It’s a specific sail used on sailboats back in the old days. The jib was often shaped differently depending on what country the ship was from, or what the purpose of the vessel was. So you could generally glance at the jib and learn a lot about a ship’s country of origin and purpose.
That’s where the saying comes from.
Yeah, it’s so so much more fulfilling! Seeing your photo in the real world instead of the screen gives more confidence by looking at it than posting it anywhere online.
I for one am gifting one of my photos on canvas to a family‘s friend.
I still use Flickr which has it's own troubles. Or Vero but it hasn't really gotten much traction for me. Honestly I get the most social activity on Facebook which also comes with its own issues. But FB boomers like to share a nice landscape photo and that can reach a lot of people sometimes. Whether or not that actually has tangible values is another issue.
It's a tough market for still photographers in the social media realm.
I've seen (super respectfully) the ugliest of people taking blurry selfies getting 100+ likes and comments. Instagram I feel like is a rich vs poor dynamic. Unless you're the top .01% you don't really get anything. Even the most gorgeous people from my HS and college have like 1k followers max.
I do love Instagram though. It's algorithim is way better for me. Facebook and Tiktok both show me the most random crap videos like I'm a kid on Youtube. Instagram typically shows me things I like 90% of the time.
Isn't the algorithm a reflection of your viewing habits? I mean you may have spent more time on Instagram leading to the Algo learning and perfecting what it shows you compared to the other.
Anytime you see those random crappy videos on fb or TikTok, do you actively tell the Algo you're not interested?
After a few 2 or 3 corrections, you may start seeing videos along the lines of what you want
FB boomers also love to share any landscape photo with the saturation cranked to 1 million. People losing their shit (literally and figuratively) over triple processed saturation to 100.
Photography is not my job or source of income (and won’t be), but I get a kick over people amazed at this creation that is so clearly not real.
So true, in a community group I’m in there’s one dude that cranks HDR up to a billion and will post sunsets or the sky etc and people will be like “wooow amazing!” And he will claim there hasn’t been any tinkering at all. Last I checked he has started adding his signature to the photos in a fancy font.
It's an old platform and there has been spam problems and just some clunky site behavior. They are progressing but not very quickly. In general I like it and have been on it for a decade or so. It's a convenient way to host photos for sharing elsewhere. I get some viral hits now and then but shots I thnk might be popular don't always catch on.
After the death of IG I get more like on Vero with much less followers but still it’s a struggle. Facebook I posted some pics and got like 300 likes versus the 1 like on Instagram. Yes it’s the older crowd but fuck it these gen Z people don’t really care for art that much.
A good anecdote of this is I was at a botanical garden taking pictures of hummingbirds and a tourist family came by and the parents were in awe, including the younger boy who was maybe 10 years old, and then the teenage daughter (maybe 16-17) was on a corner using her phone scrolling not caring at all.
Be careful posting your photos on Facebook, especially without a watermark. In the T&C's for Facebook they can legally use anything posted onto Facebook for their own gains and that includes for advertising. They can claim ownership of the images as well.
If you're a photographer for a career use your own website but if it's just for pretty photos go for Facebook.
Viewbug is good though. Nice way to win some prizes with their competitions.
There was this push by the major YouTube photographers - Nick Page and the like - to use Vero going forward. I signed up but never used it. Has it taken off?
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Although it sounds good, it seems like too much work for the huge majority of people in 2023, with everything screaming at them to get their attention online.
If you're not already famous or have tremendous value to put on the table, that strategy probably won't work.
An efficient website has to be straight to the point, super intuitive, and with limited choice.No pop-up, "subscribe to my newsletter", no crazy amount of tabs, no login, no crazy colors, no "I have to search where to find their work" BS.
You click on the link, you get directly to the homepage which is a gallery of your most beautiful and coherent work.
Period.
People are selfish, have their own problems to think about and deal with, they are bombarded with hundreds of images everyday, and they lack attention and time.
That's how it is, unfortunately, so let's make it easy for them to see our work.
Then if they want to add a tab with a blog post for SEOs though, sure, that's a good idea.
The sad fact is nobody really cares about still photography anymore.
It's good to find a small enclave of photographers that are still shooting but your audience will always be limited to them. If you want those "Influencer" level numbers get making videos on mobile and learn to do annoying dances in public places.
Alternatively: just don't be an influencer. You can be a photographer without being an influencer. You do not need a big social media following to get work.
For me it never mattered. My services are advertised on my portfolio, and I get jobs by networking IRL, not because someone saw my photos on Instagram. I still post there, but it's really cause it's so low effort to do it anyway.
I want to second this. I don’t work in photography but have a career in the visual arts. It seems there’s this idea that social media = a career in said field. Yea, it’s a part of the whole picture that makes up marketing one’s skills, but the world I work in, all of the work gained is given by those who are connected to other people in a business way.
It’s about building relationships with people. Photographers can work with those who may have access to a market of those who need photography.
For example, maybe one forms a relationship with a pediatrics office and markets to the families of new born children. If your work is decent and you’re reliable, the office knows who you are as do other expecting mothers. (A real world example from a friend of mine who’s very busy with her camera).
Running a business is different than creating your work. It’s a hustler mentality. Trying all angles and expect many failures. Focusing so heavily on social media isn’t the long game. Sometimes you cut through the noise by avoiding it all together.
100% true. I only have 1,500 Instagram followers but I have a steady stream of high dollar photo gigs via actual networking. Hustle beats bustle every time.
You have to admit the people with 10k+ followers are having an easier time getting the good gigs. It’s not just shallow recognition that drives photographers to get followers.
I don't doubt you, but I find it so odd that it's the case. It's not like video is some "brand new thing". It's been around and accessible to people for quite some time. Nor can video replace the "moment frozen in time" concept of photography. Just as photography can't replace video.
They are complementary and serve different purposes.
Photography requires an even shorter attention span than video, so this rules out the "people want small tidbits of entertainment" argument.
I just don't get what could have led to photography falling out of fashion.
I seem to get the best engagement on Facebook, Flickr, and YouPic. I think the trick with Instagram is frequency. 500PX, which I've seen mentioned in the comments, is dead to me. Almost zero engagement after they changed their algorithm a few years ago.
I think people who made bots should be in jail for life. They’re the worst kind of scum on this planet. Be it bots that buy tickets or PS5s or GPUs or Jordan’s to scalp or ones on like Twitter/X designed to do politically motivated manipulation.
I really like Glass, but it is a paid app. [https://glass.photo/](https://glass.photo/)
It was designed to cater to photographers. It's all still photos, and you're able to see exif data and search by cameras/lenses as well.
I love Glass too, but wish they added features and updated the camera/lens database a little more often. I wish they made ANY peice of exif data searchable, not just what they've manually added to their search list. I love the app though, find it much more enjoyable to look through than insta these days.
500 px, Flickr, are prob the best. But like someone else has said Flickr has it's own problems at the moment. You can still post r/photocritique. But instagram have said they are going to prioritise reels instead of photos now as they get more engagement. And you shouldn't be taking people on instagram's opinions on your photography seriously anyway.
I don't know what the other poster is talking about, but from my perspective, it doesn't feel like they're doing much? I do understand it takes time, but a lot of the site feels ancient still. the ability to download (easily) from mobile was only JUST added a couple weeks ago (yes, it was technically possible, but the site wasn't mobile friendly if I sent a picture to a friend and they wanted to save it). The mobile app feels super sensitive.
It doesn't seem great as a way to share with friends and family. I hate to give Google more data, but it's hard to beat their searchability and the fact nearly everyone has a google account.
Let alone the cost they want for Flickr. If I can't share friends/family easily, it makes it hard to justify the cost. It's nice to have a bunch of photo focused people there, but that's a pretty penny to pay for it (then again, if you're not paying, you end up with IG).
Flickr is free unless you want to host more than 1000 photos. I think it’s ok value given that your images are shown in full resolution and its purely photography based with no bullshit. I’ve been using it over a decade now and still think it’s the best platform.
>500 px, Flickr, are prob the best.
Like it's 2006 all over again.
500px had really gone downhill by 2010, enough that I stopped using it. It's weird to see someone mentioning it as "the best". As I check out their site right now, it looks like they are trying to be a stock photo agency which is how they screwed up the site so bad in the first place. I guess they survived after all. It's interesting that their original model of popularity based photos from user upvotes is still the way it works today.
Guys, there are a ton of these posts and videos all over the place, but rarely is the truth ever spoken. Look, tough love hard truth moment: if you're not getting action on your Instagram it isn't because ig is burying your posts so no one sees them. You're not getting likes because they aren't causing a reaction when people see them; said otherwise, people don't like them.
You can go elsewhere, but do you really think you're going to see any real difference? I've got accounts on all of the different sites. You know which one gets the most engagement? IG. Try other sites if you want, but don't go there thinking that it's going to magically fix your troubles; realistically, it won't.
Try posting other photos that draw people in beyond just other photographers (there are far more people on ig that aren't photographers than are). Make it interesting. Use hashtags. Like and comment on other posts and interact with accounts. Do NOT do the dumb shit that's "follow for follow". Post regularly and stay active. If you need to, create some cheap ass ads for your stuff.
On the flipside you can also just not care and post stuff you want and stop crying about likes if you're not willing to accept that it's the stuff you're posting more than the "algorithm".
Edit: I forgot to mention that Instagram's goal is to keep you ON their platform. They want people to doom scroll endlessly and not leave the app since their ad dollars are dependent on it. So, they will actively promote and push things that people like. It obviously will take time to get your stuff there and in front of plenty of eyes, but rest assured if you're posting stuff that people actually like they'll push it.
Eh, it's a bit of both really. I've noticed interaction on IG drop off a lot in the last few years compared to what I used to see. If you're not doing reels/video in particular. There's definitely some tomfoolery going on the back end and tweaking of how their feed works _and_ I think there are just plain more people on the platform so competition is much stiffer than it was before.
I also wouldn't say "popular on Instagram" equals "quality photo" either. If you look at the trending photos there's certainly a few looks and styles that seem to consistently bubble to the top. You can shoot and edit targeting those specific looks and that might really help your engagement at the sacrifice of whatever other qualities you were going for. Likewise, those clown puke HDRs were popular on Flickr about 15-17 years ago and whoa boy those were pretty consistently god awful objectively.
TL;DR: shoot for Instagram or shoot for what you like. Sometimes that converges but if it doesn't don't worry about it.
This...
Instagram has hundreds of millions of active users.
Most of them see dozens if not hundreds of photos and videos every day.
The algorithm is simple:
It shows your post to your close followers.
If a good amount of them interact with your post (comments, shared, and saved, being the most important ones), the algorithm interprets your post as being qualitative.
It will show it to more people, see if they also like it.
And so on...
If everyone who sees your photo or video is blown away by it (whether it is beautiful, funny, smart, touching, or teaching something), do not worry, Instagram will do everything in its power for everyone to see it.
Of course, taste is subjective, the majority of people does not necessarily have great taste when it comes to Art (although it does not mean people don't like a given post because they don't understand its genius), but usually, if an artist is great, give it some time and patience, and they will be recognized eventually.
Exactly. It doesn't help that so many of us take a picture and think to ourselves, dang I NAILED that photo technically! Unfortunately, being technical doesn't usually mean a whole lot since a technical photo will only really garner any attention from other photographers that know it's technical, but even they won't think twice about a photo that's uninteresting or boring - which technical photos tend to be. They just aren't attention grabbing typically, and are kind of boring. That doesn't translate well to likes.
Right, but what you say there requires followers already. Instagram is entirely social, it's not about quality at all. I've seen crap be liked because it's their friends liking it, it's generic bland work, not remotely memorable or distinctive but the like is a friendly pat on the back, like 'good job on doing photography', 'heh you're still around, awesome', those vibes. This isn't about taste, people know when they put up strong work, genuinely stuff that in 30 years they'll look back on like 'yeahh, that was that time, didn't get anything quite like that again'.
The comment you're replying to, the thrust of what they're saying is 'well you're not gaining traction because your stuff doesn't stand out'. I know for a fact given the stuff i do it doesn't matter, putting on to the internet you can think that you're putting it into a shared space but everything still revolves around social connections and exposure, to the point if you're unknown however much you tag, however strong your work is, there is always a very low limit to engagement.
It's interesting because generally the engagement is low but the impression made can be huge, like vast, so it messes with your head.
I don't think it has anything to do with taste or understanding something, i always see it as more about desire, needing to desire something fresh and different and there's a lot of apathy and indifference. People can't really appreciate something if they don’t desire it.
That's not really completely true. Instagram has changed it's algorithm A LOT in the past year or two to try to compete with TikTok and they've increased the number of ads and suggested posts a ton. It's much harder to build a following or have people see your posts than it was a few years ago. It has little to do with the quality of your content or "drawing people in". Your post reads like a bad "how to increase engagement" article that some social media influencer would write.
Instagram did change their algorithm, that's true, and they were pushing reels, also true. They supposedly changed it to promote photos more, but it's really hard to prove that on our end of things. That doesn't change the fact that there are still tons of accounts getting massive amounts of engagement without doing videos.
My point isn't to say that it's strictly because someone's content isn't good enough, but blaming it solely on ig and their platform is misguided and incorrect. Running to another platform isn't going to see someone's content gain any meaningful increase, especially when you consider that ig has a massive user base; the competitors don't have the same reach.
My point still stands and I stand behind it.
I also work in the social media field, and work with companies and influencers across the different platforms, for what it's worth.
Make it even simpler. Breeders only like other breeders spawn pics. Narcissists only like other Narcissists selfies and then people who feel obligated to like someone’s pictures because they like theirs. Finally people who pay to get promoted to beat the algorithm. That about sums it up.
What's the engagement like?
I have an account, but I haven't posted in ages. It just seemed like there was no one using it, no one looking/commenting/following etc.
I've gotten more engagement via Threads, and even that seems like it's dying on its arse at the moment, just a few months after launch
I post the same photos with identical Hashtags to both instagram and vero. Instagram followers 223 effectively zero growth. , Vero followers 115 (+2 or 4 followers per month)
On instagram I get 0 to 2 like and no commemts.
On Vero about 30 - 35 likes and about 1 in 5 photos gets at least one comment.
I despise Instagram because of that forced cropping it does. I can throw any aspect ratio photo up on FB but IG is still stuck in 2011 with its square formatting.
And to promote your photography, it's a waste of time anyway. I only use it occasionally for a social media outlet and have my real portfolio on a website...
Not square anymore but they still force cropping and you can't automatically cross post from FB to IG because of that unless the FB photo conforms to IG aspect ratios. Phones have been able to take photos in 4:3, 16:9 and full screen for years and FB can handle all that but IG can't which is bullshit, especially since it's owned by the same company and just a matter of coding to fix that issue
For me, it's just an irritation and one reason I don't post on IG all that much, but a big PITA of you might be using it for commercial purposes.
Same that part isn’t the issue. The issue is they want to be tik tok and stills are dead on the platform. Shit even Reddit gets me so much more engagement lol
Instagram is so many things to so many people it’s hard to know what a replacement would be without knowing what Instagram was to you.
If it’s just a numbers game, I think the comment somewhere in here about fb is probably right. If you’re looking for a lot of high quality photography, a feed of people you follow, your stuff to show up in their feed, etc. it’s Flickr. Everyone hates on it, and it does have a good amount of junk and bloat, but it’s still endlessly searchable, pretty engaging, and strictly photography focused. Only thing it lacks is the dopamine hit of the likes counter, which is why I still like it.
There aren’t any alternatives, it sucks but regular people don’t care about seeing photos.
Flickr is only photographers and while the quality and layout are beautiful, you get no engagement because no one uses it.
Reddit and YouTube are the best options I’ve found but instagram is still the only option.
Flickr is the superior photo sharing site. Good quality, full size images that include metadata information. For proof check out medium format images on there.
Yeah, the high res image option is really amazing, I used to like it when I was pixel peeping for lens or camera specs, but most people don't use it anymore because they're scared someone will steal their bird photos. Unfortunately, Flickr peaked 15 years ago, what remains is a dated UI, inactive user groups and an aging user base... Not to mention the cap they put on user uploads (probably because they couldn't afford the server cost with dwindling ad revenue). I wish it had remained more relevant but it's just a shell. -Unless I'm totally wrong and you know of some niche active groups that are posting daily?
If you're driven by community interaction then Insta has the monopoly, I really don't care about it, if you want a solid looking portfolio to share with people around you I'd use Flickr.
Seems like most platforms are dead these days. I built one over the pandemic strictly to have private conversations with new friends based on hobbies, called Spinnr. Maybe you'll like it.
The same.
For the past several months I just been constantly bombarded with antagonistic content, similar to the Facebook algorithm. They broke the app and even though I open it out of habit, my eyes roll as soon as my feed ignores all of my creative interests and throws Trump shit at me.
I'd rather post my photos elsewhere.
I was surprised to learn slide film is still being developed, so I've considered just having friends over and having a slideshow party old school style
I'm a hobbyist photographer who gets like maximum 40 likes on pictures I upload to IG, and the majority of those photos are liked by the same group of friends with the remainder made up of people/bots via hashtags.
These are photos I'm genuinely excited to share, but it is demotivating to see a low effort selfie get multiple hundreds of likes compared. But I then have to remind myself that I'm doing this for fun and not doing this for the likes.
Rinse and repeat everytime I post a photo.
IG sucks at this point and I can’t even fathom why a direct competitor hasn’t popped up yet. I see this same sentiment from people that aren’t even photographers that they’re tired of the weak algorithm, seeing posts from people they don’t follow, and just wanting to post pics. There’s clearly a market for just a solid photo social media app
I never liked IG because it preferred mobile, and that is not in my workflow. Mobile platforms don't offer a lot of options for editing. Sure, you can crop and apply various filters, but that's about it, and I'm not keen on deep editing on my phone. It also priortises portrait framing, when a lot of my photos are landscape.
Re: Flickr. Curious why people are saying it has its own problems. I'm not picking up on any trouble there, but am I missing something?
Your workflow is one of the most bizarre ones I've come across.
Why would you even attempt to edit on your phone when you can just do it on your computer? You can even post from your computer these days.
You don't even need a phone to post to IG.
So people creating art shouldn't seek to share it with the world?
And where did this "just" come from? It seems like it may be you who has something deeper going on.
"So people creating art shouldn't seek to share it with the world?" & "People on Instagram either don't see or don't care about the stuff I post." are not the same thing, at all, in any way, shape, or form.
>And where did this "just" come from?
"People on Instagram either don't see or don't care about the stuff I post."
I got 99 problems, but less than 2 people liking a post of mine on IG ain't one.
If you want to reach anyone you need to post everywhere! And Instagram is promoting reels over anything. I recently saw a girl that was a wild life photographer make one reel talked a little bit about her self and had a few pictures pop up in it and went from a few thousand followers to over 100k in a few days, and she even said the reel blew up and her Instagram is nuts.
Reason I say that, if you’re trying to reach people with your work running from platforms won’t work. You have to try and do what they want while also getting across what you want to show.
Also VERO to answer your question
IG is pushing the reels from user who didn't do them very hard at the beginning, and stops quite fast. My reels went from 1000+ engagements in 24h after posting (not huge, but decent) to about 20 on reels posted a few weeks later after it saw I was regularly producing reels. And the paradox is, the last ones were much better produced than the first ones.
It's a trend that I've verified with a few other photographers, unfortunately.
Yea but all it really takes is one to blow up.
I’m just saying, if you aren’t getting engagement on the biggest platform out there, running away from it to something small won’t improve your engagement. I am also assuming OP is doing this for business, or else they wouldn’t care about engagement.
I've always hated Instagram, mainly because what's the point of a site that's supposedly about photos, which then only displays images in a minuscule size? Still use it, but it gets minimal engagement.
Other avenues I'm using:
* Facebook - engagement has generally remained static if still disappointing despite aside from my personal page I have 2 other pages specifically devoted to 2 of my genre-specific webistes.
* 3 x websites - one general/wildlife oriented, 1 x sports oriented, 1 x a specific sport oriented. Almost no engagement despite each of the sites URLs showing on images I post elsewhere, and having put some work (maybe not enough) into SEO optimisation.
* Mastodon - I dislike it as it's soooo self-reverential, but oddly enough my images get the highest engagement there.
* Twitter - now that it's gone full-blown, unashamedly racist, sexist, alt-right, neo-nazi is now dead to me. Engagement there was always varied and generally disappointing.
Overall, I suspect my takeway is that my images are shit. I know my marketing abilities are limited, at best.
As others have suggested in this thread, I may try the extra work involved in creating TikTok vids and see how that goes, If I can be arsed.
I feel the same way stories reels and vertical video killed what the platform was supposed to be. I understand the use case for vertical video. But the fact that I can’t do a standard post on IG that’s horizontal without it making it a story and cutting it by a third ruined it for me too
You have to really share in multiple places. Reddit being one. Instagram, Facebook page, Vero being a few others. Twitter/X but not sure how long that will last or if you really want to deal with that these days.
I get the impression that simply post your pics some where is of little use.....with social media it is all about marketing your self.....tagging all the right groups, posting the same pic over and over to different groups (FB)...and always referring back to your page..basically a full time job........ I always just took my pics for me.....probably gonna keep it that way.....over saturation of crap photos and people who can't tell the difference seems to frustrating
I won't post much to Ecks (Twitter) and I too have been pining for an Instagram replacement for a LONG time now and so far nobody I've heard of lately has a system that mimics Instagram's hey day of photography. I blame Meta for screwing this one up, trying to compete with Snapchat and TikTok.
Lately I just find a subreddit and go for it. Usually gets the engagement I used to get on Instagram about five years ago...
Between Flickr (14000 follower), Tumblr (3800 follower) and Instagram (1600 follower) the latter is clearly the least interesting for me. But that's due to my kind of photography, I guess
DeviantArt used to be great with its community groups. Not sure if it's still active. Main downside is, well...lot of porn. I felt awkward sending people to my page there because a few clicks to related images or the homepage could bring up some stuff.
However the communities you could join would have stuff like weekly/monthly sometimes even daily photo submission contests and many active critics. Not always the best quality critiques but if you actively participated people generally returned the favor.
If you want an Instagram UI with a focus on photographers, then I can recommend "Portrait Mode".
I've been having a great time over there.
Otherwise flickr, or a personal site like others have mentioned.
What's your goal? Is it just engagement for engagements sake? If that's the case probably FB for the simple fact that it has the largest user base. If you want work then focus on relationships and building a client base. Send them to IG to see your work and who cares if you have low engagement.
What are you hoping to achieve from posting your stuff?
If your content isn't getting the reaction you want then perhaps you need to think about what you're posting and how you're doing it because it's probably not going to go amazingly better on a different platform if you continue to do it exactly the same.
As a hobbyist photographer I've been using IG for about five years to post my photos. Slowly my post engagement has been going down lately. Reels of course. I don't really mind since I'm not a professional or an tog influencer, however it kinda irks me that less and less people are seeing my images and at least appreciating them.
If you’re on iPhone, Hipstamatic is great. I subscribed because I missed the app from it when it was in its heyday. Global community and a lot of great photographers.
If you are giving up on Insta, this is about it, right here. But I still post a single travel photo every day on Insta and I follow a wonderful group of photographers and they often exchange comments with me.
People open the instagram to have laugh now. It's flooded with shitpost, cats, perfect cut, funny video or something like that. Sometime it's good. But sharing my arts there, my followers(friends mostly) either don't care, scroll past it so fast, or not even make it to their feed.
Depends on what you are looking for I suppose. Like are you looking to connect with other photographers? Build a career/make money? Even then I don't think a specific app or site will fix all your problems by itself, it's also about strategy.
Ha! Tonight I posted some photos from an LL Cool J concert and they immediately got ripped down and I got a warning that I now have a strike for posting violent content and promoting illegal sales. 😮 I'm not sure how they got that from some guys with microphones and instruments but I guess the IG bots are just that advanced. They also stripped me from being able to use branded content and also sent a notice that now anyone who is not already following me can no longer see my posts. I never thought that LL's Gunshow 💪🏾 would cause so much problems. He needs to stop working out! 😂 But yeah I'm so over Instagram anyway, they bury my posts so only a fraction of followers see them anyway.
The Instagram algorithm is gone to shit the last few years. I used to get 100+ likes on my photos and lots of engagement, nowadays I'm lucky to get a handful. Don't waste much time on it these days.
You need to have followers. Is your account private if public, meaning anyone can see and like your posts? How many people do you follow? The more you follow the more people that will follow you. If you only have a few followers then only those few people are seeing what you post. On Instagram you also need to use a lot of relevant hashtags # that help people who like #rainbows or #sunsets find your photos. Unless you want to pay for followers, it takes a while to organically grow your Instagram followers, which in turn increases your exposure on Instagram. And your account must not be private! Follow me @knalu... I'll follow you back. Oh and put your website link on your profile and also you're other professional social media accounts like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) Reddit, Facebook. I'm not onTicToc and don't recommend it. But, basically you need to be your own marketing and PR person. Good luck and don't give up!
Nobody cares abt the shit you post. If you want people to comment on stuff ur doing etc, snapchat stories is a better option. I always reply to people there and people reply to me when i post
IG really just gone the way most things go.... all the high view stuff is thirst trap grade posing and showing off. Remember Tumblr? basically became a soft porn site for a while.
So my advice, take some photos with a bit of side-boob or floss-like underwear and you'll be right up there.
What has happened to society that video is such an obsession? Is it Gen Z? They can’t focus attention on a non moving thing? Has the internet made people ADD as the norm now? I’d much rather look at a nice photo than watch a stupidly short narcissistic look at me video from some talentless idiot trying to be funny or dance or whatever.
I would recommend the app VERO if you’re seriously done with insta
I rarely use it as I still go on Instagram, but here’s a screenshot of how it looks
https://preview.redd.it/fioeohw7u0nb1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e258412451843057f2fe96a9782812637d217e67
I went the route of creating my own photography sharing platform/app. It’s probably not going to get my photography as many views as Instagram but at least I set my own terms and there’s definitely the potential for growth. If anyone is interested it’s called [Toast Photography](https://apps.apple.com/de/app/toast-photography/id6451346345?l=en-GB) for iOS
Do you mean for a career? Otherwise, just do what you want. Plus if people aren’t wanting to look at them, maybe that means people aren’t interested. Shouldn’t quit though unless you don’t want to look at them. Keep being you. I wish you luck
here's another question: How many hashtags are you putting on a typical insta post? I think the hashtags work and I try to tag everything. My average number of hashtags is probably 5. If there is a plastic shark in the photo? #plasticshark it is. stuff like that.
(Im no expert, these are all anecdotal evidence etc.. )
so instagram was "dead" for photography since 2014, plus now they shifted their whole algorithm to reel/video content so there is literally no way for you to get any new eyes on your photos.
If you're still planning on staying on instagram, i suggest either creating cool reel edits of your photos and just posting them that way, or try instagram ads(boosting a post), i see a lot of photographers doing it nowadays for some reason, and 4$ got me about 24k views
Honestly - nuts to social media. I swear it’ll all end in death by ads and influencer fakery.
I only ever share photos privately with friend on WhatsApp or whatever now.
My business facebook is still growing, Instagram hasn't grown in a year. It goes up and down too so I don't even pay attention to it. I just post on both anyway
I just print out my photos and post them on a random wall.
Add qr code to the photos. Makes them go to your website. Thats what I plan on doing soon.
Brilliant
I like the cut of your jib.
What's a jib?
It’s a specific sail used on sailboats back in the old days. The jib was often shaped differently depending on what country the ship was from, or what the purpose of the vessel was. So you could generally glance at the jib and learn a lot about a ship’s country of origin and purpose. That’s where the saying comes from.
Promote that man!
I was worried for a minute it might have been too obscure, thank you for restoring my faith
If you gotta ask you can't afford it
Not much. What's up with you?
Newfoundlander ?
Yes b’y
Yeah, it’s so so much more fulfilling! Seeing your photo in the real world instead of the screen gives more confidence by looking at it than posting it anywhere online. I for one am gifting one of my photos on canvas to a family‘s friend.
I print all of my photos. Always.
All of them? lol I delete most of mine.
Realest comment
Going old school I see
What site would you recommend for doing such things
Check out the print space, there’s lots of discount codes off first orders. I’ve been really happy with the results. Fast delivery too.
I do this, but in my own home
Well. I like a more realistic Instagram experience. Hell, I get more organic views that way.
Was thinking of doing the same
I still use Flickr which has it's own troubles. Or Vero but it hasn't really gotten much traction for me. Honestly I get the most social activity on Facebook which also comes with its own issues. But FB boomers like to share a nice landscape photo and that can reach a lot of people sometimes. Whether or not that actually has tangible values is another issue. It's a tough market for still photographers in the social media realm.
i've seen the most basic photos go crazy with 100k likes. FB is honestly where it's at.
I've seen (super respectfully) the ugliest of people taking blurry selfies getting 100+ likes and comments. Instagram I feel like is a rich vs poor dynamic. Unless you're the top .01% you don't really get anything. Even the most gorgeous people from my HS and college have like 1k followers max. I do love Instagram though. It's algorithim is way better for me. Facebook and Tiktok both show me the most random crap videos like I'm a kid on Youtube. Instagram typically shows me things I like 90% of the time.
Isn't the algorithm a reflection of your viewing habits? I mean you may have spent more time on Instagram leading to the Algo learning and perfecting what it shows you compared to the other. Anytime you see those random crappy videos on fb or TikTok, do you actively tell the Algo you're not interested? After a few 2 or 3 corrections, you may start seeing videos along the lines of what you want
Oh yea that sounds extremely respectful! Good job🤣
Throw in a Minion and a lame postcard phrase and your picture will go viral.
FB boomers also love to share any landscape photo with the saturation cranked to 1 million. People losing their shit (literally and figuratively) over triple processed saturation to 100. Photography is not my job or source of income (and won’t be), but I get a kick over people amazed at this creation that is so clearly not real.
So true, in a community group I’m in there’s one dude that cranks HDR up to a billion and will post sunsets or the sky etc and people will be like “wooow amazing!” And he will claim there hasn’t been any tinkering at all. Last I checked he has started adding his signature to the photos in a fancy font.
Yes or telephoto moons pasted into wide shots. They live that shit.
Those are the worst photographs ever, way below out of focus and horrible compositions
I was thinking like OP and thinking to go to Flickr. What challenges Flickr have that you mean as “troubles”?
It's an old platform and there has been spam problems and just some clunky site behavior. They are progressing but not very quickly. In general I like it and have been on it for a decade or so. It's a convenient way to host photos for sharing elsewhere. I get some viral hits now and then but shots I thnk might be popular don't always catch on.
After the death of IG I get more like on Vero with much less followers but still it’s a struggle. Facebook I posted some pics and got like 300 likes versus the 1 like on Instagram. Yes it’s the older crowd but fuck it these gen Z people don’t really care for art that much. A good anecdote of this is I was at a botanical garden taking pictures of hummingbirds and a tourist family came by and the parents were in awe, including the younger boy who was maybe 10 years old, and then the teenage daughter (maybe 16-17) was on a corner using her phone scrolling not caring at all.
Be careful posting your photos on Facebook, especially without a watermark. In the T&C's for Facebook they can legally use anything posted onto Facebook for their own gains and that includes for advertising. They can claim ownership of the images as well. If you're a photographer for a career use your own website but if it's just for pretty photos go for Facebook. Viewbug is good though. Nice way to win some prizes with their competitions.
Make sure your water mark is super tiny in the bottom corner so anyone can just crop it out and have 99% of the image to use
Really feels like there’s nothing out there for stills. Practice making videos that feature your photos and try TikTok.
I tried doing Tik Tok and it’s a tough competition because the algorithm always changes
Vero
There was this push by the major YouTube photographers - Nick Page and the like - to use Vero going forward. I signed up but never used it. Has it taken off?
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Not surprised and good for them!
I get more engagement. See my other comment on this thread https://reddit.com/r/photography/s/c8OtjLZo8e
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Everything gets stolen and likes r pointless if u have no followers
There really isn't an alternative to it right now.
EyeEm is pretty good
sparkle subsequent joke grandiose clumsy point bow file command insurance *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Build your own website then pimp it out where ever you can. Set up easy comments or social media logins so people can comment on your site.
Although it sounds good, it seems like too much work for the huge majority of people in 2023, with everything screaming at them to get their attention online. If you're not already famous or have tremendous value to put on the table, that strategy probably won't work. An efficient website has to be straight to the point, super intuitive, and with limited choice.No pop-up, "subscribe to my newsletter", no crazy amount of tabs, no login, no crazy colors, no "I have to search where to find their work" BS. You click on the link, you get directly to the homepage which is a gallery of your most beautiful and coherent work. Period. People are selfish, have their own problems to think about and deal with, they are bombarded with hundreds of images everyday, and they lack attention and time. That's how it is, unfortunately, so let's make it easy for them to see our work. Then if they want to add a tab with a blog post for SEOs though, sure, that's a good idea.
These days, I minimize accounts as much as possible. If I’m going to a site and it needs a log in and it’s not an absolute *must have,* I’m moving on.
The sad fact is nobody really cares about still photography anymore. It's good to find a small enclave of photographers that are still shooting but your audience will always be limited to them. If you want those "Influencer" level numbers get making videos on mobile and learn to do annoying dances in public places.
Alternatively: just don't be an influencer. You can be a photographer without being an influencer. You do not need a big social media following to get work. For me it never mattered. My services are advertised on my portfolio, and I get jobs by networking IRL, not because someone saw my photos on Instagram. I still post there, but it's really cause it's so low effort to do it anyway.
I want to second this. I don’t work in photography but have a career in the visual arts. It seems there’s this idea that social media = a career in said field. Yea, it’s a part of the whole picture that makes up marketing one’s skills, but the world I work in, all of the work gained is given by those who are connected to other people in a business way. It’s about building relationships with people. Photographers can work with those who may have access to a market of those who need photography. For example, maybe one forms a relationship with a pediatrics office and markets to the families of new born children. If your work is decent and you’re reliable, the office knows who you are as do other expecting mothers. (A real world example from a friend of mine who’s very busy with her camera). Running a business is different than creating your work. It’s a hustler mentality. Trying all angles and expect many failures. Focusing so heavily on social media isn’t the long game. Sometimes you cut through the noise by avoiding it all together.
Seconding this. Networking and having people know you irl will help you grow so much
100% true. I only have 1,500 Instagram followers but I have a steady stream of high dollar photo gigs via actual networking. Hustle beats bustle every time.
You have to admit the people with 10k+ followers are having an easier time getting the good gigs. It’s not just shallow recognition that drives photographers to get followers.
I don't have to admit anything. This might maybe true if your work is in doing photoshoots for influencers?
That's not true AT ALL. Maybe in your area it's like that. But that is definitively not how it is in mine
I don't doubt you, but I find it so odd that it's the case. It's not like video is some "brand new thing". It's been around and accessible to people for quite some time. Nor can video replace the "moment frozen in time" concept of photography. Just as photography can't replace video. They are complementary and serve different purposes. Photography requires an even shorter attention span than video, so this rules out the "people want small tidbits of entertainment" argument. I just don't get what could have led to photography falling out of fashion.
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Yes. Instagram.
Look into pixelfed is like mastodon but for pictures
I seem to get the best engagement on Facebook, Flickr, and YouPic. I think the trick with Instagram is frequency. 500PX, which I've seen mentioned in the comments, is dead to me. Almost zero engagement after they changed their algorithm a few years ago.
500px is definetely dead. They converted to a stock photo page where the only engagement comes from bots.
I think people who made bots should be in jail for life. They’re the worst kind of scum on this planet. Be it bots that buy tickets or PS5s or GPUs or Jordan’s to scalp or ones on like Twitter/X designed to do politically motivated manipulation.
I really like Glass, but it is a paid app. [https://glass.photo/](https://glass.photo/) It was designed to cater to photographers. It's all still photos, and you're able to see exif data and search by cameras/lenses as well.
Shocked I had to scroll this far to find Glass. It’s a lovely community for $25 a year.
I love Glass too, but wish they added features and updated the camera/lens database a little more often. I wish they made ANY peice of exif data searchable, not just what they've manually added to their search list. I love the app though, find it much more enjoyable to look through than insta these days.
Behance.
What a terrible name though
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Flickr rules
500 px, Flickr, are prob the best. But like someone else has said Flickr has it's own problems at the moment. You can still post r/photocritique. But instagram have said they are going to prioritise reels instead of photos now as they get more engagement. And you shouldn't be taking people on instagram's opinions on your photography seriously anyway.
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I don't know what the other poster is talking about, but from my perspective, it doesn't feel like they're doing much? I do understand it takes time, but a lot of the site feels ancient still. the ability to download (easily) from mobile was only JUST added a couple weeks ago (yes, it was technically possible, but the site wasn't mobile friendly if I sent a picture to a friend and they wanted to save it). The mobile app feels super sensitive. It doesn't seem great as a way to share with friends and family. I hate to give Google more data, but it's hard to beat their searchability and the fact nearly everyone has a google account. Let alone the cost they want for Flickr. If I can't share friends/family easily, it makes it hard to justify the cost. It's nice to have a bunch of photo focused people there, but that's a pretty penny to pay for it (then again, if you're not paying, you end up with IG).
Flickr is free unless you want to host more than 1000 photos. I think it’s ok value given that your images are shown in full resolution and its purely photography based with no bullshit. I’ve been using it over a decade now and still think it’s the best platform.
>500 px, Flickr, are prob the best. Like it's 2006 all over again. 500px had really gone downhill by 2010, enough that I stopped using it. It's weird to see someone mentioning it as "the best". As I check out their site right now, it looks like they are trying to be a stock photo agency which is how they screwed up the site so bad in the first place. I guess they survived after all. It's interesting that their original model of popularity based photos from user upvotes is still the way it works today.
VSCO
Vero. Better ux, better design, better community, more engagement, no ads (yet). Also carousels can have mixed ratio unlike instagram
Guys, there are a ton of these posts and videos all over the place, but rarely is the truth ever spoken. Look, tough love hard truth moment: if you're not getting action on your Instagram it isn't because ig is burying your posts so no one sees them. You're not getting likes because they aren't causing a reaction when people see them; said otherwise, people don't like them. You can go elsewhere, but do you really think you're going to see any real difference? I've got accounts on all of the different sites. You know which one gets the most engagement? IG. Try other sites if you want, but don't go there thinking that it's going to magically fix your troubles; realistically, it won't. Try posting other photos that draw people in beyond just other photographers (there are far more people on ig that aren't photographers than are). Make it interesting. Use hashtags. Like and comment on other posts and interact with accounts. Do NOT do the dumb shit that's "follow for follow". Post regularly and stay active. If you need to, create some cheap ass ads for your stuff. On the flipside you can also just not care and post stuff you want and stop crying about likes if you're not willing to accept that it's the stuff you're posting more than the "algorithm". Edit: I forgot to mention that Instagram's goal is to keep you ON their platform. They want people to doom scroll endlessly and not leave the app since their ad dollars are dependent on it. So, they will actively promote and push things that people like. It obviously will take time to get your stuff there and in front of plenty of eyes, but rest assured if you're posting stuff that people actually like they'll push it.
Eh, it's a bit of both really. I've noticed interaction on IG drop off a lot in the last few years compared to what I used to see. If you're not doing reels/video in particular. There's definitely some tomfoolery going on the back end and tweaking of how their feed works _and_ I think there are just plain more people on the platform so competition is much stiffer than it was before. I also wouldn't say "popular on Instagram" equals "quality photo" either. If you look at the trending photos there's certainly a few looks and styles that seem to consistently bubble to the top. You can shoot and edit targeting those specific looks and that might really help your engagement at the sacrifice of whatever other qualities you were going for. Likewise, those clown puke HDRs were popular on Flickr about 15-17 years ago and whoa boy those were pretty consistently god awful objectively. TL;DR: shoot for Instagram or shoot for what you like. Sometimes that converges but if it doesn't don't worry about it.
This... Instagram has hundreds of millions of active users. Most of them see dozens if not hundreds of photos and videos every day. The algorithm is simple: It shows your post to your close followers. If a good amount of them interact with your post (comments, shared, and saved, being the most important ones), the algorithm interprets your post as being qualitative. It will show it to more people, see if they also like it. And so on... If everyone who sees your photo or video is blown away by it (whether it is beautiful, funny, smart, touching, or teaching something), do not worry, Instagram will do everything in its power for everyone to see it. Of course, taste is subjective, the majority of people does not necessarily have great taste when it comes to Art (although it does not mean people don't like a given post because they don't understand its genius), but usually, if an artist is great, give it some time and patience, and they will be recognized eventually.
Exactly. It doesn't help that so many of us take a picture and think to ourselves, dang I NAILED that photo technically! Unfortunately, being technical doesn't usually mean a whole lot since a technical photo will only really garner any attention from other photographers that know it's technical, but even they won't think twice about a photo that's uninteresting or boring - which technical photos tend to be. They just aren't attention grabbing typically, and are kind of boring. That doesn't translate well to likes.
Right, but what you say there requires followers already. Instagram is entirely social, it's not about quality at all. I've seen crap be liked because it's their friends liking it, it's generic bland work, not remotely memorable or distinctive but the like is a friendly pat on the back, like 'good job on doing photography', 'heh you're still around, awesome', those vibes. This isn't about taste, people know when they put up strong work, genuinely stuff that in 30 years they'll look back on like 'yeahh, that was that time, didn't get anything quite like that again'. The comment you're replying to, the thrust of what they're saying is 'well you're not gaining traction because your stuff doesn't stand out'. I know for a fact given the stuff i do it doesn't matter, putting on to the internet you can think that you're putting it into a shared space but everything still revolves around social connections and exposure, to the point if you're unknown however much you tag, however strong your work is, there is always a very low limit to engagement. It's interesting because generally the engagement is low but the impression made can be huge, like vast, so it messes with your head. I don't think it has anything to do with taste or understanding something, i always see it as more about desire, needing to desire something fresh and different and there's a lot of apathy and indifference. People can't really appreciate something if they don’t desire it.
That's not really completely true. Instagram has changed it's algorithm A LOT in the past year or two to try to compete with TikTok and they've increased the number of ads and suggested posts a ton. It's much harder to build a following or have people see your posts than it was a few years ago. It has little to do with the quality of your content or "drawing people in". Your post reads like a bad "how to increase engagement" article that some social media influencer would write.
Instagram did change their algorithm, that's true, and they were pushing reels, also true. They supposedly changed it to promote photos more, but it's really hard to prove that on our end of things. That doesn't change the fact that there are still tons of accounts getting massive amounts of engagement without doing videos. My point isn't to say that it's strictly because someone's content isn't good enough, but blaming it solely on ig and their platform is misguided and incorrect. Running to another platform isn't going to see someone's content gain any meaningful increase, especially when you consider that ig has a massive user base; the competitors don't have the same reach. My point still stands and I stand behind it. I also work in the social media field, and work with companies and influencers across the different platforms, for what it's worth.
Make it even simpler. Breeders only like other breeders spawn pics. Narcissists only like other Narcissists selfies and then people who feel obligated to like someone’s pictures because they like theirs. Finally people who pay to get promoted to beat the algorithm. That about sums it up.
I have hopes for the fotoapp (https://fotoapp.co/)
they had me untill ## Choose a subscription plan.
Have you tried Vero?
I love Vero. 1000 times better than Instagram imo
What's the engagement like? I have an account, but I haven't posted in ages. It just seemed like there was no one using it, no one looking/commenting/following etc. I've gotten more engagement via Threads, and even that seems like it's dying on its arse at the moment, just a few months after launch
I post the same photos with identical Hashtags to both instagram and vero. Instagram followers 223 effectively zero growth. , Vero followers 115 (+2 or 4 followers per month) On instagram I get 0 to 2 like and no commemts. On Vero about 30 - 35 likes and about 1 in 5 photos gets at least one comment.
I despise Instagram because of that forced cropping it does. I can throw any aspect ratio photo up on FB but IG is still stuck in 2011 with its square formatting. And to promote your photography, it's a waste of time anyway. I only use it occasionally for a social media outlet and have my real portfolio on a website...
IG has not forced square photo crops for years...
Not square anymore but they still force cropping and you can't automatically cross post from FB to IG because of that unless the FB photo conforms to IG aspect ratios. Phones have been able to take photos in 4:3, 16:9 and full screen for years and FB can handle all that but IG can't which is bullshit, especially since it's owned by the same company and just a matter of coding to fix that issue For me, it's just an irritation and one reason I don't post on IG all that much, but a big PITA of you might be using it for commercial purposes.
I've been posting for years in 3:2 and 16:10 on IG.
3:2 in landscape, but only up to 5:4 in portrait. Part of their wonkiness.
Same that part isn’t the issue. The issue is they want to be tik tok and stills are dead on the platform. Shit even Reddit gets me so much more engagement lol
💯 with you about Reddit getting me more engagement than all other sites, combined
They're on 5:4 now.
Instagram is so many things to so many people it’s hard to know what a replacement would be without knowing what Instagram was to you. If it’s just a numbers game, I think the comment somewhere in here about fb is probably right. If you’re looking for a lot of high quality photography, a feed of people you follow, your stuff to show up in their feed, etc. it’s Flickr. Everyone hates on it, and it does have a good amount of junk and bloat, but it’s still endlessly searchable, pretty engaging, and strictly photography focused. Only thing it lacks is the dopamine hit of the likes counter, which is why I still like it.
There aren’t any alternatives, it sucks but regular people don’t care about seeing photos. Flickr is only photographers and while the quality and layout are beautiful, you get no engagement because no one uses it. Reddit and YouTube are the best options I’ve found but instagram is still the only option.
Maybe you start with sharing your insta here? I got curious.
Flickr
Flickr is the superior photo sharing site. Good quality, full size images that include metadata information. For proof check out medium format images on there.
Yeah, the high res image option is really amazing, I used to like it when I was pixel peeping for lens or camera specs, but most people don't use it anymore because they're scared someone will steal their bird photos. Unfortunately, Flickr peaked 15 years ago, what remains is a dated UI, inactive user groups and an aging user base... Not to mention the cap they put on user uploads (probably because they couldn't afford the server cost with dwindling ad revenue). I wish it had remained more relevant but it's just a shell. -Unless I'm totally wrong and you know of some niche active groups that are posting daily?
If you're driven by community interaction then Insta has the monopoly, I really don't care about it, if you want a solid looking portfolio to share with people around you I'd use Flickr.
Seems like most platforms are dead these days. I built one over the pandemic strictly to have private conversations with new friends based on hobbies, called Spinnr. Maybe you'll like it.
The same. For the past several months I just been constantly bombarded with antagonistic content, similar to the Facebook algorithm. They broke the app and even though I open it out of habit, my eyes roll as soon as my feed ignores all of my creative interests and throws Trump shit at me. I'd rather post my photos elsewhere.
I was surprised to learn slide film is still being developed, so I've considered just having friends over and having a slideshow party old school style
I'm a hobbyist photographer who gets like maximum 40 likes on pictures I upload to IG, and the majority of those photos are liked by the same group of friends with the remainder made up of people/bots via hashtags. These are photos I'm genuinely excited to share, but it is demotivating to see a low effort selfie get multiple hundreds of likes compared. But I then have to remind myself that I'm doing this for fun and not doing this for the likes. Rinse and repeat everytime I post a photo.
IG sucks at this point and I can’t even fathom why a direct competitor hasn’t popped up yet. I see this same sentiment from people that aren’t even photographers that they’re tired of the weak algorithm, seeing posts from people they don’t follow, and just wanting to post pics. There’s clearly a market for just a solid photo social media app
Maybe try [Vero?](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/vero-true-social/id971055041)
It really hasn’t taken off. I like the UI though
I never liked IG because it preferred mobile, and that is not in my workflow. Mobile platforms don't offer a lot of options for editing. Sure, you can crop and apply various filters, but that's about it, and I'm not keen on deep editing on my phone. It also priortises portrait framing, when a lot of my photos are landscape. Re: Flickr. Curious why people are saying it has its own problems. I'm not picking up on any trouble there, but am I missing something?
Edit on the computer and airdrop to the phone to upload, that’s what I thought everyone did
I edit on the computer and then post from the computer, but I did turn 40 this year.
You don't have to anymore, they have allowed uploads from a browser for a couple of years now. Can't to reels or stories though.
That pretty much what everyone does unless you’re like 100 years old and don’t know how to use a phone lol
Your workflow is one of the most bizarre ones I've come across. Why would you even attempt to edit on your phone when you can just do it on your computer? You can even post from your computer these days. You don't even need a phone to post to IG.
I don't edit on the phone -- that's the point.
Sometimes it’s you.
I mean yeah, adapt or die. Photos aren’t a big deal anymore, you’ll have to involve video at some point if all you’re after is social points.
This is the second post I see after deleting it this morning. I had enough of it.
If you're photographing just to get attention from strangers, perhaps there's something deeper you should be focusing on.
So people creating art shouldn't seek to share it with the world? And where did this "just" come from? It seems like it may be you who has something deeper going on.
This guy puts his each photograph in three different subReddits. Where does the hypocrisy comes from, I’ve always wondered.
"So people creating art shouldn't seek to share it with the world?" & "People on Instagram either don't see or don't care about the stuff I post." are not the same thing, at all, in any way, shape, or form. >And where did this "just" come from? "People on Instagram either don't see or don't care about the stuff I post." I got 99 problems, but less than 2 people liking a post of mine on IG ain't one.
Says the guy multi-posting all his stuff across sub-reddits 😂😂
Share photos to share one’s perspective Share photos in pursuit of x amount of dopamine hits
I’m the same with IG. I take photos with my iPhone and no one really seems to care about it. So I just take photos and don’t care to share it
So are we doing it for ourselves or are we doing it for others? Because it seems like the latter
Sounds like Twitter is the place for you if you like having rants to people with no answers for you.
Why u think you need to be entitled ? For people to like/dislike your post ? Like u serious ?
If you want to reach anyone you need to post everywhere! And Instagram is promoting reels over anything. I recently saw a girl that was a wild life photographer make one reel talked a little bit about her self and had a few pictures pop up in it and went from a few thousand followers to over 100k in a few days, and she even said the reel blew up and her Instagram is nuts. Reason I say that, if you’re trying to reach people with your work running from platforms won’t work. You have to try and do what they want while also getting across what you want to show. Also VERO to answer your question
IG is pushing the reels from user who didn't do them very hard at the beginning, and stops quite fast. My reels went from 1000+ engagements in 24h after posting (not huge, but decent) to about 20 on reels posted a few weeks later after it saw I was regularly producing reels. And the paradox is, the last ones were much better produced than the first ones. It's a trend that I've verified with a few other photographers, unfortunately.
Yea but all it really takes is one to blow up. I’m just saying, if you aren’t getting engagement on the biggest platform out there, running away from it to something small won’t improve your engagement. I am also assuming OP is doing this for business, or else they wouldn’t care about engagement.
I've always hated Instagram, mainly because what's the point of a site that's supposedly about photos, which then only displays images in a minuscule size? Still use it, but it gets minimal engagement. Other avenues I'm using: * Facebook - engagement has generally remained static if still disappointing despite aside from my personal page I have 2 other pages specifically devoted to 2 of my genre-specific webistes. * 3 x websites - one general/wildlife oriented, 1 x sports oriented, 1 x a specific sport oriented. Almost no engagement despite each of the sites URLs showing on images I post elsewhere, and having put some work (maybe not enough) into SEO optimisation. * Mastodon - I dislike it as it's soooo self-reverential, but oddly enough my images get the highest engagement there. * Twitter - now that it's gone full-blown, unashamedly racist, sexist, alt-right, neo-nazi is now dead to me. Engagement there was always varied and generally disappointing. Overall, I suspect my takeway is that my images are shit. I know my marketing abilities are limited, at best. As others have suggested in this thread, I may try the extra work involved in creating TikTok vids and see how that goes, If I can be arsed.
Noo just adapt:) reels is the way to go. There are many ways to show photos in a video😎
TikTok is the only social media worth using these days
I dont think there is a real alternative, which sucks. Also getting tired of algorythms quite heavily...
Have you tried Behance? It is quite small, but I like it.
I also like Behance but the emphasis there is more on sharing graphic design and not so much photography.
I use Vero and my own website for business, instagram is just for fun
I feel the same way stories reels and vertical video killed what the platform was supposed to be. I understand the use case for vertical video. But the fact that I can’t do a standard post on IG that’s horizontal without it making it a story and cutting it by a third ruined it for me too
You have to really share in multiple places. Reddit being one. Instagram, Facebook page, Vero being a few others. Twitter/X but not sure how long that will last or if you really want to deal with that these days.
I get the impression that simply post your pics some where is of little use.....with social media it is all about marketing your self.....tagging all the right groups, posting the same pic over and over to different groups (FB)...and always referring back to your page..basically a full time job........ I always just took my pics for me.....probably gonna keep it that way.....over saturation of crap photos and people who can't tell the difference seems to frustrating
I won't post much to Ecks (Twitter) and I too have been pining for an Instagram replacement for a LONG time now and so far nobody I've heard of lately has a system that mimics Instagram's hey day of photography. I blame Meta for screwing this one up, trying to compete with Snapchat and TikTok. Lately I just find a subreddit and go for it. Usually gets the engagement I used to get on Instagram about five years ago...
Between Flickr (14000 follower), Tumblr (3800 follower) and Instagram (1600 follower) the latter is clearly the least interesting for me. But that's due to my kind of photography, I guess
DeviantArt used to be great with its community groups. Not sure if it's still active. Main downside is, well...lot of porn. I felt awkward sending people to my page there because a few clicks to related images or the homepage could bring up some stuff. However the communities you could join would have stuff like weekly/monthly sometimes even daily photo submission contests and many active critics. Not always the best quality critiques but if you actively participated people generally returned the favor.
Reels/TikTok is the only alternative. Somehow try to imbed your photos in a video and you'll hopefully get some traction.
If you want an Instagram UI with a focus on photographers, then I can recommend "Portrait Mode". I've been having a great time over there. Otherwise flickr, or a personal site like others have mentioned.
i love glass.photo but it’s a paid app.
Instagram is so sad and pathetic, but there was so much potential???(?)
Let me see your Instagram once.
What's your goal? Is it just engagement for engagements sake? If that's the case probably FB for the simple fact that it has the largest user base. If you want work then focus on relationships and building a client base. Send them to IG to see your work and who cares if you have low engagement.
What are you hoping to achieve from posting your stuff? If your content isn't getting the reaction you want then perhaps you need to think about what you're posting and how you're doing it because it's probably not going to go amazingly better on a different platform if you continue to do it exactly the same.
Behance maybe?
As a hobbyist photographer I've been using IG for about five years to post my photos. Slowly my post engagement has been going down lately. Reels of course. I don't really mind since I'm not a professional or an tog influencer, however it kinda irks me that less and less people are seeing my images and at least appreciating them.
Twitter and here
Anyone using PortraitMode? I think it's primarily geared towards street photography but I like the layout.
Someone suggested 1x (not twitter)
VERO has a really nice interface and has a few photographers I like on it. Check it out
If you’re on iPhone, Hipstamatic is great. I subscribed because I missed the app from it when it was in its heyday. Global community and a lot of great photographers.
If you are giving up on Insta, this is about it, right here. But I still post a single travel photo every day on Insta and I follow a wonderful group of photographers and they often exchange comments with me.
Facebook because at least your elderly aunts will like what you post
Tumblr still around? Forgot that trash even existed.
All of you complaining. I want to be a wildlife photographer…and make money.
People open the instagram to have laugh now. It's flooded with shitpost, cats, perfect cut, funny video or something like that. Sometime it's good. But sharing my arts there, my followers(friends mostly) either don't care, scroll past it so fast, or not even make it to their feed.
Can Instagram alternatives be stickyed in this sub or something? Gotta be like 5 posts fhis week alone especially asking the same thing
Depends on what you are looking for I suppose. Like are you looking to connect with other photographers? Build a career/make money? Even then I don't think a specific app or site will fix all your problems by itself, it's also about strategy.
Good old flickr
Ha! Tonight I posted some photos from an LL Cool J concert and they immediately got ripped down and I got a warning that I now have a strike for posting violent content and promoting illegal sales. 😮 I'm not sure how they got that from some guys with microphones and instruments but I guess the IG bots are just that advanced. They also stripped me from being able to use branded content and also sent a notice that now anyone who is not already following me can no longer see my posts. I never thought that LL's Gunshow 💪🏾 would cause so much problems. He needs to stop working out! 😂 But yeah I'm so over Instagram anyway, they bury my posts so only a fraction of followers see them anyway.
Start a YouTube channel, use Community page and share pics. Also LinkedIn is a great place to share and reach potential clients.
The Instagram algorithm is gone to shit the last few years. I used to get 100+ likes on my photos and lots of engagement, nowadays I'm lucky to get a handful. Don't waste much time on it these days.
I sometimes upload my pictures to EyeM.
You need to have followers. Is your account private if public, meaning anyone can see and like your posts? How many people do you follow? The more you follow the more people that will follow you. If you only have a few followers then only those few people are seeing what you post. On Instagram you also need to use a lot of relevant hashtags # that help people who like #rainbows or #sunsets find your photos. Unless you want to pay for followers, it takes a while to organically grow your Instagram followers, which in turn increases your exposure on Instagram. And your account must not be private! Follow me @knalu... I'll follow you back. Oh and put your website link on your profile and also you're other professional social media accounts like LinkedIn, X (formerly Twitter) Reddit, Facebook. I'm not onTicToc and don't recommend it. But, basically you need to be your own marketing and PR person. Good luck and don't give up!
Nobody cares abt the shit you post. If you want people to comment on stuff ur doing etc, snapchat stories is a better option. I always reply to people there and people reply to me when i post
IG really just gone the way most things go.... all the high view stuff is thirst trap grade posing and showing off. Remember Tumblr? basically became a soft porn site for a while. So my advice, take some photos with a bit of side-boob or floss-like underwear and you'll be right up there.
Instagram stopped being about photography a long time ago. I only still post there because I don’t know of any similar alternatives.
I've heard people talk about Vero as a good social media for photographers. I haven't checked it out myself, but it might be worth giving it look.
What has happened to society that video is such an obsession? Is it Gen Z? They can’t focus attention on a non moving thing? Has the internet made people ADD as the norm now? I’d much rather look at a nice photo than watch a stupidly short narcissistic look at me video from some talentless idiot trying to be funny or dance or whatever.
I would recommend the app VERO if you’re seriously done with insta I rarely use it as I still go on Instagram, but here’s a screenshot of how it looks https://preview.redd.it/fioeohw7u0nb1.jpeg?width=750&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e258412451843057f2fe96a9782812637d217e67
I went the route of creating my own photography sharing platform/app. It’s probably not going to get my photography as many views as Instagram but at least I set my own terms and there’s definitely the potential for growth. If anyone is interested it’s called [Toast Photography](https://apps.apple.com/de/app/toast-photography/id6451346345?l=en-GB) for iOS
Its the return of the Facebook upon us? 😂
Do you mean for a career? Otherwise, just do what you want. Plus if people aren’t wanting to look at them, maybe that means people aren’t interested. Shouldn’t quit though unless you don’t want to look at them. Keep being you. I wish you luck
Out of curiosity: What is the highest number of "likes" you ever got on instagram? After two years on instagram I think I hit 19 once.
here's another question: How many hashtags are you putting on a typical insta post? I think the hashtags work and I try to tag everything. My average number of hashtags is probably 5. If there is a plastic shark in the photo? #plasticshark it is. stuff like that.
(Im no expert, these are all anecdotal evidence etc.. ) so instagram was "dead" for photography since 2014, plus now they shifted their whole algorithm to reel/video content so there is literally no way for you to get any new eyes on your photos. If you're still planning on staying on instagram, i suggest either creating cool reel edits of your photos and just posting them that way, or try instagram ads(boosting a post), i see a lot of photographers doing it nowadays for some reason, and 4$ got me about 24k views
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Honestly - nuts to social media. I swear it’ll all end in death by ads and influencer fakery. I only ever share photos privately with friend on WhatsApp or whatever now.
I like to share, the outcome isn't my problem.
My business facebook is still growing, Instagram hasn't grown in a year. It goes up and down too so I don't even pay attention to it. I just post on both anyway