A good majority of these photos are poor. During the infancy of Intragram, we might have thought they looked better because of the filters, But as more people post other photos with the same or similar filters, it neutralizes that earlier novelty effect. It is now clear these photos are, to put it mildly, shite. And I say that with love, as an occasional poster of shite phone photos myself.
I apologize for publishing this post a mere 24 hours after the last one. I’ve resolved to post max twice a week, no more, but I really couldn’t restrain myself. It had to all come out.
This is a public service message.
I’d really like to start a petition to get people to stop using Instagram for every single photo.
Sure, I get that some things looks better with Instagram.
I get that it’s a handy little tool with a sweet interface.
Boring food photo? Hey Instagram! Wow! That’s suddenly an exciting food photo.
Ugly child? Hey Instragram! Child with soft-focus blur obliterating face.
It’s a winner I get it.
But Instagram on all photos?
Come on! A little variety won’t hurt anyone.
In fact I hear that this ‘variety’ schtick is the spice of life.
Mostly I’m just bored with looking at the same filter effects on my Facebook feed.
Everyones photos just look the same. Generic.
Fake soft focus, random blurs, rounded corners, the ‘negative’ frames, the yellow ‘retro’ tinge, the over saturation. Some of the filters are subtle, some are way over the top.
Sometimes neither type of filter adds to or improves a photo. Every photo in an album doesn’t need heavy, black mock film negative borders or a violent fake soft focus blur (Blurred everywhere except in the middle. Looks utterly ridiculous). Really they don’t. Sometimes a photo doesn’t need any kind of border at all.
So please, pretty please a little restraint.
Some photos, Instagram. Some photos, au natural.
How hard can that be?
Thank you for your time.
End of public service message.
Don’t own an iTurd so this is one injustice in the world I am actually not contributing too. w00t!
PS: Those food photos looked so exciting. I was like whoa, retro wave!
Er, too = to ^-^ (As you can see, I am not instagramming because I’m still too busy violating the English tongue…)
I confess I am guilty of contribution to the sad photo pools occasionally.
Don’t worry. The foundation of this blog is practically based on typos spelling errors and dodgy english. You fit right in!
Truth.
I’ve been trying to explain this topic to my iphone/instagram obsessed friends for a while (perhaps now I’ll just print your post and mail it to a few of them). As an Android user, I’ve been forced to actually THINK about what framing, subject, etc I use in my photos, instead of just being able to obscure all of that because it’s got an “artsy” filter or frame on it.
Great post.
Ditto. I’m not militantly against the app, I just want some discretion in its use.
I would like to suggest that this logic be applied to everyone. I am all for people sharing things but I’m so tired of the lacking original content. The same silly memes on facebook (that we all saw months ago on other sites) beaten like a dead horse, the lack luster instagram photos of whatever banal item just happens to be in front of someone when they are bored, the recurring themes and boring status updates. We are all capable of so much more, aren’t we?
Perhaps you are right. There is no need to share every little thing because, frankly, not everything is going to be interesting.
This was a good PSA.
I’m with you.
But then I have a blog, and I share some right utter nonsense on here.
At least it’s your nonsense and not something you took directly from somewhere else and mocked it up identical to everyone else.
I saw this great article called ‘Everyone’s a food photographer,’ with a picture of mi goreng. Thinking twice before sharing pictures of your food is probably a good exercise in self-restraint. EVEN if you’ve just made dinosaur carbonara.
(Link: http://yourfriendshouse.com/2012/everyones-a-food-photographer/ )
x
thats a really funny piece. In a way I totally get why people post meals they’ve made. I’m such a hopelessly incompetent cook, should I ever make anything half decent i would too.
You took the words right out of my mouth. Its part of the reason I got off fb. Freaking instant instagramming everything people spamming my walls with shite just got to me!
no no no, see this is another pet peeve of mine.
People who don’t know how to use facebook properly complaining they are getting ‘spammed’
No one is spamming you.
You just need to sort out your feed and your friend groups. If you don’t want people posting you can disallow sets of friends to view or post anything except what you allow.
You need a course in fb management. But i do feel your pain.
I did all the fb management I could but when I was down to less than 80 friends, and I was busy filtering out the inconsequential feeds and blocking out the pointless things I was being subjected to, there was not much point left to being on fb. It really became an interesting exercise in futility. Also, the last straw holding me on to fb was the awesome pictures some of my friends take. When I had the overkill of sepia tones and fake frames and diffused focus like instagram threw up all over my newsfeed, i knew it was time to go.
But it’s FUN! It’s not meant to be artsy. It is totally the reserve of the untalented photographer and/or the undeserving photograph. Now if it was being printed and put in a gallery and cooed over, I’d totally be with you. In a Facebook or Instagram feed, come now. How is that any better or worse than writing “Good morning!” or “Just about to get on my flight to Goa! Yay!” or any of those other rubbish updates?
Look, at the end of the day, Instagram is a toy and like all toys, it’ll be annoying to some and relentlessly fascinating to others. I don’t agree it makes all photos look generic. My Instagram feed certainly doesn’t look like all the photos have been taken by one person or even one program. But never mind that. The point is expecting it to match up to or even come close to any sort of proper photography is just unreasonable, in my humble and Instagram-happy opinion.
I am not adopting some militant stance against instagram at all.
Its not even about the photos being judged as though they were a gallery or anything.
It’s just this wave after wave of replicated filters on EVERYTHING.
It’s like different types of people all wearing exactly the same kinds of clothes all the time. (some people do I imagine). It’s just that it gets tedious.
Edited this to add:
“How is that any better or worse than writing “Good morning!” or “Just about to get on my flight to Goa! Yay!” or any of those other rubbish updates?”
it isn’t I guess, but it annoys me more. I’m a visual person. I like pretty pictures.
But just not all the same kind of pretty all the time.
I also feel the urge to wave my “Hooray for Instagram” flag since I suspect one of my photographs goaded you to write this PSA. *waves*
yes it was!
But that photo was merely the tipping point. There have been others who have trod a path before you, although you are probably the most indiscriminate and prolific user of instagram i have on my facebook.
At least you are committed.
And I only put up a wee fraction of the photos that I do put up on Instagram. Just think what I could unleash on you…
*shudder*
But i also feel bad that you sometimes ruin what could be a pretty interesting/funny/good photo with some shitty filter. Can filters be undone?
Of course. And, brace yourself, but there are occasions when I don’t use a filter. I know. Shocking.
I shudder at the thought