Instagram Image Post 1

How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

Before I’d even begun photographing, I decided to set myself a couple of initial constraints for the instagram page to create some cohesion between all of my posts. In order to create this aesthetic throughout the page, I decided upon selecting objects that are either primarily black or metallic (or a combination of both) to photograph. I also decided I would use one singular filter (called “inkwell”), which would be black and white, to further illustrate the similarities between my chosen object, and to give the entire instagram feed a singular feel.

For my first image, I selected a felt tip fineliner as the object to be photographed. To do so, I used the instagram app on my LG V30+ phone. In order to make sure that the small writing was perfectly focussed I had to move quite close to the pen while photographing. This was probably a mixture of the size of the engraving the pen and the limited functionality of my phone’s camera, it is a relatively old phone. In terms of framing, originally I tried the pen with the cap on and perfectly horizontal across the image, but it just wasn’t very interesting to look at. I tried several more attempts and found that the slightly off centre and angled diagonally across the frame gave me the most intriguing photo. I also wanted the pen to be the only object within the frame, so I decided to shoot it on a white table top, and the fact that the focus of my phone required a close up only helped this decision. To eliminate as much shadow as I could, I shone one light from a lamp directly behind the pen and then used my phones flash feature from the front to try and ensure the pen was very brightly lit from all angles. On top of theĀ inkwell filter that I applied, I also lowered the brightness of the image somewhat, becauseĀ inkwell boosts the highlights a little more than I would have liked it to. It was beginning to blow out the contrast in the photo, so I found that just toning the brightness down 10% or so helped a lot.

The biggest difference between using the app to author content rather than a DSLR camera is the limited functionality that instagram provides. The camera quality is obviously worse than a DSLR, but also the options available are much more limited. There is no option for ISO, there is obviously no ability to change lenses, its impossible to change the white balance etc etc. The only functions instagram offers is the option to choose front vs rear camera and then to turn flash on or off.

How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?

I published the photo to my instagram account inkwell.networked.media. For the actual photographic process, I took several photos before I found one that I was comfortable using as the actual upload to my account. This was mostly due to framing, considering it is just a black and white photo of a pen I wanted to try and find the positioning that was the most interesting in a compositional sense. I also tried to leave an equal amount of room to the right and left of the pen tip / lid ends. On top of that, I tried the pen lid on both ends but found it was a much better photo when the fineliner tip was visible, rather than capped. To find the right photo, I took about 8 or 9 shots, narrowed that down to about 3 and then chose the one that had the most most positioned and in focus writing on the pen.

The text caption portion of this image reads:

“Design is so simple, that’s why its so complicated.”
– Paul Rand”

This quote is another attempt at unifying the theme of the entire instagram account. All my uploads will have quotations from various famous graphic designers and/or academics in the field of graphic design / design. I chose this quote in particular for the image of the pen for two reasons as it is a very simplistic image, just a pen on a white table, and so a quote about the simplicity of design seemed fitting.

How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?

I checked the box that linked this post to both a tumblr and twitter account. I used the twitter account that I already owned to spread the reach of my post, but for the tumblr I specifically created a design oriented account in order to further the cohesion of my profile while simultaneously reaching a different audience on tumblr.

 

 

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