This week's theme of "yours" was less obvious than any of our previous prompts. That did not seem to dissuade any of the participants from submitting great shots. Of the four lists put together so far, this one might be the favorite. I'm also excited about the new theme this week, so be sure to check it out and join in.
Since Stories have been added to Instagram, every social influence has tried to differentiate himself from the crowd. From filming with a camera like a vlog to editing images in Photoshop before adding them to a story, I’ve seen just about everything. The trend lately has been to integrate text on pictures to make it more attractive. Matti Haapoja from TravelFeels has come with an app to go one step further and tracked text to his content.
We have all been guilty of watching someone’s Instagram account and wonder how the hell the pictures are edited. Sebastian from TechGenie has recently been creating videos to demonstrate how to mimic some famous Instagramers editing style. The latest one on the list is named Sam Kolder and his desatured teal and orange look.
This was another awesome showing for our new weekly photo theme with a number of excellent photos submitted. Instagram does such a good job with their simple interface and chronological search results the stand out shot almost jump off the grid. It is great to see so many people participating. I hope you all love the results for the "color" theme as much as I enjoyed putting the list together.
Instagram just recently announced that they have grown past 800 million users with 500 million people using the popular social media app every day. This week the company updated the app's ability to take more control of the commenting on your posts. In the June update, Instagram created a filter to block offensive comments in English, and that filter has just been expanded to include the languages of Arabic, French, German, and Portuguese. Instagram is in the process of improving the filter over time to allow the general experience of sharing to improve simultaneously.
Welcome back to the weekly Fstoppers photo theme. Remember anyone can join in for a chance to be featured. After having a rather specific theme week one with “Leading Lines,” we came back with a less literal prompt of “Bold” for week two. This opened up the spectrum of entries and I think you will like the results. A bold photo can be achieved a number of ways using color, sharpness, light, or just the subject and placement in the shot. Let's see how these 10 photographers interpreted bold.
The first trailer for the latest "Tomb Raider" film has been released along with an official poster, which is drawing all the wrong kinds of attention due to a Photoshop fail.
Well, we did it. We have successfully started the weekly Fstoppers photo theme. It was not only great to see so many submissions, but the response from people hearing about the idea has been excellent. There are so many photographers out there looking to explore new techniques and grow their photography skills we are excited to see all the different ways to portray a theme prompt. Let us take a look at how the entries for leading lines went. Also, make sure you check out the new theme revealed at the bottom of this article.
It’s been quite trendy in the past few months to see handwritten text composited onto images on Instagram. Perhaps you’ve been wondering how it’s done or maybe you’ve just been looking for a way to make your writing even more personalized. No matter the reason why you’re reading this article, if you want to give a more personal dimension to your images with handwritten text, be sure to watch this tutorial.
Until a few months ago, you could know who was following you, or not, as well as tons of other useful information on your following base for all stalkers and communication gurus out there by simply using apps such as InsTrack. However, as Instagram is trying to have third-party apps comply with their rules, such apps are slowly disappearing or being reduced to more basic specs. Instead of leaving those tools alone, the photo-sharing app is now bringing a feature of their own called "Follows you" that let you know if someone is indeed following you or not.
Instagram is planning a change that is going to upset a lot of people. If you are one of those who likes to keep all your images in order and make use of the 3 x 3 grid, prepare for a storm that may stir your account's real estate.
When what seemed like half the photographers in the United States posted a photo to the #SolarEclipse2017 hashtag, it gave me an idea. Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook all allow for fairly organic public searching of hashtags and a lot of our Fstoppers readers are active on one, if not all of these sites. Our article featuring an Instagram hashtag guide was one of the most popular of the year. Now on a regular basis, Fstoppers readers have a chance to get their work featured based on what is produced instead of likes on a photo, or how many followers they might have. Let's do this.
Zach Lipson, a 32 year old photographer from Chicago, has brought together an exciting group of Instagram photographers to raise money for Hurricane Harvey relief in Houston. With 100% of proceeds going towards J.J. Watt's Houston Flood Relief Fund, Prints for Houston is worth checking out to see some fantastic photos and contribute to a worthwhile cause at the same time.
In a possible push to make Stories on its main platform gain traction, Facebook is allowing some users to cross-post their Instagram Stories directly to Facebook using the platform’s mobile app. According to Business Insider, a spokesperson for Facebook and Instagram confirmed that the feature is being tested by a small percentage of users, predominately in Portugal.
So I'm just going to come right out of the gates swinging and put it out there; dedicated Facebook business pages are not relevant anymore. The year is 2017 and Facebook has evolved into one of the most efficient advertising machines out there, giving users the opportunity to spend money at every glance. In doing so, it has become the same old commercial that everyone hates and has destroyed the need for a Facebook business page at all.
One of this year's more popular memes has been the "distracted boyfriend" meme in which a girlfriend looks at her boyfriend in disbelief as he turns around and eyes another girl right next to her. Perhaps the most clever and fitting adaptation (for us) yet has been the above image from the D850 Facebook page. The relatively new photographer behind the original image spoke to Wired about his process and how he captured his most popular stock photograph yet.
Instagram announced a new feature today specifically involving the gallery option for posting multiple photos at once. When Instagram first introduced the gallery option, they introduced it in true old-school Instagram fashion, allowing users to post multiple images at once, but requiring all photos to be in a square aspect ratio. Now, however, Instagram added the ability to preserve your photos' original aspect ratio, even within galleries with multiple photos.
Have you ever looked through someone's Instagram account and noticed that all of their images seemed to have a consistent color palette or style about them? If you've ever wondered how that is possible, give this video a watch. Sean Tucker dives into the details of how and why some creatives choose to present a consistent style, and then he goes on to process a small set of photos to show how it can be done.
Is your Instagram really working for you? We all know how important a tool such a social media is to help create a brand and attract clients who may want to hire you. If you're finding that your account is struggling to grow then you might be making some of these many mistakes.
I often think back to what it must've been like being a photographer before the birth of the Internet, the social media craze, and the hunt for likes, shares, and follows. Photography was less convoluted before the dawn of the digital age, with specialist magazines and museum and art gallery submissions showcasing only the cream of the crop. Browsing through old magazines and reading the articles, it's clear that the top-tier photographers stood out amongst the rest of the crowd for their raw skill in their art form. Their images meant something to many of those who took the time to stop and look at it for longer than two seconds.
I know that the solar eclipse on Monday made you feel young again. Maybe it made you feel energetic, inquisitive, motivated to keep exploring. But by now those effects have surely started to wear off, and I have some bad news for you. You’re getting old. How do I know that? Because the hashtag just turned 10.
Who out there captured the eclipse this week? Did you plan ahead, travel hundreds of miles, purchase the right gear, and capture the phenomenon that is a total solar eclipse for that perfect shot? The photos are coming in by the thousands and each seems to be better than the last. Here is my photo capturing 90 percent coverage of the moon over the sun and also a little behind-the-scenes on how I shot and edited it completely with my phone.
Instagram has been a strong tool for many photographers and creatives around the world for nearly seven years, but many still get confused by all the small details you sign yourself up for. The terms of service for many social platforms are a daunting and simple to bypass when clicking to sign on for the first time. Take this as a simple reminder: you want to make sure to at least read through the major bullet points before joining any social platform, as you are signing yourself up for a lot more than you think. Control of who you follow and unfollow could be one of those things you bypass.
Recently as I was looking into some backlink research on Google, I realized that one of the first links that comes up when searching for my business is my Yelp business page. This isn't surprising. Yelp is an established business and has an established website with high domain authority, of course it's going to rank well within search engines. What was surprising, however, was how the title of the link read, "The Amberlight Collective - CLOSED."
Live streaming on Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook is nothing new in the age of social media. It’s a fantastic tool for marketing or just showing how much fun you’re having on a fun new adventure. What if you were able to completely immerse your viewers in the environment you're streaming? InstaAir 360 is one such a camera and I was given the opportunity to work with it.
Sharing your content is probably one of the best and fastest way to grow a community and a base of potential customers. Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, and other social media platforms are some of the most common places to start pushing out pictures to the largest amount of people possible. However, when you get into video, you soon realize that sometimes things get a bit trickier. One of the issues I recently encountered was when sharing a YouTube video on Facebook, the thumbnail simply wouldn’t appear. In this article, I’ll show you how to solve this problem and what to do to avoid it in the future.
I can’t be the only one who dreamt of knowing which image would perform best on Instagram before posting a set or simply what picture people like best amongst a selection. A great photographer should be able to pick his images on his own, but sometimes, when it comes to social networks, it’s more complicated than that. Being able to know what is going to work best to schedule the images accordingly is a huge advantage. Well, there might be a solution out there, and it’s called Cinnac.
Leave it to a person skilled at both magic and balloon twisting to come up with an illusion so crazy it is hard to accept. This is even after testing the lines to be perfectly straight with a ruler, a level, and Adobe Photoshop about ten times. The human mind is an interesting thing. The first thing I thought of was the repetitive task of straightening horizon lines in photos and how often they don't look quite right. Now I think it is time to stop trying since my eyes and mind can be this badly fooled.
It is no secret that Apple is an incredibly secretive company. But they also have a rather large marketing arm. Still, Apple has waited until today to launch its first official Instagram account.
If you've ever been swiping through Instagram and noticed that certain black and white images had a particularly dramatic, vintage, or even sharp look to it, chances are there was a bit more going on than simply selecting a basic filter. In this in-depth video walkthrough, Sean Tucker shows several techniques he uses to really pull the most out of Instagram images in black and white.
A photographer recently completed a project that involved setting herself the task of taking a portrait of all 626 of her Facebook friends from across the globe.
Like many photographers, I've been scratching my head at how to win the Instagram game. Over the last six months, I decided to up my game and upload daily content and be more active on the platform. The results are out, I still totally suck at it. My reach, engagement, and even numbers of followers have gone down. So rather than blame the platform or the evil algorithm, I did some detective work to find out why I was really bad at it, and chances are you will recognize yourself in some of those points.
Instagram Stories have become more and more attractive with the latest features such as the tag- and location-based stories. People seem to enjoy these features, and they can drive more potential followers to your account. However, quality content, even in Stories, remains king; and posting a video or a photo that stands out can really make a difference in bringing more followers to your page. As photographers or videographers, we truly have a massive advantage in producing great content that people want to see. So in this article, I’ll show you how to post your amazing work to your Story even if said content is older than 24 hours.
Pixrit is the latest in social media content managers specifically targeting photographers. With tag lines like, “Designed for photographers, by photographers,” and, “Schedule 1 month of sharing in less than 5 minutes,” they have set high expectations for a service that already has some strong competition.
Most of the photography community knows Benjamin Von Wong for his elaborate concept shoots and his passion for the environment. Recently, Ben teamed up with Austin Craig and Jordan Peterson on an episode of The New Creatives with the goal of using their creative efforts for positive change with a much simpler concept.
There's something I've always loved about the photography community and in the age of the internet, it's nearly a unique quality: we give constructive feedback and rarely tear in to a photographer unprovoked. It is a welcoming environment that cultivates growth, for the most part. One particular area in which all previously mentioned qualities are magnified many times over, is young photographers. Their successes are fawned over and their mistakes excused, as they should be. Unless, of course, you're called Brooklyn Beckham.
David and Victoria Beckham’s eldest – an aspiring photographer – is due to release his first photography book later this week. Entitled "What I See," the book is listed by the publishers as “a series of snapshots of his life,” but has been panned on social media and other online platforms.
Neill Blomkamp directed "District 9" and "Chappie" and now he's released a short film of a dystopian future where aliens have taken over earth and the humans have to fight with whatever they can to survive and before it's too late. It's done in the style you kan expect from Blomkamp, in a way I believe only he can do, and it's got all the action, suspense, and gross details of brain implantation and alien creatures that he's become known for.
Following the lead of Billboard and Conde Nast's Traveller, a full fashion spread inside the new issue of Elle Australia – including the front cover – has been shot entirely on an iPhone.
In what seems like a long overdue move, Flickr posted on its blog on Tuesday that it’s unveiling a new “showcase” section to profiles. Photographers can feature specific photos in a large grid when users click on their information. It’s not unlike an Fstoppers profile page, actually.
I’ve been posting my work online for almost 8 years. What’s been consistent throughout that time is the pressure to post only my best photos. With the introduction of Instagram Stories, I feel as though I’ve found an outlet that not only relieves some of that pressure, but also allows me to showcase a bit more of myself and my personality too. It’s completely revolutionized the way I use social media.
Perhaps this article is a risk to my career by virtue of being too honest, but it's a subject I have wanted to discuss publicly for some time. In the era where social media is the backbone of perception, it's all too easy to feel you can never measure up. This isn't new information and in fact, it's a rather well-trodden path. Even armed with the knowledge, however, I still feel I walk in to the trap of taking the world that is presented to me as the only facts worth knowing. I want to sacrifice my self-consciousness to do my bit to rectify this.
Back in 2015 I was pretty active on Google+ and most of my posts would get over a hundred plus ones, which are basically the same as a like on Facebook. Getting this much activity on a public post meant that more people were likely to see it. Eventually this pattern resulted in five photos being selected and featured by Google on Chromecast. While I was excited about the honor, I had no idea how many views would come with it.
Getting clients is one of the most difficult parts of being in business. Unfortunately, marketing knowledge doesn't just appear once you have your license in your hands. As a result, many of us look at what our competitors are doing and try something similar, never realizing that there is a good chance that our competitors are also operating from a place of marketing ignorance. One of the most common marketing mistakes I've seen is photographers spending too much time talking about themselves, and not enough time talking to their clients. This means many photographers are shooting themselves in the foot by making their landing pages self-centered, rather than client centered, and they may be losing out on business because of it.
In a brilliant move of marketing meets real world political photojournalism, former President Barack Obama's photographer, Pete Souza, was in D.C. today, photographing Kevin Spacey and Michael Kelly in character as President Frank Underwood and White House Chief of Staff Doug Stamper ahead of season five of the Netflix original series "House Of Cards."
Black and white photography is an interesting thing; it can be used to enhance beautiful images or hide the flaws of mediocre ones. The best black and white photos are done with intention and an understanding of how the lack of color affects a viewer's perception of an image. San Francisco based creative Burton Rast is currently putting that understanding on display with his ongoing 100 image project highlighting the uniqueness of the buildings found in the City by the Bay.
Instagram has all but nailed the coffin shut on their Snapchat world domination. First they copied the user interface, then the disappearing messages, and now face filters. Those famous filters that wrap so neatly against your face and what made Snapchat what it is today is now a thing for anyone and everyone on Instagram as well. Have you deleted Snapchat in favor of Instagram yet? Maybe it's time.
Bots have been used on social networks for as long as I can remember. They are a way of growing one’s community without much effort and getting more attention than by doing everything manually. However, it’s not organic, and thus social media companies have tried to shut them down for a while. Instagram recently launched a witch hunt and managed to get Instagress to close down. Yesterday, another big bot service, Mass Planner, was taken down. Is it the end of the bot era?
An unnamed man living in Wisconsin hired a photographer to catch his sunrise mountaintop proposal, but all did not go to plan.
It was the go-to question last year when Instagram announced the essentially copy-and-paste integration of Snapchat Stories into their own app. Is this is a classic case of the pioneer being conquered? It’s starting to look like it.
