The assessment declaration. [I declare that in submitting all work for this assessment I have read, understood and agree to the content and expectations of the assessment declaration – https://www.rmit.edu.au/students/support-and-facilities/student-support/equitable-learning-services]

WEEK 9:

PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=39&action=edit

VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=42&action=edit

WEEK 10:

PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=44&action=edit

VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=46&action=edit

WEEK 11:

PHOTO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=48&action=edit

VIDEO: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/sarah-demaio/wp-admin/post.php?post=50&action=edit

REPORT:

Throughout the past few weeks whilst frequently uploading to Instagram and writing related blog posts, it took me back to when Instagram started and no one was ‘Instafamous’ or ‘better’ than anyone else at it. It was simply just a place where you had the opportunity to upload whatever you wanted, whenever you wanted. If I could recover my old Instagram account you would see a lot of grainy mirror selfies and weird captions with extremely long and unnecessary hashtags. When Instagram started up, there wasn’t as much online hate being spread around. It was a place filled with support and it was actually kind of fun. There’s a meme that I’ve seen floating around and I find it so hilariously relatable.

This one aspect of Instagram was the only thing anyone ever had to worry about. No one cared what crappy and overly obvious filter you chose to edit your photo with or what your caption was. Everyone only ever cared about hitting over 11 likes, which was easily done within minutes and that was it. There was also little to no system when it came to who was following you. I know that with the girls I was friends  with and myself included, we didn’t use any privacy settings. We just let whoever follow us and view our posts.

So looking back to Instagram now, quite a lot has changed. When we think of what the present day Instagram is like, we know that there are many people out there that are paid quite a lot of money to post. Who would have ever thought that you could be paid for posting on social media. If I knew this was what the future held, I would’ve put a lot more effort into making my posts look pretty.
Companies have found Instagram to be a site for great advertising, not only through their own company account but through other people too. If a company finds someone on Instagram with a substantial amount of followers and exposure, they’re likely to real out and offer a deal. This deal most likely consists of the Instagram user posting an image of them with the companies product to then encourage followers to go out and buy the product.

When starting up an Instagram account there are a few things that need to be considered.

What should my username be? Should I have a bio? What do I want to gain from this? Do I want to eventually be paid for uploading? Do I want to be known for something? What will my focus be? Do I want to pull a Banksy on everyone and never have my face shown? Do I want to average a certain amount of likes? Who should my target audience be? Will I have multiple accounts? Should I have a colour scheme? Should I have an upload day?

Some of these questions may feel minor, however with everything combined you could either result in a ridiculously successful Instagram page or a mediocre one.

Once you have started up your account, decided upon what your focus will be and who you want to cater towards, it’s time to start taking some photos.
This is where questions relating to how you’re going to take your photos arise.

Do I want to use a phone camera? Do I want to buy an expensive professional camera? Do I want someone to take the photos for me? Do I want to edit my photos? Should I take selfies?
These questions are ways in which you are able to establish how you want your overall Instagram feed to look.

By using a professional and expensive camera you are able to take clearer photos which result in looking a lot more pleasing when scrolling through. Relating back to my blog post from week 11, I talked about using my laptop camera instead of my phone. By using a more powerful device I had a much more defined end product. Using a higher quality camera resulting in less editing to be done later on and required less work to capture the right image.

Editing in Instagram doesn’t feel all that professional, its fair to say that its an amateur level of editing. So companies such as photoshop are often used when it comes to people with a large following trying to result in the perfect picture. Even things like face tuning have become really popular as like I started in the beginning, there are a lot more people spreading online hate so we feel more inclined to make ourselves appear perfect.

Things such as captions, hashtags and location updates are all things that have a way of slightly improving the overall look of an Instagram post. These are ways in which we have the opportunity to really use Instagram as a form of documentation and remember where those photos have come from and why you’ve chosen to upload them. As I stated in my week 10 photo post, hashtags have a lot of power to expose your posts to a larger audience. Simple things like #dog have a lot more photos linked to them compared to #wowmydogisbetterthanyourdogforsure.

Instagram has become a space where people have the opportunity to start up and share their own companies. Ways in which Instagram has become beneficial foe the users has been the opportunity to share and expose their own work. Not only professional businesses, however small achievements like award winning artwork or finishing a marathon are support worthy Instagram posts.

Tagging other people within your posts has made Instagram a successful social media platform. It gives users the opportunity to share who they are with and hat they are doing with their fellow followers and allows others to comment and share on experiences together.

Sharing your Instagram among other social media platforms also gives you the opportunity to share your account with other friends and allows everyone within your social media sites to have the opportunity to view your work. This action of multi social media posting also gives people that are running a business the opportunity to really engage with all of their audiences and ensure that they have enough exposure.

WORD COUNT: 1031 words

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLm19mnWp58PhN_9hzNjJTNn8exT-xql_1cs00/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: For this video I had no option but to use my laptop rear camera as like in the previous post, my phone has died. R.I.P

This was also a high door so short Sarah could not reach well enough to video and open the door at the same time so she got her housemate to help.

I decided to try out flash but I quickly realised I it didn’t look too great so I decided against it yet again.

Due to the door being so high I was on a bit of a weird angle but the point of the video was less of what the door looks like front on and more how it functions, just like all of my posts. I looked around my apartment and found 8 different functioning/looking doors… wow those two bedroom apartments in South Yarra really don’t disappoint.

For this video I had to crop out the ending as I hadn’t stopped filming before I moved the camera away…what an amateur. I also muted the sound as I felt as though it was unnecessary and I had a lot of background noise going on while capturing the image.

PUBLISHING: This video was taken with two shots, one with flash and one without. I decided to add a location as I always call this cupboard the Milo cupboard because that’s where the massive tin of Milo sits, it’s so big that it cant fit anywhere else. I always configured this video to play automatically as I wanted to keep a running theme of it through my feed.

DISTRIBUTION:  Just like all of my other posts on Instagram, I shared them within my personal Facebook on a muted setting. Another reason as to why I don’t really want other seeing me post images of doors to social media…it’s a little random.

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLmncSnrowrPL5VO8ogg10UnC0sH-4iU2FqK40/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: For this image I had to use my laptops rear camera (Windows Surface Pro) as unfortunately I dropped my phone, on the carpet might I add, and now the camera app has completely stopped working. From transferring to my laptop camera; which has a lot more power behind it, I’ve noticed how much more clear and advanced the camera is.

To capture the image I had to adjust my positioning a little more than the previous posts. Both the light source and location of the door were things that made it a little more difficult to capture the right image. Similarly to the previous posts, adjusting the photo to fit correctly within the square framing supplied in Instagram was something that needed to be fiddled with.

As this image was taken during the day, so no flash was necessary. I only did some minor editing, a lot like the photo produced last week; small things like the brightness and sharpness of the image are all that were altered.

Due to me having to use my laptop camera, the actual process of uploading a post was a lot more work compared to usual. As I couldn’t find a way to upload to the Instagram website through my laptop there were extra steps that needed to be made to get a post up. I had to capture the image and then send it to myself to then have that image appear on my phone.

PUBLISHING: For this particular post I had a few images to chose from as I spent time trying to find the correct lighting and positioning for the end product. Many of my images looked similar, however the major difference between  them all was trying not to bet myself in the reflection. A lot like what will be mentioned soon, I don’t take selfies and I’m not one to jump in front of camera so having myself in the background of a photo that I’m taking for an assignment  is not particularly ideal to me.

A caption and one hashtag were added to the post

DISTRIBUTION: This image, as stated before was a little difficult to avoid having me seen in the background; which gave me even more of a reason to keep my Facebook post settings private.

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLmgIjHsxte6pd8erJ_1iuxdLqYTyI-EGzecs0/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: To capture this image I used my iPhone 6 plus rear camera as I felt that it was the best way to end with the right visuals. As this cupboard door is pretty high up I needed the help of my housemate. Luckily this is a small door so I could fit everything that I wanted to easily into the square frame provided within the Instagram app.

This particular door is in a quite dimly lit area in my apartment to trying to allow the camera to pick up a light source was challenging however, while looking at the end result I think that’s pretty obvious.

This particular video was taken as one shot, I felt as though I was not coordinated enough to successfully break up a shot whilst being in an uncomfortable position. I also muted the video as I thought it was a lot more cleaner and seemed more like a final product that way.

PUBLISHING: To get the correct shot I had to move around quite a lot, however I only actually recorded one video so I had little to choose from. I decided to add a caption as like my previous posts I felt as though the image needed some context behind it. I also configured the video to play automatically as It seems to be a lot more easier for the viewer and looks a lot better when clicking onto the post.

DISTRIBUTION: Just like the previous posts, I uploaded the video to my personal Facebook however I decided to share  it among some of my close friends so I didn’t have to feel as though I was cheating as much with this criteria.

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLmbfxnEnyjyCGhS2riPX21vD5xTa99g9B6bw0/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: The photo was taken once again, by using the rear camera of my iPhone 6 plus. A lot like the still photo post from last week, using the square formatting in the Instagram app just took a little manoeuvring. At times, fitting in a large rectangular shaped door into a small square frame can become tedious.

For this post I decided to see how the final product would look both with and without flash, however I decided upon no flash as the result was a little more precise.

For the editing stage of this post I decided to scroll through and have a look at various ways in which I had the option to enhance my image. As a result my final photo looks a lot more sharp and any blurred lines have been removed.

This particular image was a little more difficult to capture compared to last weeks image of the same door at night time. The reasoning behind this is the light source I was dealing with. In my small two bedroom apartment, there is one major source of light. The entire North-face of the apartment is a floor to ceiling glass window that looks over the city. Because my apartment is only two bedrooms, it was almost inevitable that one bedroom missed out on having a window; and that was mine (I’ve had a long run of bad luck when it comes to winning or losing at flipping a coin).

PUBLISHING: Due to trying out the flash setting and trying to find the correct light source, yes there were quite a few images to choose from when it came to actually posting an image. I hate searching for flaws in each photo to try and find one to use. I’m not great at remembering what was wrong with each image; after a while they all look exactly the same.

Just as last weeks still post, I added in a geo-tag to make the overall look of the post look a lot more legitimate. Also like last week and what I’m assuming will happen next week, I added in a caption to give the image some context.

DISTRIBUTION: Unlike last week, I decided to add in 2 hashtags to the end of my caption as using hashtags

Give your image more exposure over the Instagram app. According to what your hashtag is; for example, #dog would have a lot more images linked to it compared to #omgireallyreallywantadog, you have the opportunity to control how many people have the opportunity  see your image linked to the hashtag.

Again, like last week I have my Facebook settings muted so that others cant see what I’m uploading. I really thought about the reasoning behind this and I’ve realised that the last time I actually uploaded something onto social media has been years; back when young and careless Sarah existed and Instagram was just starting up.

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLmLKcHjl2FqvEEhQcZsyUieVTWkqldDV-L-80/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: This video was shot using my iPhone 6 plus rear ended camera. It was a little difficult to get the correct angling of my body to take the video as the door is tall and I wanted to get as much of it in the camera frame as possible. When it came time to adjusting the video to fit into Instagram’s infamous white square frame, a lot like what I’m predicting for the next few posts was just manoeuvring and finding the right point to which all of what I wanted viewed could fit into the frame.

For this video, I tried both with and without flash as I wanted to see if the flash could help out how dark the apartment was at the time, however I decided to choose without flash as it looked too harsh.

For this video I decided to go with one smooth run of filming, I didn’t think that using the start-stop touch feature was necessary as I just wanted to show the doors pulling function.

As I tried out using both with and without flash, I resulting in having a few videos to choose from however it was easy for me to come to the conclusion of which that I wanted to upload.

When flicking through which video to use, I realised that the one I had chosen had an unnecessarily long pause at the end so I decided to crop it out.

PUBLISHING: For this week’s post I added in a caption as even though you can clearly see that there is food inside of the cupboard, I wanted to make it easily understandable where the door belonged. I added a location status saying “my pantry” as I thought it’d make something within the post a little humorous.

I configured the video to play automatically as I thought it’d be easier for the viewer when scrolling and looked a little more cleaner within the feed.

DISTRIBUTION: The video was obviously distributed to Instagram, however it was also shared within my personal Facebook account.  While uploading to Instagram, I decided to use hashtags as I thought to myself that it would make my caption look a little more complete and allow my post to have more exposure within the Instagram app.

INSTA POST: https://www.instagram.com/p/BpLlHkTncRDf3Xd1Lpgy0UrO3udcfl6ivotu-g0/?taken-by=s3661886

AUTHORING: This photo was taken using my iPhone 6 plus rear sided camera within the Instagram app, although sadly it took me longer that intended to take a photo due to my phones storage being so full that the camera setting couldn’t even load up. Waaaa poor me… maybe I should stop ignoring the warning signs telling me I haven’t backed up my phone in 58 weeks… whoops.

Once the camera was finally working again, it only took me a few shots to capture what I was aiming for. This photo was taken whilst I was sitting on a completely overfilled beanbag I have shoved in the corner of my bedroom; approximately 2 meters from the door.

Due to the square formatting within the Instagram app, I had to maneuver the image and zoom in and out to find the right positioning to fit all of what I wanted into the frame.

For this particular feature I made sure that the flash setting was turned off as the aim for this photo was to show the unusual way in which my bedroom door was manufactured.

No editing was applied to the photo as I really just wanted to portray how my door functions at night with living room lights turned on; and, I suck at that kind of stuff.

PUBLISHING: Before publishing this image to Instagram, I only had a few images to choose from so in a way, this particular step in uploading was simple. I chose the clearest image and then moved onto thinking of a caption. The reasoning behind adding a caption with the image was that I thought this particular image needed some context behind it. I also thought it’d be nice to add a geotag to the image as these make the overall post look and feel like more of a legitimate Instagram post rather than a uni assignment.

DISTRIBUTION: In terms of my own personal social media sites, I’m very quiet. I don’t upload things or post Facebook statuses, I usually just observe and like things; so when it came to the distribution of my posts onto other media sites I decided to mute my activity to anyone I’m friends with. By doing so I’d be completing the criteria without having to expose myself online.