Week 10: Making media – Photo

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

For this week I decided to use a different application for the authoring process because I didn’t like the experience using only Instagram for the whole process. I use my iPhone 6 camera application and took the photo with the rear camera. I like that it didn’t have as many constraints as doing it directly though the social media app because I could take a lot of photos and choose the one that I thought looked the best.

As I explained in the review from the second assignment, authoring has a technical element but it also includes the creative idea the practitioner wants to represent. Initially, I had taken a photo of a pedestrian crossing button, but after reading week’s ten lecture, I decided to follow the advices given by Chris Do in the Youtube video “How To Get 10k Followers On Instagram Per Week” and Dominik DeCoco in “How The Instagram Algorithm Works in 2020”. DeCoco explained that to increase the reach of your content, you should be consistent and have an overall theme (DeCoco 2020), so I decided to dicht my first idea and take a picture of an object related to the toiletry bag I uploaded in week 9, choosing to photograph two mac cosmetics eyeshadows. 

To do the editing, I downloaded an application that was specifically for that purpose. I picked Picsart to do it because an influencer I followed recommended it, and I had already used it years ago. I changed the format to “portrait” size, added an effect and an artsy frame to the collage, I wanted the two pictures to be in one photo. As the media sharing network Instagram is, Picsart had the option to share the edited photo directly to it, which I did, and I did the last editing in the social media app, changing its brightness and contrast. 

I realize that last week I got really frustrated because my picture didn’t look as aesthetically pleasing as I wanted and I expected my photo to look like the photos of the accounts I followed. Lev Manovich explains this phenomenon by saying that photography “is about making visual images that communicate through their techniques, styles, and visual choices—and not only content”. (Manovich 2016, pp. 40). Although I didn’t have any photography or editing skills, I had really high expectations of what my feed should look like because of what I am used to looking at in this social media app. 

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

The first thing I did was decide which photo was worthy to upload on Instagram. As I mentioned before, I ditch the first idea I had because I wanted to follow a certain theme, and that was beauty and hygiene related products. Manovich explained that people use an specific style “to define their membership in subcultures, to signal their ‘identities'” (Manovich 2016, pp.40)

When I was sure of what I wanted to publish, I chose two pictures between nearly 10 other options. I wanted to focus on the design of the product from the outside, but also the eyeshadows from the inside and how the packaging placed them. To select the images, I just tried to look for the ones that weren’t blurred and were centered in the frame. 

Following the advice given by Chris Do, I wrote a caption that was related to the object I was showing and did it in a friendly and casual way (Do 2019): “@maccosmetics eyeshadow format is a perfect size for travels. With just two shades that work together to give a natural everyday look”. I decided to tag the brand so people could interact with the post and go to the brand’s account if they were interested in what I display.

In addition to that I put nine hashtags, “#maccosmetics #makeup #brown #eyeshadow #practical #design #victoria #melbournebeach #maccosmetic”, and I used a technique I’ve seen on my friend’s posts so the hashtags don’t show unless you press “more” in the description of the photo. I did this because I don’t like how that feature looks with the photos. Finally, I add a geotag to the post, the same as I used last week, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, and upload it the 13 of may of 2020. 

The trick I used to hide the hashtags.

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

The main distribution platform for the photo was Instagram, but during the publication stage, I had the option to also share it to two other social media applications. However, this time It didn’t let me upload it on Tumblr and Twitter at the same time as Instagram, maybe because I already came from the Picsart application and the procedure was too much for the software, but I could share it once the picture was already uploaded. I didn’t have the issue I had last time with the photo being posted two times in the other outlets, but I realize that on Twitter the trick I use on Instagram to hide the hashtag was showing and didn’t look good.

For this time, I changed some of the hashtags I used last week and put different ones: #maccosmetics #makeup #brown #eyeshadow #practical #design #victoria #melbournebeach #maccosmetics #tutorial. I followed Chris Do advice to use a mix of tags that had low, medium and high amounts of followers and were related with the item I was showing and the location I was in (Chris Do 2019). I could notice that a makeup related account liked my picture, so I’m going on the right track with the hashtags I’m using. I also put the geolocalization feature and position the photo in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. 

How the post looks in Tumblr.
How the post looks in Twitter.

References 

– Manovich, L. 2016, ‘Part 1: Casual Photos’, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego, USA., pp. 24-57.

– DeCoco, D 2020, How The Instagram Algorithm Works in 2020 – Full Training – Own the Instagram Algorithm, Youtube, 31 January, heyDominik, Vienna, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWfVwVAOIvA&t=1021s>

– Do, C 2019, How To Get 10k Followers On Instagram Per Week, Youtube, 6 November, The Futur, Santa Monica, viewed 15 May 2020, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89bF5Dzh_F4>

 

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