The recent update to Lightroom (and descent into League) means that photography has taken a bit of a backseat once again, but I have actually managed to turn posting to social media into a bit of a trend. I'm enjoying it so far, which is good, but have discovered that my reasons for enjoyment are very different across the two platforms I'm utilising.
On 500px, the kick I get from uploading a new image is very much a stereotypical social-media hook. I enjoy seeing people's enjoyment; getting likes, follows and comments. Sure, each upload comes with a slight worry about how it will rank compared to those that came before, but each image that reaches Upcoming or Popular status feels like an achievement, which makes me want to upload again. It's a simple feedback loop that keeps me engaged with their website, even if some photos do unexpectedly well or bizarrely poorly (seriously, as far as I'm concerned my shot of the Old Man is the best photograph I've edited to date).
However, my engagement with Instagram has come from a very different source, which has surprised me. Possibly because I've been using the service as a log book for several years, I really don't care how much traction my images get. In fact, unlike 500px, I basically view likes on Instagram as irritations, creating notifications on my phone to be swiped into oblivion. That does change if I know the person that has liked the image, especially if they're someone who enjoys photography or creative outlets themselves, but otherwise I'm completely nonplussed by direct engagement metrics on the platform. So why bother uploading there in the first place?
It sounds completely strange, but I actually find Instagram much more valuable as a tool than as a service. Uploading an image is less about the sharing as having a very quick and intuitive way of tweaking settings and playing with filters to see if I can improve it a little more. Once that's been done, I'll often fire up Lightroom again and actively compare the two images, slowly tweaking Lightroom's settings to make it more Instagram-like before re-exporting a 'final' version for 500px. I strongly believe that the style of images presented on both platforms should be different, and never try and copy Instagrams filters wholesale, but they do tend to point me in a new direction or just help with refinement.
That's the process that I used on my Old Man shot and is largely why I love the outcome as much as I do. I thought it was a great photo before I ran it through the Instagram tweaking process, but the version that came out the other end blew me away. Taking those changes and reproducing them myself ultimately led to a final image that I think is better than either of the previous two outcomes. Other times I've decided to just upload to 500px, partially because I couldn't see how Instagram could make the image better and partially because the process of getting a file onto Instagram is incredibly frustrating. In pretty much every instance that I've chosen this route I've regretted it, often re-uploading to 500px at a later time having flip-flopped on my decision.
Just to show what I mean, here's my latest upload, a shot of a snow leopard checking out his recently snow-bedecked surroundings at the wonderful Hellabrun Zoo in Munich, Germany (taken on a trip almost two years ago):
I uploaded the image to 500px first because I didn't think it could be tweaked any more. I also wanted to retain a very natural feel, which isn't exactly Instagram's forte. That said, here's the same image uploaded a few minutes later and tweaked subtly in Instagram:
A post shared by Murray Adcock (@theadhocracy) on Nov 4, 2017 at 10:44am PDT
Now, I wouldn't ever consider copying that style wholesale to 500px. It definitely isn't as natural-looking, with a weird purple haze, and it's lost some of the ruggedness of the environment as a result. However, something about that combination of settings on Instagram really makes the leopard pop, creating a much nicer sense of depth and focus. I was extremely tempted to try and replicate the look, except for the colour, and re-upload to 500px. Unfortunately, I can't picture in my head what settings to push around in Lightroom to achieve the outcome I want, so right now the original remains.
How I've come to use Instagram is not at all what I expected, but speaks volumes about how clever their rendering algorithms are (or how much I still have to learn about Lightroom, of course). For now, it feels strangely inspiring knowing I can quickly iterate a number of 'looks' for my image and then replicate the bits I like. That's a creative process which seems to be providing quite a hook.
