Should you upload only phone pics to Instagram?

nerwin · Sep 9, 2016

When Instagram originally came out, it was mainly designed to share photos that were taken with your phone, hence why you can't upload from a desktop and still can't as of today via Instagram. But there are 3rd party ways of doing it..like LR/Instagram plugin for Lightroom.

As of today...the majority of photos I see on Instagram are from other cameras like DSLRs or Mirrorless cameras.

At this point...Instagram might as well open it up to everyone and make it photo sharing site like Flickr, especially now that they will be introducing zoom function.

However, the question remains...should you ONLY use Instagram to share the photos you've taken with your phone or does it really matter?

I personally share a mixture of images on Instagram from all different kind of cameras and I don't think anyone honestly cares what camera I used. People on Instagram just want to see photos and doesn't matter if it was taken with a toaster or the hubble telescope, my opinion of course.

But I'd like to hear your thoughts.

SquarePeg · Sep 9, 2016

I post almost exclusively DSLR photos on Instagram. Rarely phone pics. I upload to Flickr and then share to Instagram from there.

Overread · Sep 10, 2016

Instagram was one thing but has become another and is now the new casual flickr in that its the big social media image posting service. As such people post images to share via social media on instagram and that's what its all about. What you choose to post there really depends on what you want to use the service for.

EIngerson · Sep 10, 2016

Post what you want. It's your Instagram.

Scatterbrained · Sep 10, 2016

I'm not on Instagram (yet) but here's how I see it. The founders intended it to be for cell phone photographs, not serious photographers. Hence the exclusion of any way to load to instagram except via a phone. However, just as Facebook was originally a website for college kids that has grown into a sort of global community center where just about every business has a presence; so too has Instagram grown beyond their original remit as it's become both a place for social images as well as a home to serious photographers, celebrities, and plenty of corporate advertising. They know there is a large contingent of serious photographers on there and they haven't done anything to stop it. They've even made moves that appear to welcome it, if only a little. They removed the requirement for square photos first, and now they have enabled a zoom function (for what that's worth). So as far as I'm concerned, there is nothing wrong with loading your images from a traditional camera onto Instagram. It's not like you're competing with anyone there anyway.

shshxiaojing · Oct 14, 2016

just the way u like. as long as u r happy with

Luke345678 · Nov 15, 2016

My instagram is personal and I don't display any of my work there. That's just me.

In the end, it's your instagram. Post what you want.

Pedro_lopez · Nov 15, 2016

I recently created an Instagram since I've picked up photography and it's a well known social media outlet with many possibilities. So you're definitely able to seeing as I have just transferred from my d3300 to my phone with a wifi adapter and then to Instagram and the pictures look okay.

The one thing I have started to worry about is quality. I have a coworker a little ahead of me in photography and he says he stopped posting on Instagram since his pictures weren't showing how he wanted them.

I'm thinking of just keeping it a strictly iPhone pic and photo info hub for myself. Just take quick pictures of stuff I see and of when ever I'm out working on projects to show people I'm out practicing.

Sent from my iPhone using ThePhotoForum.com mobile app

MACollum · Dec 1, 2016

Since I started taking so many pictures with my phone and editing them with phone apps, I started an Instagram for those pictures. I've since started uploading them as well to Flickr but it started as a way to keep them separate since the styles (DSLR vs iPhone) differ so much. Ultimately, I agree with the others that said it's yours, do with it what you will.

Boboamic · Dec 19, 2016

Instagram has lost its original appearance, lately, so many vids are introduced, it's becoming so close to 9gag... For myself, I post phone pics mostly.

Dikkie · May 4, 2018

I noticed Flickr has changed over the last months.
There are less comments and likes than I had before.
And the only reason I use Flickr is the option to easily embed photos to forums.
I don't have much social contacts there.

While on IG, I already met new people in real life, the messenging functionality is very handy there.
I'm less then 2 years on IG, but it's been evolving into an addiction. Don't know if it's good or bad, it keeps me photographing and gets me more social.
I get in touch with new events in my region quickly and can connect with anyone else that's maybe going to be there.

I mostly shoot with DSLR, but 90% of the time I don't have my DSLR with me and have to shoot the instant snapshot with my crappy smartphone.... and I noticed I mostly get more likes for my crappy phone photos than the more professional photos I try to take with a DSLR. The more effort I put in photos, the less likes I seem to get. The world is sometimes strange

nerwin · May 4, 2018

Dikkie said:
I noticed Flickr has changed over the last months.
There are less comments and likes than I had before.
And the only reason I use Flickr is the option to easily embed photos to forums.
I don't have much social contacts there.

While on IG, I already met new people in real life, the messenging functionality is very handy there.
I'm less then 2 years on IG, but it's been evolving into an addiction. Don't know if it's good or bad, it keeps me photographing and gets me more social.
I get in touch with new events in my region quickly and can connect with anyone else that's maybe going to be there.

I mostly shoot with DSLR, but 90% of the time I don't have my DSLR with me and have to shoot the instant snapshot with my crappy smartphone.... and I noticed I mostly get more likes for my crappy phone photos than the more professional photos I try to take with a DSLR. The more effort I put in photos, the less likes I seem to get. The world is sometimes strange

Oddly enough, I'm experiencing something similar. It really seems like it comes in waves. Some weeks I'll have awesome engagement and the following week is like I don't exist.

You know what I think it is?

It's not you perse.

It's mathematical algorithms.

waday · May 4, 2018

I find most of those that "like" or "follow" me are just looking for like-for-like or follow-for-follow... or just advertising. Comments are like, "great! emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon". So much so that it's actually resulted in me posting less and using the service less. The algorithms are messing it up. The ones that they use suck big time ever since they started to try to show me what I "want" to see.

Also, after reading through the most recent terms and conditions, I'm not sure I want to really continue using the service. It did provide some insight into their algorithms. What I took from it is that they're going to monitor literally every single thing you do from what you scroll past to how long you look at an image to what hashtags you look at, and then it'll change your feed based on that. In their goal to shove what they think they want in front of me (and to collect as much information on me as possible), they're alienating me from the service. (Go figure, since I've somewhat stopped using FB for the same reasons, and IG is owned by FB.)

Just my complaints on the service.

nerwin · May 4, 2018

waday said:
I find most of those that "like" or "follow" me are just looking for like-for-like or follow-for-follow... or just advertising. Comments are like, "great! emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon emoticon". So much so that it's actually resulted in me posting less and using the service less. The algorithms are messing it up. The ones that they use suck big time ever since they started to try to show me what I "want" to see.

Also, after reading through the most recent terms and conditions, I'm not sure I want to really continue using the service. It did provide some insight into their algorithms. What I took from it is that they're going to monitor literally every single thing you do from what you scroll past to how long you look at an image to what hashtags you look at, and then it'll change your feed based on that. In their goal to shove what they think they want in front of me (and to collect as much information on me as possible), they're alienating me from the service. (Go figure, since I've somewhat stopped using FB for the same reasons, and IG is owned by FB.)

Just my complaints on the service.

Instagram got boring to me. I kept seeing the same pictures over and over again. It's not always the same photographer, sometimes it's just a scene I've already seen before. The post-processing fads like fade,, vintage, vsco style presets etc just so overused that its boring. There's no uniqueness.

Not saying everyone who uses instagram falls into that category, but their algorithms certintally prefers it.

Dikkie · May 6, 2018

nerwin said:
Oddly enough, I'm experiencing something similar. It really seems like it comes in waves. Some weeks I'll have awesome engagement and the following week is like I don't exist.

You know what I think it is?

It's not you perse.

It's mathematical algorithms.

I think you're right about that.
The algorithms are very weird stuff.