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Comment by jchrome | Hacker News Reader

If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

If I wanted to take good photographs, I would practice photography a whole lot. Then read a little bit. Then practice a whole lot. Then read a little bit.

Reading about photography can never match the practice of photography (but it can help... a little bit). I would also shoot film (many in photography school talk about the "film mindset"). You need to believe that your photos are a limited resource and therefore save each shot for the best moments. "Spraying and praying" with digital rarely comes out with anything good.

And now for some shameless self promotion: www.stillthrill.com

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> If I seriously wanted to learn about photography, I wouldn't look at instagram (over-saturation, higher contrast... in other words, a lack of subtlety). That sounds much more akin to backdrops for hipster startup home pages and blogs.

I won't argue that there's a lack of subtlety in Instagram, but I wish you wouldn't brush it off so contemptuously. I don't consider myself much of a photographer, mainly due to lack of practice/desire to practice. But I like Instagram because I can take a picture of something my friends will find funny, a car that another friend will find interesting, or something I can tell a story about. I find that my Instagrams end up being higher quality pictures, more consistenly, than pictures I take just for the sake of taking a picture. So for me Instagram isn't just pictures, it's pictures that I can tell a story about, when I whip my phone out at a party. A different art form altogether.

I could agree with that. I use instagram as well and like it for the reasons you mentioned. But what your hitting upon is that it's not necessarily photography, but more a social experience. As you put it:

>A different art form altogether.

So I don't think it should be categorized as photography. And you mentioned that looking at it was a good way to learn how to be a photographer. Which I still don't think it is.

The greatest photographers (those who we should be studying) did not use instagram. And for the highly skilled contemporaries that do use instagram, I highly doubt they post their best on the service.

Here's a collection of some favorite images from my Instagram feed over the last 9 months or so: http://x.are.na/SekSZPT. I'm not sure if you would find them un-subtle, but they are certainly on the whole neither over-saturated nor overly contrasty.

Edit: seems Arena is having this content loading bug again. If you click on the grey blocks, there's an overly and you can step through like a presentation.

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