 million users does not mean 87 million views for each one of your uploads, of course! In fact, 3.5 million uploads per day means that more than 40 photos are uploaded each second on average. In addition, the way Flickr works makes it quite difficult for users that are not in your contact list to see your photos, unless you share them in what Flickr calls ‘Groups’.

Groups are simply public galleries, created by a user, where people can share photos that fall within a specific category. This is probably the best way to reach more viewers, so if you use Flickr don’t neglect this feature.

One thing that you can pretty much neglect if you are in for becoming a better photographer is the favorites and comments on Flickr. With few exceptions, most of these will come from people wanting you to reciprocate and add their photos as favorites. That said, meaningful comments (more than the usual ‘Great photo!’) are somewhat more valuable but, on the other hand, if you usually get 10 or 15 favorites in your photos and one of them gets 100, then you can start drawing conclusions. Always keep in mind, though, that what people like depends as well on your public. After all, those over-processed HDRs that became so popular a few years ago do not precisely represent good photography and they still receive tons of favorites!

When it comes to selling your work, while Flickr does not offer this functionality per se, with such exposure it might happen that someone contacts you asking for a specific photo so keep your contact details up to date!

Another functionality of Flickr that can gain you exposure is the famous ‘Explore’. This is a gallery of ‘special’ photos that is constantly updated using some algorithm that seems to take into account the relative popularity of a given upload when compared to other uploads both from a given user and from other users during a specific period of time. The downside of this functionality is that, being an automatic algorithm, the results are somewhat random, meaning that the quality of the images in the gallery will not always be the best.

2. 500px

With about 6 million users, 500px might look like an option to neglect when compared to Flickr. However, this Canadian website, launched in 2009, has become probably the main choice for those who take photography more seriously. Because of this and the way that 500px works, it is possible, in general, to find photos of greater quality when compared to Flickr.

Instead of the ‘Explore’ functionality from Flickr, 500px has two main galleries to look for quality content. The ‘Popular’ gallery showcases those photos that get the most favorites among the community and the ‘Editors’ gallery is curated by the site’s editors. If you take into account that favorites on 500px tend to be more truthful than on Flickr (even though you also get people simply wanting you to check their profile), this means that both galleries are curated by real people and you can expect to find some amazing work on them.

In terms of commercializing your work, 500px allows you to sell your photos directly on the website for different uses and, in general, the rates they pay to the photographer are relatively good compared to large stock photography websites such as Getty. Also, and in contrast to Getty, you can always remove your work from the website, meaning that you are not obliged to sell with them if you don’t want to after a while.

3. Tumblr

While Tumblr is not a photography website as such, it is probably one of the best social networks to showcase your work. Defined as a microblogging platform, you can create your own website and personalize it to some extent where you can both post your images and also share your thoughts about photography or whatever you want with your followers.

As with any social networking site, your exposure will depend mostly on the amount of people you interact with, meaning that you have to spend some time building your connections. If you have a domain name, it is fairly straightforward to link your Tumblr webpage to your domain name, providing an easy and free option to create your own website.

Unless you add a store functionality, the possibility of selling your images will largely depend on the exposure you gain.

When it comes to feedback, I would say that you cannot really use Tumblr to improve as a photographer, except for the motivation factor that sharing your work has. In fact, comments are quite scarce and the amount of ‘Likes’ your photos will get largely depend on someone who has thousands of follower reblogging them (unless you have thousands of followers, of course!).

4. Facebook

While most people will be familiar with Facebook as the largest social networking website where you can see what your friends are up to, the capability of the site as a platform to share your photography from an artistic point of view is pretty useful, being actually the main choice of many photographers out there.

The only difference with a normal Facebook profile is that you need to create a ‘fan page’ where you can post your images and, once again depending on the amount of followers you reach, your exposure can be surprisingly large. This arises from the social networking features where people can share a picture they like with their followers so the amount of people actually seeing one of your photos can reach pretty high numbers in a relatively short time.

In terms of selling your work and feedback, Facebook is very similar to Tumblr. Now, with 1.65 billion active users per month (!), the potential is obviously immense.

5. Instagram

In the last few years, Instagram has become the main choice for many people wanting to showcase their photos. While it is hard to deny the potential that the site has to reach large audiences, with over 100 million active users per month, personally I find Instagram a bit too oriented to sharing photos of everyday life. Of course you can find many accounts of very talented photographers and the interface of the site makes it really easy to scroll down the virtually infinite gallery from your contacts so it is a nice place to spend some time looking at good images.

There are many other great websites where you can share your photos, so this small list is by no means a comprehensive one. A good thing about photography is that, at least to some extent, the website you choose is not as important as the quality of your images, so if you take the time to become a better photographer, you can be sure that your work will gain the attention it deserves!

Official Portfolio vs. Instagram

Posted on March 13, 2016 by Ines Perkovic

Some time ago, I was chatting with a fellow photographer of mine, Robert-Paul Jansen, and we were discussing why so many talented photographers tend to, in a way, migrate all of their work to social networks such as Instagram and Facebook. They still have their legit website portfolios but are always in haste to post it on Instagram first.

When I started photography, Flickr was my mothership. There, I could find inspiration, advice and overall a good community of photographers always willing to help and exchange ideas. Not to mention showcasing your work in quality, large formats. Same with the online portfolios which are obviously 100% photography centered. And then, a couple of years later, we got presented with Facebook and Instagram. (Keep in mind, as an avid user of both, this will be written from an objective point of view.)

The reason why so many photographers suddenly choose Instagram as their main sharing post is probably because of the site’s popularity and the reach they might get. At first, Instagram was a place for smartphone photography; capturing moments as they happen. But, more and more, we see profiles (on Facebook, too) filled with good quality DSLR work. Even film. It is a well-known fact Instagram and Facebook decrease the upload quality and, from my own personal experience, it never looks as good as on my own website/blog. Then, why do we continue to use it as our main upload site?

The Pros of Having an Instagram Portfolio

Instagram is accessible and simple to use. Most people don’t like to browse through official portfolios; going back and forth through different categories. I have a decent amount of visitors to my official site and, I can honestly say, only a small amount of them scrolls through the portfolio.

With Instagram, everything is already there. People find it easy to use, like and comment. Of course, there is that personal side of Instagram and Facebook which most official portfolios lack of; direct interaction with the artist. Everything is instant. You might say it is a chill out zone where you are justified to post any random photo you want.

The Cons of Having an Instagram Portfolio

On the negative side, Instagram simply wasn’t made for showcasing your glorious 30mpx photos. For me, it is a neat site to interact with my followers and people I follow but, to keep it as my only upload post, is out of the question. The main problem is that most people don’t go beyond your Instagram profile, to actually click the website link in your profile. And that is what I thrive to use it for – a jumping board to my official blog. Only, a fistful of people would visit my website through Instagram. We all love the praise we get and I’m so thankful for it but, I cry a little inside when people don’t get to see the real extent of someone’s art. And, it’s only getting worse.

Instagram’s lack of linking capacity (and by this I mean the possibility of clicking on a link to open it up on your device’s web browser) remains a to-do for developers since several companies have strong marketing campaigns running via Instagram.

(In) the End

No matter how proud you are of your official portfolio, the infamous “Do you have an Instagram account?” question is more and more in style. We might as well roll with it but, it’s important to keep our full-size portfolios as a priority, as well. In the end, official websites will still remain to be visited mostly by fellow photographers and art lovers. As for Instagram, we are going to use it until the end of Time.

Also keep in mind that in order to upload those precious photographs you happen to take with your DSLR camera, you actually need to use third-party apps such as Latergram, as Instagram itself doesn’t allow you to upload images that aren’t loaded on your mobile device. For such procedure, there is a 1 MB limit for the file to be uploaded, but we gain the ability of scheduling posts (immensely handy!).

If you want to keep your options open even further, you can take a go with apps such as 500px, a community that has been growing quite steady between photography community, and it’s mostly meant for keen photographers (therefore you won’t find those overly common selfies that tend to spam Instagram lately).

Hope this guide was useful for you and see you next time!