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Not quite so Instagram
Aug. 22nd, 2012 11:06 amI recently heard Instagram described as "auto-tune for photographers." I don't know if I would quite go that far, but I think that a lot of people are treating it like a crutch. I don't hate the tool - I'm not one to hate on convenience - but my inner purist is starting to grow tired of seeing its ubiquitous signature on so many pictures.
Time and again, I see a picture and think, "That would be a nice picture if this person hadn't Instagrammed the shit out of it." More often though, I see lazy pictures that people have pressed a bunch of effects buttons on to try and make it "artsy". I'm sorry, but applying colour burn and vignetting to a fire hydrant does not turn a fire hydrant into instant art.
Again, I am not grumping about people applying software effects to their pictures because I use those myself, but when you apply them to every picture...
<hipster>I was destroying pictures in software before it was cool.</hipster>
Here you go - I have Instagrammed a picture I took this weekend. I cropped it square, put a faux-Polaroid border around the outside, boosted the saturation, applied some sepia, bumped the contrast, mapped on some vignette and added some mild film grain.
Time and again, I see a picture and think, "That would be a nice picture if this person hadn't Instagrammed the shit out of it." More often though, I see lazy pictures that people have pressed a bunch of effects buttons on to try and make it "artsy". I'm sorry, but applying colour burn and vignetting to a fire hydrant does not turn a fire hydrant into instant art.
Again, I am not grumping about people applying software effects to their pictures because I use those myself, but when you apply them to every picture...
<hipster>I was destroying pictures in software before it was cool.</hipster>
Here you go - I have Instagrammed a picture I took this weekend. I cropped it square, put a faux-Polaroid border around the outside, boosted the saturation, applied some sepia, bumped the contrast, mapped on some vignette and added some mild film grain.
