Instagram: A Vintage Photography Smartphone App
Creating an Account on Instagram
Before you can start using the app, Instagram will ask you to create a free account. All you need is a username and a password. The reason they require you to create an account is because Instagram is not just a photo app. It's also a popular social network.
Instagram as a Social Network
On Instagram, you can follow other users' photo streams as they post them and you can be followed back by those users (or other users) as well. Using the "Profile" icon located on the lower menu of the Instagram screen, you can search for friends by name or find friends that are already connected to you on other social networks like Facebook or Twitter.
When you decide to follow a user, that user's Instagram photos will appear in your feed, which can be found under the "Feed" icon on the lower menu. You can press "Like" on any photo to let someone know that you admire their photography, or you can leave a comment.
When you take photos using the Instagram app, they will always appear in the feeds of the users who are following you. You can browse through the "Explore" tab to find new users to follow and creative photos to look at.
Taking Photos and Applying Photo Filters
After downloading the app from the App Store and creating an account, you can open the app up and snap a picture through your camera, using either the back or front camera. There is a menu at the bottom of the screen, and you can snap a photo by pressing the camera icon in the middle of the menu, labeled "Share."
Once you select the green checkmark on your snapshot, you will be able to instantly transform the color, texture and overall look of your photo with just a touch of your finger. The available filters appear at the bottom of the screen.
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| Photo Filters |
Instagram currently has the following photo filters to choose from:
- Amaro
- Rise
- Hudson
- X-pro II
- Sierra
- Lo-fi
- Earlybird
- Sutro
- Toaster
- Brannan
- Inkwell
- Walden
- Hefe
- Valencia
- Nashville
- 1977
- Kelvin
You can apply each filter as a preview to see how each filter looks. Pressing the green checkmark will the set the chosen filter for your photo. You will then be taken to a screen where you can set up sharing on other social networks and where you can add a caption to the photo.
