Arvay
Obscurant
I say nothing abt yours weekend and your girlfriend.
That's quite impolite of you, but this is probably lack of your breeding
Instagram kills photography
- Thread starter Arvay
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Replies 64
- Views 5K
I say nothing abt yours weekend and your girlfriend.
That's quite impolite of you, but this is probably lack of your breeding
bhop73
Well-known
Ok, my reply is, no Instagram is not killing photography.
begona
Goran Begoña
Lets make this qoute as a final post 🙂
Ps: Arvay.. Do not let people around you make your choice. Be on your own
Arvay
Obscurant
I am.
That's why I am asking what I am interested in.
Some people prefer to explain me that I am not trendy, some prefer talking abt my relations with my girlfriend.
Thanks for cool dialog, men. You are great.
No more questions. Will keep silent
begona
Goran Begoña
Good night 😀 It is midnight here in Zagreb.
Until next time 🙂
Until next time 🙂
regularchickens
Well-known
It'd be nice if people would use Instagram for a while before they decided to bash it, so that they would be at least familiar with what they're doom-and-glooming.
You don't have to use the built-in filters. You don't have to use any filters. Some of the filters are garish; others are quite subtle. Certain filters suit certain subject matter better than others. However you use them, they provide a way to process photos quickly in a way you like without having to adapt a full Photoshop-like interface to a tiny screen.
The real hook with Instagram is the easy sharing, the social aspect, and the way your photos contribute to an ongoing conversation with your friends.
Instagram (not to mention high-quality cellphone camera technology) is helping photography grow. If it doesn't represent the same purity of vision for you as Tri-X, D76, and an uncoated Elmar, then you don't have to use it.
You don't have to use the built-in filters. You don't have to use any filters. Some of the filters are garish; others are quite subtle. Certain filters suit certain subject matter better than others. However you use them, they provide a way to process photos quickly in a way you like without having to adapt a full Photoshop-like interface to a tiny screen.
The real hook with Instagram is the easy sharing, the social aspect, and the way your photos contribute to an ongoing conversation with your friends.
Instagram (not to mention high-quality cellphone camera technology) is helping photography grow. If it doesn't represent the same purity of vision for you as Tri-X, D76, and an uncoated Elmar, then you don't have to use it.
nightfly
Well-known
Recently started playing with and got hooked on Instagram. It's the most sticky of the forms of digital photography I've tried.
For me it's a very pure form of photography, take photo, apply filter or not, post.
Takes away the futzing and equipment anxiety that plagues a lot of photography. I don't think it's any less individualistic than using a certain type of film or a certain filter/darkroom technique.
I like the results I get with it. It makes me happy to post them and see them online.
Can it be tacky and garish, sure. But so can Velvia.
For me it's a very pure form of photography, take photo, apply filter or not, post.
Takes away the futzing and equipment anxiety that plagues a lot of photography. I don't think it's any less individualistic than using a certain type of film or a certain filter/darkroom technique.
I like the results I get with it. It makes me happy to post them and see them online.
Can it be tacky and garish, sure. But so can Velvia.
jsrockit
Moderator
I'm a big fan of letting people enjoy photography in whatever form they choose. Some people just don;t take it seriously and that is ok. Photography is used in many forms, not just for art.
aeturnum
Established
What a silly way to look at it.
I don't think SLR adoption has been damaged by instagram, if anything it's gone up. Taking pictures often gives rise to the desire to have more control over the pictures you take. If a cell phone camera is all someone will ever want, instagram doesn't really matter. Conversely, if they go on to dedicated cameras, the fact that they started with instagram doesn't matter at all.
I also think your question about common filters is really silly. Ask all those people who love one kind of film stock how much their work has suffered by common post processing. I was looking at some tri-x the other day, have this grey, colorless look - I don't think anyone's going to do good work using it (/snark).
Overall, I don't think societal pressures or trends matter much to people who pursue photography. People who want to capture images have always tried to do so, and have always looked for the tools that work best for them. If the best tool for someone is their cameraphone and instagram, more power to 'em.
I don't think SLR adoption has been damaged by instagram, if anything it's gone up. Taking pictures often gives rise to the desire to have more control over the pictures you take. If a cell phone camera is all someone will ever want, instagram doesn't really matter. Conversely, if they go on to dedicated cameras, the fact that they started with instagram doesn't matter at all.
I also think your question about common filters is really silly. Ask all those people who love one kind of film stock how much their work has suffered by common post processing. I was looking at some tri-x the other day, have this grey, colorless look - I don't think anyone's going to do good work using it (/snark).
Overall, I don't think societal pressures or trends matter much to people who pursue photography. People who want to capture images have always tried to do so, and have always looked for the tools that work best for them. If the best tool for someone is their cameraphone and instagram, more power to 'em.
goffer
Well-known
When things become easily accessible they are more likely to be used which in effect will become abused, as shown by the filters or presets found on Instragram.
Not to say I haven't seen great images on Instragram, as I have seen quite a few. In fact, I see just as much junk on Instragram as I do on Flickr (including many of my own junk photos) or any other photo community and it's always been this way, with filters or without them.
In the end these photo communities are for the good, but with the good always comes the bad and the ugly.
Not to say I haven't seen great images on Instragram, as I have seen quite a few. In fact, I see just as much junk on Instragram as I do on Flickr (including many of my own junk photos) or any other photo community and it's always been this way, with filters or without them.
In the end these photo communities are for the good, but with the good always comes the bad and the ugly.
Brian Legge
Veteran
For those arguing that Instagram does not permit individuality because there are a fixed set of filters - how is this different than saying black and white photographers are have a limited pallet of tools? Or that photographers are limited because there is no sound, etc compared to video?
Think of Instagram as the medium itself. It does include constraints but do does every other way of working. The real, differentiating element is the image itself; the composition, lighting, etc. Instagram lets you decorate the fundamental image but won't save an image that doesn't have anything to work with from the start.
Think of Instagram as the medium itself. It does include constraints but do does every other way of working. The real, differentiating element is the image itself; the composition, lighting, etc. Instagram lets you decorate the fundamental image but won't save an image that doesn't have anything to work with from the start.
DRabbit
Registered
Ah, and you could say the same thing about cheap, readily accessible DSLRs, no? Every soccer-mom and -dad now buys them and thinks they are an expert photographer.
I'm sure throughout the ages there's always been this "threat"...
Instagram is fun and people like it because we're all a little self-centered by nature and like the attention. Hence the rise of Facebook. LOL
I don't think it's ruining photography any more than cheap DSLRs are. Or compact cameras. Or Polaroids did back in the day.
goffer
Well-known
Leigh Youdale
Well-known
I never did quite get to grips with Russian humour.
clayne
shoot film or die
- Local time
- 2:54 PM
- Joined
- Nov 26, 2008
- Messages
- 763
Well that isn't strictly the same though...
Besides even camera or lens, black and white film photographer can still affect things through:
1. Film emulsion.
2. Film exposure level (under/over/push/pull/etc).
3. Film developer choice.
4. Film development time/agitation/dilution.
5. Paper emulsion.
6. Paper exposure level (under/over/push/pull/etc).
7. Paper developer choice.
8. Paper development time/agitation/dilution (print exposure time does change things).
9. Toner choice/time/dilution.
10-12+ steps for a full analog process with 3 distinct major choices (film, paper, toner, etc.). C41/RA4, or E6 offers less choices of course, but still a major one with film choice. Even simplified, still very flexible.
Plenty of choices and ways of imparting individuality with analog materials and this is *after* the film is exposed. Not to mention it's all hands-on and not the endless monkey-see/monkey-do cycle that Instagram pretty much is.
So yeah, fake analog and cookie cutter approach - not much to appreciate in that. But hey, what's not to like about ADHD-driven "look at me!" seas of crap?
Brian Legge
Veteran
I get what you are saying clayne. My point though was that there is a bounded degree of expressiveness (however wide) to black and white photography. Someone who is use to shooting digital video for example may feel utterly crippled by what they don't have. Yet obviously photographers who appreciate the medium produce excellent work.
Someone use to traditional photography may feel equally crippled using Instagram. Yet obviously there are people producing great work.
If anything, Instagram forces people to focus on the picture itself. You differentiate based on what you point the camera at, the composition, lighting, exposure, etc. There is certainly a range of creative decision making here.
To say that Instagram removes creativity misses the point. The way the image is processed/developed is can be a fixed style (perhaps Polaroids is a better traditional example) yet the quality of work varies dramatically because the 'processing' isn't the primary component of the image.
Someone use to traditional photography may feel equally crippled using Instagram. Yet obviously there are people producing great work.
If anything, Instagram forces people to focus on the picture itself. You differentiate based on what you point the camera at, the composition, lighting, exposure, etc. There is certainly a range of creative decision making here.
To say that Instagram removes creativity misses the point. The way the image is processed/developed is can be a fixed style (perhaps Polaroids is a better traditional example) yet the quality of work varies dramatically because the 'processing' isn't the primary component of the image.
FalseDigital
BKK -> Tokyo
Who cares what the image is taken with? The point is the subject.
A good photographer can take an amazing photo with any piece of "gear"
Be it an iphone, a cardboard box with a hole in it, a disposable camera, or a Leica m3.
It doesn't matter. Preset filters have nothing to do with anything. If the subject is interesting, it will be interesting regardless of what filters were applied to it.
I think sometimes members on this forum put too much value in their gear.
Having good gear sometimes makes it easier to get a better shot, but in itself it doesn't make us a better photographer.
Nothing will "kill" photography.
A good photographer can take an amazing photo with any piece of "gear"
Be it an iphone, a cardboard box with a hole in it, a disposable camera, or a Leica m3.
It doesn't matter. Preset filters have nothing to do with anything. If the subject is interesting, it will be interesting regardless of what filters were applied to it.
I think sometimes members on this forum put too much value in their gear.
Having good gear sometimes makes it easier to get a better shot, but in itself it doesn't make us a better photographer.
Nothing will "kill" photography.
FalseDigital
BKK -> Tokyo
Also I have some friends taking some pretty amazing photos with their iphone/instagram.
Here's some examples of their work:
Here's some examples of their work:
Spencer Wells
Member
I think you are all forgetting how photography was first received by painters. Ever read about how the "real artists" of the time were up in arms about the "impostors" using a machine to make "fake art"? Remember thinking to yourself, "If only they had known what would happen next"? Well this is no different. It's a shift in technology that has different implications. Considered by the standards of traditional photography, yes it's horrible. Considered by a new set of values, one that places instant, direct distribution over image quality or a unique palette, it fits the bill perfectly.
That being said, I only still only shoot film and don't have any sort of digital camera, definitely not on my phone, at the moment. But when I return to the US I'll be getting an iPhone and be back on instagram, in no way to replace my leica but just for fun to share with my friends.
That being said, I only still only shoot film and don't have any sort of digital camera, definitely not on my phone, at the moment. But when I return to the US I'll be getting an iPhone and be back on instagram, in no way to replace my leica but just for fun to share with my friends.
S
Speedfreak
Guest
Nah... Its a trend. Trends come and go.
Similar threads
- Article
