How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
For my first video, I had quite a few difficulties authoring a video that I was pleased with. The Instagram app seems to really limit my LG V30+’s ability to both produce good quality resolution in the videos and also to focus on smaller details (for example, none of the text on the buttons are visible in the video). After several frustrating failed attempts to get everything in focus, I decided just forget the smaller details, pull the camera out a bit and simply focus on the hand playing the keys. In order to pull focus away from the slightly out of focus buttons and knobs on the Kontrol Keyboard, I also left the inkwell filter on at 100%, which blew out the blacks slightly. Normally, this wouldn’t be something that I would want in my content, but the extreme blacks in the video almost eliminated the out of focus elements entirely and enforced the main visuals on the image (the hand playing the keys). It also added contrast between the black on the keyboard and the now white keys, which I liked from an aesthetic standpoint. I toned down the highlights somewhat by lowering the brightness filter a little bit, but made sure not to do so to much so as to maintain those crushed blacks.
When compared to my videography experiences outside of the Instagram app, the entire process was relatively tedious considering the end result. Instagram offers incredibly little in terms of editing options within the video recording software on the app. There were only three options once the video was recorded, adding filters, changing the cover photo of the video as it would appear on someones feed and then turning sound on or off. Not even playback isn’t possible while recording, only once you click next and move onto the next screen after selecting just recorded to be uploaded. I think Instagram could really add some functionality to their video recording software, as its well behind just their photo editing options, let alone third party app video editing software for Instagram uploads.
How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
When publishing the video to Instagram, I continued the profile trend of adding a design related quote to the video. The curation process for videos however was different to the images I had previously uploaded. The Instagram app, for whatever reason, kept blocking the filter I was adding to the video once it uploaded. I had to try 3 or 4 times re-recording and uploading the video until one of them actually worked and the filter remained on the video post-upload. Upon a bit of research and fiddling with different uploads on the app, I think this arose from minimizing Instagram while going on my browser to look up quotes for the caption. For whatever reason, when minimized Instagram was deleting the filters off the video once they uploaded. After a few tries I managed to get one video to upload with the filter applied, and even though it isn’t my favorite video of the set, its the one that worked. So, in some sense, the limitations and errors within the Instagram app was the driving force behind the curation process rather than my own personal preferences. It was interesting to have to problem solve this error within the app, as most photographers these days wouldn’t have the problem because normally in a professional setting all the editing would be done outside of Instagram itself and just uploaded there. Because of this, there really wasn’t a lot of help online to find out what exactly was going wrong, and basically all of the “please help my filter isn’t applying on Instagram” was in relation to Instagram stories rather than video uploads. Which is interesting in and of itself considering the stories are a much newer feature than simply uploading videos, but story functionality certainly gets the vast majority of attention from the app developers.
How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
In the distribution of this video, I uploaded it to both my tumblr and twitter accounts, as with all my images on the profile.
For the hashtags on this particular video, I tried still kept the design related key words that I have used on my other uploads, but also tagged the brand name “Kontrol” (who makes the midi-board). I did this to try and push the content into completely different feeds and search results that the profile previously wouldn’t have been able to be shown in, thus reaching a new target audience and increasing visibility on the profile.