It has almost become a truism: social media creates mediocrity. In an effort to gain a share of the social media pie, artists are rewarded for blending in, not standing out.
This video by Mango Street led me to being more observant. It made me see the almost comical aspects of my surroundings when walking around. To think of the space around you as a playful one could be the gateway to learning a new photographic language and communicate something more directly.
The ways we present our photographs to the world have significantly changed over the last decade, with social media platforms like Instagram becoming the primary destinations for a ton of photographers. They bring pitfalls with them, however, and they could be seriously damaging our creative work. This excellent video essay discusses the issues we should be aware of.
When you upload your image to Facebook or Instagram, are you noticing a loss in image quality? Are you uploading optimized images for social and the web?
My love for street photography pre-dates my time as a photographer. But one thread that runs between all my favorite street photographers is a characteristically dark and moody aesthetic. Here are my top 10 to follow.
With every social media boom comes a new wave of photographers navigating its landscape. The TikTok world is completely different from the platforms of the past. On Facebook and Instagram, things are easy enough for photographers: post stills, write captions, engage, engage, engage. On TikTok, however, it’s a whole new ballgame, one that photographers aren’t quite yet prepared for.
With social media, it is easier than ever to quickly compare your work to that of dozens or even hundreds of other photographers. Is that always a good thing? Is it always bad? The truth is a bit more nuanced, and it is an important thing to think about to promote healthy development as a photographer, which is what this excellent video essay discusses.
A 38-year-old woman plunged to her death at a well-known Instagram photo spot in Australia on Saturday. As sad and regrettable as this is, the real question is why do people keep risking life and limb for a photo?
Two separate lawsuits have been filed against Facebook, claiming that the social media giant illegally bypassed competition by purchasing two of its rival companies, WhatsApp and Instagram.
Though Instagram has changed quite a lot in the last few years (and not particularly for the better), it still remains an important place for displaying your work and attracting potential clients. This excellent video discusses how to rethink how you use the app and approach it in a way that will generate growth in the coming year.
A photographer in the United Kingdom has been ordered to pay a fine of more than $8,000 after posting a selfie to Instagram which proved that she had broken quarantine laws.
In today's world, some locations must be protected from the popularity of photography.
Instagram’s censorship policy has been called into question after warnings were placed on a post by Celeste Barber, a comedian who parodies images of glamorous models. Replicating the amount of flesh shown in a Victoria's Secret advert, Instagram’s algorithms demonstrated some interesting double standards.
For many photographers and videographers, social media is a great way to not only present their work, but also to communicate with current and potential clients. Instagram individually is the largest photo-sharing site in the world, and what happens to these platforms has far-reaching implications for our industry.
I'm sure most Facebook groups are started with the best of intentions so people with similar interests can share their passions. However, is the constructive criticism you get from Facebook groups really that helpful?
Facebook has announced that it will be introducing new measures to fight copyright breaches, but photographers fed up with seeing their work free-booted on Instagram should not get excited: the system is limited, can easily be evaded, and seems to have been designed with large brands in mind.
Instagram's answer to TikTok, Reels, follows a trend by parent company, Facebook, to clone the competition's product in the hopes of eating their followers. And as with all new platform releases, the organic reach is incredible at the moment — here's how you can capitalize.
We’ve all been spending a lot more time on social media lately. Whether Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, or something else (that as a mid-thirty-something I’m not even aware of yet) is your preferred poison, I would like to respectfully submit that it’s time for us all to make some behavioral changes in how we socialize online.
A terminally ill man who had been intending to livestream his death on Facebook has had the plan blocked by the social media platform. He is protesting France’s right-to-die laws after President Emmanuel Macron denied his right to voluntary euthanasia and has since ceased eating and drinking.
In between the ads seemingly every three posts, forced "suggested" posts and accounts, and the infamous algorithm, a lot of us have grown very apathetic toward Instagram in the last few years. If you are one of those people, here are three ways to make the app more enjoyable again.
As photographers, it's vital not to keep all our eggs in one basket, but to expand our means of income by setting up different revenue streams, one of the most popular of those streams being YouTube. But is it still possible to make money from it in 2020?
A recent post to twitter by NASCAR has left photographers and camera nerds around the world stumped at how they missed this simple image editing mistake.
If there is one inevitable in life, it's that at some point, it will end. So, what do you do about all of the digital photos you've shot on different cameras and smartphones, stored on your PC at home, as well as spread out across a host of social media platforms?
As photographers, we frequently find ourselves shoulder to shoulder with another photographer focusing on the same subject, but what if that subject is the other photographer’s model? Is it ok to stand close enough to take the same or similar shot, or is that cheating, or worse, theft? Just how much photographic imitation is ok? A member of a local photography Facebook group I belong to recently posed this question. A heated discussion inevitably ensued.
You've put in all that hard work to create the photograph you wanted, so don't undo a lot of your efforts by not properly resizing for which ever platform you're going to post it on, including your own portfolio.
Instagram has introduced Reels, which is similar to TikTok and Snapchat, and you can basically edit videos all within Instagram. The app also now has a Reels feed, which is similar to Facebook videos and TikTok with one video playing after the next.
In the last few weeks, Instagram introduced a new feature that has largely gone unnoticed by many. However, if it's used effectively, it could really have a positive impact on your posts, your engagement with your followers, and promoting yourself.
A few weeks ago, I read some news about the rare NEOWISE Comet passing by Earth and being large and clear enough to see with your naked eye. I got up, went outside, and looked up to a bunch of cloud cover. Luckily for me and all of you, we can always hit up Instagram and Facebook for great photos other photographers captured.
A year ago today, I decided to start a photography YouTube channel offering advice from a commercial photographer's perspective who makes the vast majority of his income from ad campaigns. Here is what I learned.
If you’re an active user of Instagram, there’s a good chance you’re making this common mistake with your gallery images, and it could be affecting your business and relationships with current or future clients.
There are loads of articles and videos about how to grow your Instagram following, but that doesn't directly correlate to getting more work. In this video, I go over how I use Instagram to get booked for ad campaigns.
Would you be brave enough to go on a blind date, knowing the entire thing is being caught on camera? One photographer is holding innovative blind date photoshoots during which the subjects pose together in engagement-style photos which have seen some couples generate genuine chemistry.
Personal information is the modern gold. By using free software, you have actually become the product, not the client, but what do apps actually make behind the curtain? Here's a look at what TikTok does.
I'm tired of Instagram, and I'm guessing you walk a similar path. The platform that was built on photography and promoting good imagery is exhausting for photographers. While I'm not certain what the end-game of Instagram is, it seems user experience for the creators is not at the top of the list. That's why I created a method that heightens my own user experience, and I'm sharing it with you.
The big problem with trying to constantly come up with content for social media is that it can consume a lot of time and energy. Here's a better way to do it.
If you’ve received a message in your Instagram inbox from a major corporation informing you that you’ve infringed their copyright, watch out. It’s a fairly convincing phishing scam that is trying to hack your account.
Instagram appears to be testing a new layout on select user accounts across the globe, as users wake up to find a big change to their Instagram home feed.
For many Instagram users, hub accounts can be a source of inspiration and being featured can be a game changer. For Jason, it was his opportunity to foster a sense of community.
A Donald Trump campaign video has been pulled from Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram following copyright infringement claims, despite the President’s claims that the removal was politically motivated.
If you’re photographing the ongoing protests taking place in cities across the world, you might want to consider making the people in those photographs anonymous and stripping the EXIF data before putting them online. Here are some tools to make the process easier.
The TikTok photographer who recently interrupted a wedding photoshoot has been accused of capitalizing on the Black Lives Matter movement, exploiting the current unrest and shouting out his sponsor along the way.
Do you remember when adverts meant you'd pop to the kitchen for a drink and a snack? Many of us were outraged that they appeared louder than the shows, which was invasive. Now the adverts pause in disgust if I look away, like Orwell's telescreens.
I will be the first to admit that I’ve found myself to be in a love hate relationship with the platform that at times leaves me discouraged. More often than not, however, I find my inspired to photograph more.
A grandmother has been ordered by a European court to remove pictures of her grandchildren from Facebook and Pinterest or face increasing fines.
In August last year, IG Audit — a free web app that allows you to check the authenticity of an Instagram user’s followers — went viral on a wave of press centered around Instagram’s fake follower problem. Just one month later, Facebook’s lawyers abruptly forced the website offline, and IG Audit’s Instagram account of 20,000 followers was deleted. These aggressive moves might be hints of a scandal that Instagram is trying to keep quiet.
If you haven’t been keeping up with your photography Instagram marketing, now’s the time to revisit. Instagram marketing can be incredibly fruitful for photography businesses. To make it work for yours, you must understand how to use Instagram productively. Let’s start off with some statistics…
The coronavirus is making it incredibly difficult for photographers to make new content while the world is on lockdown. The good news is you already have a treasure trove of untapped potential buried in your homes, garages, and offices, and it's crying out to be posted online.
Instagram has been the go-to social media for many photographers for the past many years. It is getting old as a platform and has undergone many changes. I have used it daily for the past four and a half years and gone beyond 300,000 followers. Here, I share some tips on how I did it.
With lockdown, we're suddenly all on Zoom 24/7. It's great that we can remain connected even when we're working from home, but not so great that we have to see ourselves on screen every time we speak to someone.
If there is anything that annoys me about Instagram, it is definitely the inability to respond to direct messages on a desktop computer. Thankfully, the company has finally brought the ability to read and respond to direct messages to the web version of the app.
