Instagram ruined photography. 

Thank you Tony and Chelsea. Thank you for using your voices to push back against this era of unabashed trash in photography. ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE LOW PIXEL TRASH.

Only thing IG has ruined is people's self esteem :P

Maybe it's time for two experts and entrepreneurs like you to come out with an idea that can solve this. I'd support you.

12:20 who saw the dog walked in the video. Awesome

I agree completely, but that shouldn't stop you from the enjoyment and fulfillment that photography brings. Don't let them stop you from taking pictures!

Fully agree with it. Instead of connecting people, it is breaking years old relations.

agree

smugmug keeps dropping the ball with flickr. Overcharging PROs. Still plagued by legacy bugs. Lacking features and pro options. So many server crashes, slowing bandwidth access. Now they screwed up Album Downloads with 500 image album limit. Their phone app came too late, they allowed Instagram to take root.

Yahoo’s Flickr???

I tried Flickr years ago but dropped it when I couldn't share my photos at the resolution I wanted and found it difficult to enlarge photos.

@@wngimageanddesign9546 Plagued by legacy bugs? So many server crashes? LOL, what a load of BS, you probably haven't been to Flickr for a number of years. Stop spreading fake news.

I feel like if someone tried, that robot named Mark Zuckerberg would come along and try to buy the app dangling a few million dollars in front of the app creators just like he did with Instagram

@@brizzle3903 "There is a chance it could fail ... Might as well not even try." Not the mentality I like to live by.

@@seerrees people like Zuckerberg don’t want competition they want a monopoly that’s a fact! Also several Instagram like apps have come and gone over the past few years and so far not a single 1 has had a snowballs chance in hell in actually giving Instagram a run for its money they’re either plagued with issues or just flat out suck.

Amen!

VERO

Instagram broke my love of photography while TikTok broke my faith in humanity

Photograph for yourself, not how many likes you get. I don't even bother to share most photos I take anymore but I still love the process.

Don't use it. It;'s all fake

can i ask what you do/what you offer when you go to the farmer's market? i recently began building my photography business and I would love to try this out at my local market!

My work specializes in historical themes, rural scenes and Americana. I'm located in Gettysburg, which is a popular vacation destination, so I am fortunate to have some tourist traffic as well as some local interest in my work. I don't think I would survive with only one or the other. I don't want to be too specific about what products I'm selling, because, frankly, I just don't want to create competition for my niche. I'm sure you'll understand and you'll find your own niche.

You made right decision, you run a business and you were not on IG for validation.

I use it now for my airbnb business, and stopped bothering posting on my photography account. Instagram is now about selling stuff, sadly.

Wow that sucks

same, i also expected it to happen. Was only waiting for that moment.

So you stayed away from it by starting one up and building a nice audience ? Or did I read that wrong ?

I know that you know the things I will write, but your photography is top notch. I really enjoy your style und your videos really are great! The lack of likes isn't your, nor the pictures fault, its just the algorhythm :( Keep shooting! I love it :)

I began pursuing photography seriously within the last year (inspired by great RU-vid photography shows like yours and Tony&Chelsea) after the algorithm for IG was biased in favor of vertical video. I found it incredibly discouraging that low effort videos would get me over 10x as much engagement as submitting my best photos. Even if making reels were my thing I'm not sure I'd want to start building a big IG following in 2022, I wouldn't trust the platform not to break the algorithm in some other way

For a reason. People aren't really interested in photography for photography's sake. Works well as part of something else though.

@@MSGordon33 I think instagram is a good lesson for photographers. It's always been true that a bad photo of a pretty girl is infinitely more interesting than a perfect sunset or flower shot. When people do something interesting and take great photos of it, it works anywhere. But people generally don't care about photography for photography's sake.

Damn you're awesome. New sub.

True

Thats true, but for many people its just crucial to "get seen" and get attention, its the whole point of marketing And its pretty much the most important advertising platform now. Hobbiests really shouldnt care at all about instagram, for some pros it seems to be a necessity tough

I wonder if a de-centralized platform for content sharing would be possible. Like these file sharing tools in the old days. Ie. being (more) independent of the whims/trend chasings of some corporate board members.

Agree. I’m been on Flickr for over 10 years with no plans to stop.

I stopped posting on Flickr due to insta, I think I will go back again...

Is Flikcr free to use?

@Kenny Yes

@@arunphillips6977 It can be.

Yes

Ehh....I used to say that as well. But I learn so much about composition, quality, etc by looking at work from people better than me. I also don't want to go back to the days of all my stuff just sitting in a shoebox not viewed.

@@billvandermolen5907 the way people just mindlessly scroll through images on social media nowadays, you might as well just leave them in a shoebox. The only way anything gets more than split second of attention is if it has some snarky quote or meme overlaying it.

@@icexe1 Not the way I see it. I scroll quickly, but stop at images that strike my attention. I also noticed that those who comment on my photos do the same.

That's the IG crop for you.

Export as 1080 on the short side

Resize the long end of your photo to 2048px which is recommended and save a copy. Quality does not go down then, my images look good and sharp. Also make your crop either 4x5 or 1x1. Best practices.

I too edit with a 4K monitor, my images look sharp, then instagram muddies them.

I agree.

What's your @?

Twitter has way better image quality anyhow

What do you mean put you in limbo? I'm completely missing what's going on here.

@@xwhite2020 as in you don't have the same exposure as people that upload reels. Even Instagram has stated that reels have preference over other media uploads (long video, short video, stories and normal pictures)

@@ChuyGl89 i thought that (unless you pay) only your personal followers and hashtags gets your posts in their feeds. Seems fair and reasonable to me.

I just use it to keep in touch with like minded folks. I post a picture every now and then and I get maybe a dozen good quality likes.

Toxic is the perfect word.

The problem with Flickr is that I want people to actually see my pictures. At least about a couple dozen people on Instagram see them and comment sometimes. On Flickr nobody will see them and probably just download those hi res images and steal them.

@@PeteTaylorPTI I don’t find it toxic at all. As a matter of fact, I was just having a very nice conversation with Alan Burles. Nice guy.

​@@carlosmcse It'll be tough getting orioles to log in but it's worth a shot (just kidding). (I love Orioles, BTW. Live in MD and it’s a nice rare treat if they drop by our yard!) Question is WHO you want to see your photos and what types and for what reason. Advertising? That’s going to be a matter of local marketing, not an international mosh pit where you expect the quality of your work to attract local business. Most people’s personal and professional social networks are NOT on Instagram. If your clients are families and events, no one on IG will give a damn. Wildlife/landscape/macro/real estate/still life? Psht! Not on IG. [And folks, don’t go pointing out exceptions and making them the rule.] The best one can really expect is that for every model you shoot on IG for free, maybe she sends her family and friends your way for non-modeling shoots. Maybe. That’s still nowhere near as good as being recommended by a client who paid. Do you specialize in photographing “hot models” in expensive rented fashion and promoting an unrealistic luxury atmosphere and calling it “lifestyle photography”? Oh yeah, IG is the place for you! LOL That is, if you don’t mind getting 15-75 ‘hearts’ and while the model gets 7,500 even though you both post the same image on your feeds! If you want genuine photographers seeing and sharing appreciation for your photography then Flickr always has and will be the spot. Is Flickr’s phone app underwhelming? Sure. But can you post extremely easily from any computer and not have to agonize over trying to tag major brands for a chance at attention AND post to groups aimed at showcasing your genres. No having to ‘boost’ a post by paying or wasting time on ‘stories’ with bad autotune music. As for theft? Where there’s a screenshot, there’s a way. And you don’t need to post extremely high res on Flickr because Flickr doesn’t destroy or scale down. You determine in your settings whether you want to let viewers click for a super hi-res look or not. Personally, I just export dupes of my images with 2000px for the long end and that’s what goes on flickr. Still plenty large for view but not overly huge. People screen shot from IG like crazy. In fact, there are mirror apps for IG that literally have a download button for images AND video! And you might think “Well, it’s not high res though,” to which I say “If they’re passing it off as their work… on a platform that’s designed solely for small phone screens, it doesn’t matter?” To end this novel (sorry), do google "Social Media Use in 2021 - Pew Research Center". Very good info there on where people actually are.

Basically this. All this video they complain about engagement. So I went to Tony’s page. In 2018 he averages 10-13,000 likes. Now he gets 1-2,000. He said he can’t see the photos of people he follows. But the thing is, when you go on Instagram, you can tap “Instagram” and then tap “Following” and you’ll only see the photos from people you follow. It’s that simple. The problem is, people don’t go to Instagram TO SEE they go there TO BE SEEN.

@@carlosmcse haha exactly my thoughts

Yes. I found a few photography pages on IG that had shy of one thousand to 30 thousand followers and their work is impressive! I looked them up. Some of the places are near my State. I have visited those places personally and have become acquainted with the creators. And in turn with their permission, I share my experience and destination and their works with a larger group on Facebook, Reddit, and Snapchat. Most people need something or are searching for someone with a unique perspective who can create a special portfolio for them if they wish to become models, or if a new singer/songwriter needs an album cover. The market within Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn has become over-saturated with "expert pro-photographer" and the only thing the beginner knows how to do is simple editing skills. While real years of experience photographers are robbed of having an opportunity to create or work alongside that person.

Thx for sharing great channel

Indeed, thank you, Chelsea and Tony.

It's basically IG "models", gurus of fitness/finances/life, people flexin', over fake a$$ people.

I agree! I love Flickr

I agree. The term photographer has morphed into content creator which for the most part (or among the 'most popular') has become a repetitive game of depicting the same 'iconic' locations using presets that have an almost identical tone. How that can be defined as creative is beyond me. I think part of it is the quest for popularity and for some reason, that is gained by replicating the narrowly defined online trends. My most 'liked' photos on Instagram aren't my personal favourites, and recognition from strangers on the basis of following trends was never a motivation in ever picking up a camera in the first place, notwithstanding the odd nice feeling from positive feedback on instagram, it's not a healthy or sustainable priority for a photographer IMO

I wouldn't delete. Just let it die. The idleness will mess them up.

just leave. delete your content (they wont delete it anyway but you remove some visible content from the platform) and leave. just leave. Its not worth the time and induced emotion als they are mostly negative

Yeah I've never left. I don't think it'll ever be a business tool, but that's fine. The only reason I did get on IG was I'd be doing shoots and "younger" folk would ask for my IG. I'd hand out my card and they'd go "that's okay". Many years later, IG hasn't led to a dime in my pocket (word of mouth always has). Flickr is where I post to know that the people who comment and like the photos are legit photographers, not bots or fake people. I fear if flickr tries to do more than that, they'll really go off the rails to justify the investment.

Create a Facebook "Page" and you'll get Creator Studio where you can upload photos from your computer to Instagram when you connect your account.

Actually, they do allow you to post from a computer now.

you do realize that you do actually pay using these services with you data? They sell your information and still you keep giving them money for promotion. A store does not sell your information to corperations using it to generate advertisement and hanging it into you room cause you might be interested into these products they try to market to you. The internet is not the real life.

@@brachlandmusic It can also be said that shoppers at malls also paid for the ads I was paid for to make photographic displays of customers' products. It all comes down to commercialism and how it makes the economy go around. As a business person you can put all the data into a spreadsheet to determine what each of the decisions you make (as a business person) is worth. You have to come up with an idea of how much you are really "saving," as well as the risks involved, by putting your business on the internet. I'm just saying factor it in,

@@TaiChiBeMe sure and I think you're right with advertising. I actually just wanted to point out that social media isn't free as you pay with you data (also privacy and ownership of everything you post on Instagram) If you wish to pay for promotion and it generates ROI for you it very good and I would never say to stop.

500px, Eyeem no need to join this saturated market of photography apps

i would not touch that app with a stick

@@ndon85 - Your stick is too tiny to reach anyway.

@@Toglander why you know so much about this dude's stick and nothing about app development?

This. The issue isn't the corporations, who lets be honest, only need to cater to content creators to the extent that it drives traffic to their site. The issus is/was people building a "business" on the back of a "free" service. What the heck do they expect? These companies (FB/Instagram, Google/YT, Snapchat, etc....) have invested a crap-ton of money into infrastructure, that they effectively give away. They built this entire backbone and let people place and curate their stuff online. This infrastructure gave people a vast leap forward than had they had to do this themselves. If you wanted people to see your art (or whatever), build an audience, and make a go at monetizing it even 50 years ago, the barriers to entry were almost insurmountable. Now. It's trivial. People have become so accustomed to everything being "free" on the internet, that they are completely untethered from reality when you see this "outrage".

@@jeffcanar7294 True, but doen'st justify all of their choices as an app

What is a GAB group

Totally agree. The lack of actual insightful response makes it very shallow.

Oddly enough I was at a local state park this last weekend and I saw several people besides me with cameras. Also, I see fewer people taking photos with their phones at the parks. It seems the allure of taking photos with a phone is waning.

Yes!!!, here around the major theme parks and some of the 'most photographed places in the world' it's no longer common to see people with DSLR's, sad but true .

The foto culture was always "ME" not "WE". Any why not, it is MY work not yours or the work of a "collective". If you do not like what people publish - do not consume it. No one is forcing you to look at Instagram or read Harry Potter if you do not like it. What YOU want is "fotographers are special, an elite". THAT thankfully will never happen again. That time has thankfully died. The "ME IMPORTANT" photographer is thankfully on the red list and can go extinct

no, we dont need more social media

Sad lives they must live...xD

Yeah I miss seeing some of my favorite photographers on IG. They are there, but the content doesn't show up in my feed, and I'm unlikely to go and visit thier personal site just to see what they've now uploaded.

Oh it doesn’t show you posts in chronological order anymore!? How does it work now, whomever they deem most important and engaging?

You can upload photos from a PC. It's quite a recent feature though.

With the new community feature things will be a lot better to share pictures

Look at the content. It’s commonly one person goofing around. Last time I’ve check one person standing is more or a vertical frame than horizontal. Same as you’d say that vertical portraits are bad :)

I see what you’re saying (pun intended), but it just “feels” wrong with video. Perhaps because we have two eyes side by side (landscape) that my brain expects to see moving images in that aspect ratio. The vertical video feels like I’m looking though a window at something rather than looking at it directly.

Could you imagine what a drive-in movie screen would be like showing that version of Star Wars! LOL

Oh it's not broken. It's doing exactly what they designed it to do. And what it's designed to do has zero to do with photography, that's for sure.

@@PeteTaylorPTI Just because that's the design doesn't mean it's not broken 🤣 ... and it definitely is. They should give us all an option to turn off reels and see what the reaction is!

@@tricamel We can push Flickr like it was GameStop stock!

Why is your enjoyment of photography based on a social-media platform?

@@danielfortune4283 You don't know me well enough to ask pointed personal questions. In fact, you don't know me well enough to be rude to me at all.

@@ericlowenbach5151 No problem. I was just wondering. No rudeness intended.

@@danielfortune4283 Didn't come across as ruse or overly personal but a rather legit question.

I have not heard your name in a mighty long time. Hope you get back to some photography.

Yep, that's the EXACTLY the problem with social media; people are becoming more "impatient" Shorter attention spans equals videos, you can thank TikTok for this.

Flickr was cool like 10 years ago... it is so hard to shift the user base and as long as people are just viewing images on their phones for the most part well then... no big deal ya?

Instagram has never been for photographers. Tony and Chelsea start to sound like grumpy people, unhappy with the fact that "The Photographer" is no longer all that special for MANY people.

Once You give everyone in the world a camera Instagram is what you get