Instagram is one of my favorite ways to capture snapshots of our daily life. It's an application you can find on most droids & iPhones. There is something so special and so easy about pulling our my phone to take a quick photo capturing that moment. Although it hasn't replaced my DSLR, I take more daily pictures now. 365 is a breeze with instagram. But I do like having both options for photos. Also with the instagram feed, you get to peek into your friends & those you follows lives. It can be linked to various accounts, like facebook and twitter. I'll go more into that on future posts but for now let's start with the basics.
So let's talk about some basic features and how to use instagram. I am using my iPhone so i don't know if the droid looks different. I imagine though it is similar. Once you install the app and signed up, you simply click on the instagram app. Once you open the app you have two choices for photos. You can use the camera which is already opened by simply touching the camera button. You have some options like flash, automatic flash, or no flash with the camera. The other option is to click the double squares to bring up your camera roll/gallery.
- Frames button (these depend on your filter)
- Rotate image button
- Reverse Camera (if you are taking a photo)
- Blur Button
- Close the camera
- Lux button (enhances photos)
- Close this photo & restart
- Go on to add caption & link to other apps
- Filters
Once you click the filters buttons it brings up all the different filters (right photo). You can scoll through the filters and click on them to see how they will look with your photo. Here's a visual guide of filters photo from dailydigi.com.
Source: thedailydigi.com via Ronda on Pinterest
You can also use filters with or without frames. The visual guide above shows all the frames with the filters. Each filter brings something different to the photos. It all depends on the mood you are going for with each shot. My favorites right now are Sierra and Lo-Fi. I use them quite frequently.
The Blurs are another cool function of the camera. If you click on the horizontal bar under the drop, you will place a horizontal blur in the center of the photo (photo on the left). If you click on the circle under the drop, you will place a spot blur in the center of your photo (photo on the right). You can move these around too with just the touch of your finger.
Do you use instagram? What's your favorite filter of the moment?
