Hacking Photography - one Picture at a time
We all know Instagram is no longer a photo-sharing app, and even its CEO confirmed it last year. But other than copying its biggest competitor, TikTok, Instagram has also become a lot of an online sales platform.
The latest addition to the app’s web store feature takes place in direct messages, or DMs as most of us call them. From now on, you can buy stuff without leaving your chat with sellers, and it includes everything: from choosing the items to tracking your order until it reaches you.
Over the years, Instagram has become way more than a photo-sharing app. In fact, it sometimes feels that it’s become everything but. To support this claim, Instagram has just made product tagging available for everyone. That’s right, other than people, you can now also tag products in your posts. It will make your posts look as if they were sponsored, yet you won’t get paid or get a commission for it.
Instagram has just announced a new tagging option that will make anyone feel like an influencer promoting a product. From now on, you can tag products in your photos just like you tag your friends.
The feature has existed before, but it was only available to business and creator accounts. But over the next few months, everyone will be able to use it and turn Instagram into even more of an online store it already is.
For filmmaking and photography there are a lot of expensive pieces of kit out there that we either need to do our jobs or will make our lives easier and save us time in our workflow. But there are also a lot of very inexpensive items out there, too, which can make our quality of life much easier when shooting and working. There are also a bunch of cheap alternatives to expensive gear, too, if you get a little creative.
In this video, Caleb Pike at DSLR Video Shooter walks us through 20 of his favourite filmmaking accessories that each cost less than $20. It includes a variety of tools covering lighting, grip, power and various other aspects. Some of these are things that Caleb’s been using in his workflow for over a decade and still prove useful.
Shopping came to Instagram quite a while ago, and now it’s finally expanding to creators. Starting from 9 July, all creators will be able to access Instagram Shopping and offer their products to buyers directly through the app.
Earlier this week, 150 umbrellas were put up in Culver Square, a shopping mall in Colchester, Essex, UK. Although photos have been all over Instagram and Facebook, one photographer was recently interrupted by security staff when he pointed his camera to the umbrellas. They allegedly told him that taking photos was forbidden and that he should have permission from the management.
Facebook’s takeover of Instagram becomes more apparent by the day. We’ve seen ads, selective algorithm driven feeds, business pages and other features. Some good, some bad. Now, we get online shopping, too. We already have ads popping up in our feeds as we browse. Now we’ll start seeing them inside the posts themselves.
Facebook’s own “marketplace” seems to have completely taken control over the iOS app. I’m constantly being told about tat that people have for sale in various groups with no way to shut it off. Hopefully, Instagram’s new shopping implementation will be a little less annoying.
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