- How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
This photo is of a vintage receiver built in the 1960’s. I chose it as an example of its complex design, it has various switches and turn dials that perform certain functions however it is not obviously understood how it works. This may well be due to the age of the device and at the time of its release those functions may have been common knowledge, however by the way it is designed it is not self explanatory and a person would not be able to understand its functionality without prior knowledge.
I captured the image using the rear facing camera of an Apple iPhone 7, and used a chair as a stability platform with which to take the image from. I found the square format that Instagram offers a little frustrating. due to the shape of the receiver I would have preferred to take the image in a landscape format in keeping with the overall shape. I did not use the cameras built in flash however I positioned two vertical cool light work lamps on either side facing the receiver, additionally I applied the Valencia filter to the image, this accentuated the midtones and washed out the highlight and shadows giving the image a somewhat more vintage appearance.
Comparing this process within Instagram to other photography processors, I found this to be quite restrictive. most of the time I use my iPhone for photography and there are many more options for manipulation, additionally when I need to take higher quality images I use my Sony mirrorless system which has a multitude of setting allowing me to customise my shot accordingly.
- How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I took a number of pictures trying out different distances, angles and lighting options before settling on my final image, it was important for me that the receiver be illuminated quite significantly allowing the detail to be seen, additionally I wanted it to be aligned symmetrically so the front of the device features predominantly. I geo-tagged the location where it was taken and a caption describing the image. In the caption I included several hash tags linking associated pages of interest to the post.
- How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
While going through the process of uploading this image to Instagram I opted to have it linked and distributed to Twitter and Tumbler as well, I did this by selecting which social media sites I wished to distribute it too via a list that Instagram offers when publishing and activating the corresponding switches to the ones that I desired. They appeared on both accounts however a point to note is that only the associated caption was made visible on Twitter and not the photo where as Tumbler published both the image and caption. This was done to extend the reach of the post and increase its exposure to the intended audience.
Additionally as stated previously I included several hash tags within the caption, these were selected by their association to the receiver and serve to facilitate further intertextuality between pages of common themes and concepts .