March 12, 2014
There is no doubt about it, we are taking more pictures than ever. It has got to the point that Facebook has a quarter of a trillion photos, 14.58 million photos uploaded an hour and 4,000 a second– and just think about all those photos that don’t make the Facebook cut! We can now use our smartphones to fix our need to capture every significant moment of our lives, if you can call taking pictures of your food significant? The picture quality is higher than ever, gone are the days of walking around with your camera in a case or carrying an extra lens, social photographers have everything they need on one device, and all at the touch of a button!
I’m no Annie Leibovitz, to say the least, but I must admit I do enjoy sharing my photos online. My family in Australia get to see what I have been doing and we all enjoy the occasional “like” or “comment” from friends. Enjoy sharing your photos on Facebook or Twitter? Why not joing the social photographs club? Here are my top 3 photo sharing platforms:
$$
Instagram is great for sharing pictures and editing photos. It’s easy and fun. If you’re a beginner in photo editing and sharing this is the place to learn your trade!
Whenever you find something on the web that you want to keep, add it to Pinterest. Easy! You can also be the one to take photos of the things that people want to pin and save. Pinterest doesn’t have the photo editing of Instagram but it is a lot of fun- give it a go!
Flickr
Flickr is a popular and widely-used photo sharing site. Users can upload up to 100MB of photos per month, with no limit on storage. My advice is to use it as a way to gain inspiration for your next photo and then share on one of the two platforms above.
Not entirely sure your photos are up to standard? Worried that you don’t have good timing or a steady hand? Do not fear! You can use photo editing platforms and apps, like Instagram, and become the next social photographer. Here are my top 3 photo editing apps to get you started:
PicLab HD
PicLab HD is an app for creating those inspiring images that you get all over the internet these days. My top tip is to play around with the app and spend some time making sure the photos look great but don’t take a completely different look.
Photoristic HD
It’s all about the photo editor, something for the slightly more advanced social photographer – it features standard image adjustment tools (white balance, exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, vibrance and saturation), with additional colour controls, a black and white mode, split toning and a hefty collection of presets for Instagram-style quick fixes.
Retromatic
This ’50s-inspired photo app enables you to import your photos, cut them out using an instant alpha tool, and then apply vintage effects to them- they look very cool!
I’m no artist or photography professional but personally I think it is a slight shame that we have to enhance photos to make them look better or in many cases “cool”. I often find the best photos capture a “moment” and provoke an emotion. What are your thoughts?