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How I Instagram

randsinrepose.com

23 pointsfilament12 comments

I wonder how many people who will look back in twenty years time and regret that all their photos from this time are compressed and altered heavily with filters.

Actually, just thinking about it, the future could be worse than that. Either some people will have too many photos it will too overwhelming to look back through, or all the photos will have been stored on some failed photo sharing site and lost forever. (or stored on a cd, SD card etc).

There is a lot to be said about a box of negatives stored in an attic.. (oh no, I sound like a grumpy old man)

Am I the only one that simply imports hi-res photos into Instagram then?

I just started doing that, but I have a decent amount straight from my phone-camera.

An unconditioned attic wouldn't be very good for film.

Having scanned thousands of my parents photos, the negatives and slides have held up very well, but the fun factor of a random slideshow and the convenience of managing a few virtual folders also bring a lot to the table (and it is much easier to backup the digital files, even if it is still hard).

I think you're placing too much value on photos per se. A whole generation of photos was lost because Polaroids were used to take them. Then disposable cameras, etc.

Ultimately, your memories are the lasting medium. A few photos will make it to the end, and that's enough.

I still have some good-quality Polaroid and Instamatic prints. Even some Instamatic negatives. They're pretty durable.

I wish I had more photos from those times because memories are not always as durable as one might hope.

The filters are popular because phone cam pictures are so poorly exposed that artsy filters look better than what the camera sees.

But yeah, we spend more hours per year shooting than we spend looking at photos, so we are lost anyway.

The real value of an amateur camera is that it provides an acceptable crutch to use to avoid uncomfortable or boring social interactions.

/camera addict

My father got me into photography at a young age (now 31) and in my eyes he was fantastic with his choice of 'filters' in the 80's/90's. that consisted of a 35mm + arsenal of lenses + even more uv/color/et c glass filters he would stack.

He unfortunately passed recently and in my last days talking with him about life and what his final thoughts were, one comment stuck in my mind which was 'I wasted all that time taking pictures of clouds and silly things, where the only pictures I want to look at one last time are ones of you and your mom'.

My takeaway? Who cares what filters or post processing one uses, in the end, it's the context that makes it worth the memory.

Your dad's message was so touching </3

God, this is awful

I very much agree with the comments by Shane at the end of the article. Instagram filter processing should be the only alterations applied to images which are posted to Instagram.

Black and white, sepia, hypercontrasted photos are fascinating because they evoke the feel of mystery and distance from the subjects of decades-old photos whose images have faded or rotted over time.

When today's kids grow up, will that connotation still exist? Or will it be "pictures of Abraham Lincoln look just like pictures from dinner last night"?

Also, the filters remove ugly details, letting the viewers imagination fill in the beauty that isn't in the picture. Like how an average person is presumed to be nice looking when you can only see the back of their head or outer layers of clothing.

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