Blog Post – Week 11 (Photo)

Week 11 – Photo

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

This week’s photo was taken on the main camera on my Samsung s10e and is of the pitch bend and modulation wheel on my Edirol PCR-500 MIDI controller. The shot is meant to highlight the unpleasant texture on the wheel as a result of the rubber degrading, making it sticky and prone to getting dust and hair stuck on it. A close up angle was used, with autofocus aiding in the recording of the image by automatically adjusting depth of field to make the background out of focus while the subject is crystal clear. This does a really good job of highlighting the little details and conveying the point. The angle the photo was taken at is also more flat than in previous postings, allowing for the wooden headboard to be seen in the background as opposed to the red bedsheets featured previously. The depth of field fixes this, however, with the colour appearing more red. No filter was used, but brightness was raised and the Instagram ‘shadows’ modifier was raised to bring out detail in the shadows and bring some brightness to a bit of a shady picture.

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

A couple of test shots were initially taken to try and get the angle right, so as to show off the keyboard and maybe a bit of red in the background, as some pictures ended up with the blue wallpaper in frame. I continued my experimentation with almost ‘Buzzfeed’-like captioning, with a ‘Yucky!’ at the start of the caption to grab the reader’s attention. Over time, my captions have also gotten longer, but more concise in conveying their meaning. The hashtags #design, #roland, #edirol and #keyboard were used. I initially wanted to tag the Roland Corporation’s Instagram account, but it turns out they didn’t have one, so no user or geotags were used.

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

Similarly to the other postings, the picture was shared to Twitter and Tumblr automatically through Instagram. A disappearing story with the ‘Stay Home’ sticker was also posted to aid in visibility. While I don’t think the Stay Home sticker actually does anything for the algorithm, I like the sentiment, and it gives the account a less corporate feeling, as now it’s clear a person put some care into the curation of the account.

Blog Post – Week 10 (Photo)

Week 10 – Photo

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

This week’s photo was recorded using the front facing camera of my Samsung s10e, and is of my pinky finger locating to the film rewind button on my camera. The selfie camera was required for this photo as the shot required looking at the bottom of the camera, making the colouring and angle significantly different to other postings, as it doesn’t have the characteristic red background. The photo shows the underside of the camera and how the pinky finger naturally locates to the button on the bottom, showing off a poor design choice. The photo had the Ludwig filter used on it as well as a boost in image warmth, as the cameras on my phone naturally look a bit washed out, and the angle looking towards ceiling lights overexposed some areas. The image also isn’t a perfect square, as it had to be rotated around to get the camera facing the right way. A small amount of zoom in the editing phase also made sure that the focus was on the button and not on any other part of the camera, increasing the legibility of the photograph. This photo also needed to be recorded using the main camera app as opposed to the Instagram app’s camera, as it doesn’t have a hands-free or timer option.

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

Little curation was needed, although experimentation to do with which camera to use was necessary. A description with an added “Infuriating!” at the beginning was added to make sure that the point of the image was clear, as well as to create a bit of emotion and entice a viewer to actually pay attention to what’s in the image. The hashtags #design, #photography, #film, #camera and #canon were used to aid in visibility. I also experimented with a geotag of just “Canon”, presumably relating to the company.

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

This photo was distributed the same way as the previous postings, getting posted on the Instagram account to my handful of followers, as well as being mirrored on the Twitter and Tumblr affiliates

Blog Post – Week 9 (Photo)

Week 9 – Photo

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

The first photo post on my new account @tech.design.rmit was authored very pretty simply. I used the main camera on my Samsung s10e with a slight zoom in (as it naturally has a bit of a fisheye effect) to take photos of my Nintendo Famicom and Famicom Disk System on my bed, providing a nice red background for the red, black and white devices. The framing of the shots masked the mess of wires behind the system in the first shot, giving a clean and tidy aesthetic, which was then contrasted by the uneven and messy nature of the second photo, showing off the poor design choice. The square frame of the Instagram camera was not too much of a creative hinderance, as the shots I was taking were reasonably tight to begin with. However, it did affect the angles I could shoot at, making the frame a little tighter than I would otherwise be comfortable with so as to ensure that the furniture in my room wasn’t visible. This photo was taken without flash, as the lighting in my room is bright enough already. Despite this, some image adjustment was required, as the exposure looked a bit dim on the first photo and a bit washed out on the second. I used the Juno filter on the first image to try and deepen the reds, combined with an increase in brightness and decrease in contrast to bring out darker spots and then balance out the image overall. The second frame was essentially the opposite, with no filter being used and opposite brightness and contrast controls being adjusted to try and bring some more dynamic range to what initially was a rather grey looking photo. This process is not very normal to me, as on my main account I usually either take photos with no effects and minimal cropping, or I go completely overboard with filters and corrections for comedic effect. Given the more almost commercial nature of an account such as this, I felt that striking somewhere in the middle would allow me to define an aesthetic while not swinging too far in either silly or boring territory. I would like to continue this experimentation in the future.

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

I took a couple of images before I got the one I ended up posting, but these had poor angles that didn’t show off the Famicom and the Disk System as well as the ones I ended up posting. A text caption was added giving a brief description of what was in the scene, as well as explaining my feelings about the design choices made by Nintendo between the two devices. I thought after posting that it sounded a bit sarcastic and corporate, despite the sentiment being sincere, so for future postings I should work on how I write my captions. I also tagged the image with #nintendo, #famicom, #famicomdisksystem and #design, all Nintendo and design appropriate tags, matching the subject of the images. No geotagging or account tagging seemed necessary given the content of the posting, however future devices might benefit from posting tangentially related locations or accounts, like maybe factories or company marketing accounts for a bit of flair.

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

https://twitter.com/melbourneandco1

https://techdesignrmit.tumblr.com/

I chose to distribute my posts to Instagram, as well as to Twitter and Tumblr, as both of these platforms are friendly to the Instagram format of images and videos, as well as natively interfacing with Instagram itself.

On Instagram, the photo was distributed to my handful of followers, as I advertised the new account person to person, as well as through the explore tab. The use of hashtags and a geotag means this will reach some specific groups better, as well as the interactions had on the image itself propelling the account further. I also posted a disappearing story to inform followers of the new post.

The Twitter and Tumblr accounts might have a harder time getting exposure, but the process of distribution on these other platforms is very simple, with Instagram allowing syncing of accounts between platforms. Both accounts share the same name (or as close as was allowed) as the Instagram account, hopefully providing a logical connection and increasing the potential for people who find one to find the others. The Tumblr account was created new, however the Twitter account was repurposed from another one that I’d made previously, meaning that the username is correct but the handle is different. This hopefully shouldn’t affect exposure or branding, as it’s still easily searchable by tech.design.rmit.