I see that Instagram is now available for Android. As someone who was a late-comer to the Instagram thing (but who has now used it for almost a year), here’s what I wish I knew when I started:
- Don’t Think of Instagram as Photo Hosting. Instagram ends up storing your photos, yes, but it’s not somewhere for a permanent archive, or to keep things you want to embed elsewhere. Instead, you should…
- Think of Instagram as a Photo-Centric Social Network. Connect with interesting people. Comment on their photos. Like their photos. Share the love.
- Follow creative people. If you follow interesting people who are making interesting images, you’ll find that Instagram is great. If you follow people who only post boring photos, you’re going to find that you don’t get much fun from Instagram. It’s much like any other social network.
- Ignore the haters. Some will tell you that you’re doing photography wrong. You’re not.
- Keep a permanent copy of your Instagram photos elsewhere. Maybe you want to upload them to your computer. Maybe you want to use an app on your photo to post them somewhere else online (I’m now keeping a copy of things in a SmugMug gallery). Maybe you want to use ifttt to automatically save a copy of your Instagram photos to Dropbox.
- Find a local Instagram meetup and go meet some other local photography enthusiasts. Here in Portland, there’s a gathering about once each month. Do a search for Instagram meetup and your city in Google to find your local group. You will meet cool people and perhaps go on photowalks to create neat photos.
- Use the News / Following feature to see what your connections are doing. If you’re following someone because you think they are a good photographer, odds are that they have good taste and can connect you to other people you might want to follow.
Are you an instagram user? What else do you wish folks knew?
Great tips, Aaron. I was reluctant to spend time with Instagram until I realized point 2 – the social aspect is what pulled me in. I need to make better use of the News/Following feature. I also think point 3 is really accurate – I find that folks who complain about it are often just doing it wrong. It’s not meant to be a replacement for your “serious” photography. It’s more like finding a creative community with a shared interest, where the subject matter inspires.
I know that it’s all the rage to stop saying, “nice post”, but…I enjoyed it. I hope that’s OK.
The social thing is a big deal. For me, Instagram has replaced a lot of the casual browsing and social discussions I used to have on Flickr.
See, to me it seems like a more limited Flickr. I’ll probably still play with it because several people I know use it and post nice things, but I’m not sure what it offers in terms of a social experience that I don’t/haven’t already experienced on Flickr/G+/$SocialNetworkHere.
This is a good post. But why I really love it, is because I remember when you were all, “BAH HUMBUG WITH YOUR SQUARE PICTURES! GET OFF MY LAWN!”
It’s good to be able to change your mind. :)
Yeah, I didn’t “get” Instagram at first. I kept thinking it was a really limited photo hosting platform. Then I figured out that it’s really a social network. What can I say… I’m protective of my lawn :)
Other Instagram tips:
* Likes are nice, but people generally value comments much more.
* It’s polite to respond to all comments you receive on your feed … unless you have literally thousands of active followers and can’t keep up with all the comments.
* Don’t worry about the popular page. It’s become overrun with pictures of Justin Bieber. Just ignore it and it won’t bother you.
* Every time you ask someone to follow you, somewhere in the world a cute kitten cries.
Great tips – and you’re right about the popular page – it’s just as depressing as viewing the trending topics list on Twitter! :)
Tagging is huge. Tag properly and watch the likes pour in and followers flourish.
btw: @johnmatthews on instagram and twitter :)
Interesting photos – I just followed you. I’m @aaronhockley on Instagram.
New to Instagram, finding it fun. Is there anyway I can upload photos from my iPhone
(non instagram) on to Instagram?
You can transfer photos from your computer to iPhone via Dropbox or iTunes (and then put them on Instagram). That said, most folks I know on Instagram (myself included) frown on this and prefer to see only mobile images the network.
I am finding a lot of very young teenage girls wearing very little showing off their assets in pretty disgusting ways on Instagram. It really is a step from child pornography in some cases. I am very sad to see this. Instagram is actually geared more to the much younger generation than even Facebook (who recently bought Instagram) and I’m really surprised they allow this to go on and not do anything. Morals and values are really are going down the toilet in the age of social networks for the sake of usership. If this is what the young are going to be exposed to on a daily basis what will be 10 years from now? God knows and god help us.
I haven’t come across that, but it doesn’t surprise me that there are some folks using it for questionable purposes. Instagram is much like Facebook, Flickr, or any other online service that can host content… most folks will use it for reasonable purposes, but some will abuse it. The good news is that you control who you follow.
Im using an android to use my instagram but idk how to save other ppl’s photos. My phone doesnt take screenshots unless its rooted but i cant do that. Help?
I don’t think Instagram has any features that allow you to save others’ photos. I’m sure there are plenty of people on Instagram that wouldn’t want others to save their images…