Connect with FacebookUsing iPhone and Instagram to Create Unique Travel Photos
While the camera gear debate on the TravBuddy forums often centers on point and shoot versus DSLR and of course, Nikon or Canon, the iPhone continues to make strides as many travelers' new favorite camera of choice.
A number of well-known food and travel bloggers have started implementing the use of the iPhone camera during their travels as it is obviously much lighter and easier in situations where you don't (or can't) lug heavy camera gear. Skeptical about the iPhone’s popularity in the travel blogging community? There was even a section of the photography class at the recent 2011 Travel Blog Exchange Conference that discussed how to best incorporate your iPhone in travel photography.
As the iPhone's popularity continues to skyrocket, more and more interesting apps are being developed -- one of which is Instagram. Instagram is a really fun and free app available for download that lets you really change up the way you share iPhone photos.
Since it's inception last year, there are nearly 4 million people now that have turned to Instagram to spice up their photos and the best part of the service -- there is immediate sharing to popular sites like Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Tumblr, Flickr and more.
You link your social media accounts, and with one touch, you can share photos instantly all around the web with friends and other Instagram users around the world. People can follow you through your Instagram profile, connecting you to countless other travelers and photography enthusiasts everywhere.
For a free application, Instagram allows users to create a number of more difficult photography effects with a single touch on the screen. There are numerous filters you can scroll through to create different effects -- options like lomo, sepia, and a host of others that give a vintage or torn look, and more.
One of the most fun options is the built in tilt shift feature, a popular photography effect that takes a bit of time to achieve in Photoshop. With Instagram you just tap the tilt-shift button and play around with your image to get the desired effect -- then apply the filter of your choice and voila -- iPhone photography art!
If your image garners some attention, it might end up on the Instagram’s popular page when you log on - a page filled with some of the most popular and shared photos through the application. And if you don’t have an iPhone, but are interested in checking out other people’s photos -- you can still view the pictures that people post or Tweet.
Just to give you an idea of what Instagram can do, here is a regular iPhone photo I took and subsequently edited a number of different ways. I started off with an unedited iPhone photo overlooking the city of Taipei from the Taipei 101 observation deck.
Then, here is an example of how easy it is to create a tilt-shit perspective photo with Instagram.
Next, I took the same tilt-shift photo and went back and applied the "lomo" filter to it.
Lastly, just to give you an idea of the different possibilities available, I used the initial tilt shift photo and applied the "1977" filter for a grunge, vintage type look.
Do you use your iPhone or Instagram to take photos while you are traveling? Please share tips (and your user name) so any other Instagram using TravBuddies can find you!
