4 ms·

Considering Instagram was founded on ruining pictures with crappy filters, I doubt HD photos are anywhere on their radar.

pconner 10y ago
Plenty of "real" photographers use Instagram now (and have for several years).
- overcast 10y ago
  For marketing, which has been positive for a lot of artists. It's definitely allowed people to get their works out there, but let's not act like it's for serious photography.
  - elithrar 10y ago
    > but let's not act like it's for serious photography. I (strongly) disagree. There is some incredible work on Instagram from (many) thousands of 'amateur' and professional photographers alike. "Serious photography" isn't just restricted to DSLRs/MF/etc. In many ways, the constraints of mobile photography (lower res, fixed focal length, small viewport when consuming) has benefits, just like constraints elsewhere in photography. (I follow many photographers who primarily or solely publish to Instagram; many who aren't marketing their paid services.)
    - overcast 10y ago
      They are using Instagram as an easy publishing platform. It's assured the big ones find it very lucrative. The biggest issue with Instagram is all of the bullshit accounts with millions of users, that are just posting the work of other artists with a "credit" if they are lucky.
      - tedmiston 10y ago
        Aggregator accounts have positive effects on the community too, especially when it comes to discovery. They're not all bad.
  - tedmiston 10y ago
    Tons of Instagram users use it for "serious" photography. Perhaps you don't follow them, but many do, myself included. https://www.instagram.com/1st/ https://www.instagram.com/1st/ https://www.instagram.com/dariusaskari/ https://www.instagram.com/dariusaskari/ https://www.instagram.com/msalisbu/ https://www.instagram.com/msalisbu/ https://www.instagram.com/tiny_teaa/ https://www.instagram.com/tiny_teaa/ I would even argue that Instagram has in some ways redefined professional photography (by enforcing different constraints than a professional photographer is used to). Aggregator accounts are one of the best ways to discover high quality users. https://www.instagram.com/nycgo/ https://www.instagram.com/nycgo/ https://www.instagram.com/cincybaton/ https://www.instagram.com/cincybaton/
tedmiston 10y ago
That's very nearly the opposite of why Instagram was founded: good mobile photography was hard. From transcript: > How many people have heard of Burbn/use it? .... Long story short, we worked on that for a little while and then realized it wasn't really going anywhere. But the thing people loved the most about it was actually sharing images of what they were doing. > So what we did was we listed out these five problems. And I remember the top three that we circled. Number 1 was that mobile photos don't look so great. We've all had that experience... you're seeing the sunset, you take a snapshot, and it looks washed out, you can barely see the sun, etcetera. And we were like, 'That's the major problem we want to solve.' Number 2 was that uploads on mobile phones take a really long time. So we were like, 'What could we do around that?' Well, maybe if we started the upload way before you're done even editing the photo's caption, and what if we sized down the photo just to fit perfectly on the screen but nothing else? And that's the small little problem and solution that it turns out really delights people because they press 'done' entering their caption, it's already been uploaded. From Stanford to Startup [Entire Talk] http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2735/From-Stanford-to-Startup-Entire-Talk http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2735/From-Stanford-to-Sta...

pconner 10y ago

Plenty of "real" photographers use Instagram now (and have for several years).

overcast 10y ago
For marketing, which has been positive for a lot of artists. It's definitely allowed people to get their works out there, but let's not act like it's for serious photography.
- elithrar 10y ago
  > but let's not act like it's for serious photography. I (strongly) disagree. There is some incredible work on Instagram from (many) thousands of 'amateur' and professional photographers alike. "Serious photography" isn't just restricted to DSLRs/MF/etc. In many ways, the constraints of mobile photography (lower res, fixed focal length, small viewport when consuming) has benefits, just like constraints elsewhere in photography. (I follow many photographers who primarily or solely publish to Instagram; many who aren't marketing their paid services.)
  - overcast 10y ago
    They are using Instagram as an easy publishing platform. It's assured the big ones find it very lucrative. The biggest issue with Instagram is all of the bullshit accounts with millions of users, that are just posting the work of other artists with a "credit" if they are lucky.
    - tedmiston 10y ago
      Aggregator accounts have positive effects on the community too, especially when it comes to discovery. They're not all bad.
- tedmiston 10y ago
  Tons of Instagram users use it for "serious" photography. Perhaps you don't follow them, but many do, myself included. https://www.instagram.com/1st/ https://www.instagram.com/1st/ https://www.instagram.com/dariusaskari/ https://www.instagram.com/dariusaskari/ https://www.instagram.com/msalisbu/ https://www.instagram.com/msalisbu/ https://www.instagram.com/tiny_teaa/ https://www.instagram.com/tiny_teaa/ I would even argue that Instagram has in some ways redefined professional photography (by enforcing different constraints than a professional photographer is used to). Aggregator accounts are one of the best ways to discover high quality users. https://www.instagram.com/nycgo/ https://www.instagram.com/nycgo/ https://www.instagram.com/cincybaton/ https://www.instagram.com/cincybaton/

tedmiston 10y ago

That's very nearly the opposite of why Instagram was founded: good mobile photography was hard. From transcript: > How many people have heard of Burbn/use it? .... Long story short, we worked on that for a little while and then realized it wasn't really going anywhere. But the thing people loved the most about it was actually sharing images of what they were doing. > So what we did was we listed out these five problems. And I remember the top three that we circled. Number 1 was that mobile photos don't look so great. We've all had that experience... you're seeing the sunset, you take a snapshot, and it looks washed out, you can barely see the sun, etcetera. And we were like, 'That's the major problem we want to solve.' Number 2 was that uploads on mobile phones take a really long time. So we were like, 'What could we do around that?' Well, maybe if we started the upload way before you're done even editing the photo's caption, and what if we sized down the photo just to fit perfectly on the screen but nothing else? And that's the small little problem and solution that it turns out really delights people because they press 'done' entering their caption, it's already been uploaded. From Stanford to Startup [Entire Talk] http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2735/From-Stanford-to-Startup-Entire-Talk http://ecorner.stanford.edu/videos/2735/From-Stanford-to-Sta...