Instagram: Just for Hipsters?
There have always been iPhone apps for photo and video editing, but with the arrival of Instagram, it is now much easier for iPhone users to take and edit pictures they can then share with their friends on Facebook and Twitter. For those not aware or uninterested in photo editing apps, the enormous popularity and social networking aspect of Instagram makes it an appealing first foray into photo editing on the iPhone. The ease with which one can enhance and share photos taken with Instagram ensures the app's success and continued use.
Instagram's success lies in its ability to appeal to multiple groups of iPhone users. Those with an older model of iPhone, like the 3Gs, lack the more advanced camera of the newer models, and thus, the users of the older iPhones can take better photographs with even a cheap digital camera than their phones. This makes sharing photos taken with the older iPhones less appealing since the quality of the photographs isn't very good. However, with Instagram, these users can now make their photographs appealing and hide the poor quality of their cameras with the filters and effects Instagram offers.
For those more familiar with photography editing software, Instagram appeals due to the ease with which one can achieve a look with the tap of a filter that would take several effects to achieve in other apps and traditional editing software, like Photoshop. With Instagram and the improved camera on the newer iPhone models, users can take photographs that rival those taken with DSLRs and edited in Photoshop.
Of course, there are Facebook and Twitter users who will post mundane pictures of their everyday activities, such as a scrape on their leg to the sandwich they're eating and Instagram offers a way for these people to make these pictures look more appealing, while still being easy to share with all their social media friends.
Since photos taken with Instagram are so easily recognizable, the app has been ridiculed as being a trend for hipsters, but it has gained popularity with mom's, bloggers, and just about everyone with access to an iPhone or iPad. Perhaps another app will bypass Instagram, but for better or for worse, it has gained huge popularity as a way to enhance and share photos of one's activities, friends, and lunch.
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A senior at DePaul University, Lauren is working on a B.S. in Digital Cinema. She is currently a video intern at Kambio Group. Lauren likes cats, cooking, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer."