How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
For my final Instagram post, the authoring process was relatively straightforward. Once I had selected a subject that continued the trend of the image based uploads on my profile (black sunglasses on the same white table) I began to begin authoring the photo. Framing and subject placement was what I focused on most when authoring the image, as I wanted to be sure that I tried out the photo from all angles until I found one that was the most aesthetically pleasing. I found that, as with the pen, diagonal positioning was the best way to display the glasses in an interesting fashion while using the square format that Instagram enforces. Too ensure the glasses were sufficiently lit, I used 3 different light sources (a lamp, the flash on my camera and also natural light from the window behind). I also had to position myself very close to the sunglasses to ensure that the entire object was centred and completely focused. Because of the combination of Instagram’s data saving functionality that reduces picture quality and the stark contrast between a large black object and a white background, this image was particularly difficult to achieve both completely in focus and of high enough quality to upload. It seemed that no matter the direction of the different light sources and my distance relative to the glasses, the app just really struggled to get a clear, high quality picture. The filter also boosted the contrast a lot, which made the process even more difficult as I had to try and counteract that. Some more in app editing options really would have helped here, and is something that severely limits the functionality of photography inside Instagram. This is probably another reason why third party apps for Instagram are so popular. Because of all this, I endued up needing to take in excess of 15 photos before one was good enough to be added to my profile.
How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
Now, the publishing is where this post began to get difficult. After my first few uploads I hadn’t seen a problem with the Instagram profile, however the glasses picture caused massive difficulties with my account. As soon as the photo finished uploading, I would refresh my feed and then it would suddenly disappear. At first, I thought perhaps it was just a glitch in the app and tried to upload it again, however the same thing happened. After a third failed attempt I texted my friend to see if she knew what the problem might be, and she told me that maybe I should just log out and leave the app for a while. So, after an hour or two, I came back to the profile again but was met with the same result. I researched possible causes, and came to the conclusion that it may actually have been a shadow ban. The app may have mistaken my account for a spam / bot profile because of the sudden spike in activity to what was previously a completely empty account. Shadow bans however tend to only alter how the app functions, rather than completely block you from posting (Forsey, 2019). It seems that a shadow ban on Instagram, typically, affects a users ability to use hashtags and like / comment on peoples posts. I tried all of these things with my current account and while I couldn’t check if my hashtags were working (because the post wouldn’t upload) I could definitely still like and comment on my friends accounts (and they could still do the same for my other posts). So, the only way i could fix the problem was to create an entirely new account and re-upload all my images and videos to that one. It was obviously not the ideal way to to work around the issue, but at least the new instagram account is able to upload images and videos. It does open up an interesting conversation though, why was one account banned while another account that uploaded identical posts was left alone? I imagine it is probably the result of the instagram algorithm trolling for content it deems suspicious and then subsequently banning them (Hughes, 2017) but honestly I’m still not exactly sure what the cause for the ban was. I think I’ll probably delve further into this topic of “why my account specifically” in my next blog post.
One last note was that the constant uploading of the same image over and over again produced an interesting effect on the image. Instagram compresses and manipulates photo files so that they fit into the app’s infrastructure and format (Horaczek, 2015). This process slightly damages the image quality of the photo file, and increases noise within the photo. Because I repeated the upload process to instagram so many times, this corruption began to appear within my glasses photo. Eventually the initial file was too corrupted to even use on instagram and I had to re-take the photo for my final upload that is visible on the account currently. Here is what the image looked like after the multiple re-upload process.
How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
As with my other images, I cross posted this content to my new tumblr and to my twitter page. I once again decided to use branded hashtags (epokhe being the company that made the sunglasses) however because of the possible shadow ban, I am unsure as to whether the hashtags actually did anything on the instagram app to promote the post. Either way, I left them on the upload to cover my bases and just hoped that it did indeed work.
References:
Horaczek, S. (2015). This Is What Happens When You Upload the Same Photo to Instagram Hundreds of Times. [online] Popular Photography. Available at: https://www.popphoto.com/news/2015/02/what-happens-when-you-upload-same-photo-to-instagram-hundreds-times/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].
Hughes, C. (2020). The Instagram Shadowban: What is it and Why is it Happening?. [online] Iconosquare Blog. Available at: https://blog.iconosquare.com/the-instagram-shadowban/ [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].
Forsey, C. (2019). Everything You Need to Know About Instagram’s Secret Shadowban. [online] Blog.hubspot.com. Available at: https://blog.hubspot.com/marketing/instagram-shadowban [Accessed 23 Feb. 2020].