Welcome back to my series of confusing endless doors.
How did you author (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
I used my iPhone 6s’s rear facing camera to capture this moment. This is my last week of this semester and I’m probably not gonna come back to school in around 4 months so taking photos of RMIT doors means more to me now than just an assignment. RMIT is quite huge so I assume there won’t be too much trouble finding a door which leads to many other doors and I was right. The door I chose is in the RMIT building 9, the one I go to every weeks to study Networked Media class. I set the Normal mode with no flash like usual. I took this by standing up and instead of zooming in, which can reduce the quality of the photo, I got close to the doors but not too close so I can be able to capture the whole package of doors. With Instagram, I can immediately apply filter after taking a new photo by swiping right. Although Instagram only have limited filters available but it’s a great feature for a quick, casual edit. However, it still didn’t provide me the filter I want so instead of using it, I went to VSCOcam to edit the photo. I reduced the exposure and the contrast while remain the saturation. I added grain to the photo also to make it look more vintage and mysterious. This photo can be identified as casual based on the definition of Manovich.
“In these photos, visual characteristics such as contrast, tones, colors, focus, composition, or rhythm
are not carefully controlled.” (Manovich 2016, p.52)
How did you publish (the photo or video) you recorded for upload to Instagram?
After editing the photo with VSCOcam, I went to the publishing process.
Like usual, Instagram only allow square format so I adjust my photo to fit the required size. I put the photo caption as “Be the opener of the door” as it reminds me of a positive mindset and it’s exactly my thought when I opened the door to take the photo. I did not tag anyone or put on any hashtag like usual. I don’t really want to gain attention to this account and hashtag is not really my type also.
How did you distribute (the photo or video) you published on Instagram to other social media services?
I hardly ever share my Instagram posts on other platforms. Even with my personal Instagram account, I only join the publishing process, not the distributing one. The reason I don’t do it not because there’s any technical barrier that stop me from. The affodances of Instagram is designed to make the distributing process become extremely easy since it’s linked directly to Facebook, Twitter and other platform and everyone can figure out the way to use it by clicking the sharing icon. I don’t do it simply because I don’t sell anything and only upload personal pictures. So I feel like sharing photos to other platform is unecessary. Also the system of Facebook doesn’t priotize sharing post in new feed. So instead of sharing, if I want my Facebook’s friend see the same picture, I will repeat the publishing process in Facebook.
Only until taking this class that I started sharing posts to Facebook as a part of the assignment. I clicked on the share icon on my Instagram post, which is directly linked to other platforms. Since I dont have Twitter account, I chose to share on Facebook. The Facebook post box immediately showed up with many blank space for me to add caption. However I didn’t add any caption to my share post. The post feature also allow me to add gif, location or tag people/page but I chose none. Since I shared it on the assignment’s request so I wanted to gain as little attention as possible. Normally, if I share or publish something on purpose, I will choose caption carefully, which is usually be something short without any icon. I may also tag people/page if necessary and add location of the photo or video.
References
Manovich, L 2016, Instagram and the Contemporary Image, University of San Diego.