Setting up an Instagram account
To set up your new Instagram account, you will need to download Instagram for Android and open it.
Once you are in the application, you will need to press the Sign Up tab. Here you will need to add an email address, username and a password to continue. Optionally, you can add in your phone number and a profile picture.
Adding Friends to Instagram
After entering in that info to create the account, you can search for your friends who already use Instagram. You are given the option of either looking in your phone’s address book or searching your Facebook friends. If you choose the Facebook option, you will need to sign into your Facebook account and authorize Instagram.
If you want to skip the friend search, you can always choose a couple of people to follow from the suggestions Instagram gives you. You can always go back and add more people from the suggested user list if your real life friends are boring.
Instagram Main Screen Icons
There is a row of icons at the bottom of the screen and a stream of pictures and comments taking up the rest of the main screen. This is where you will see the pictures from the people you follow. You can double tap an image to Heart it. Basically the same as liking it on Facebook. You also have the option to comment on the image. The icons along the bottom are: Home – Brings you back to the stream of images from people you are following. Explore – Shows a bunch of popular (and usually pretty cool) images from random users. Camera – Press this to initiate taking a picture or use it to select an image from your phone’s photo gallery. Bubble with a heart– This is your News tab. You can see what images the people you follow like. In the You tab is where information about who wants to follow you and who likes your images will be displayed.
Taking a picture with Instagram
Pressing the Camera icon in the bottom row will activate the Android’s camera. You may be asked to choose the camera or photo gallery. If you would like to add filters to an image previously stored on your phone, select photo gallery. Otherwise select camera and capture the image.
Using Instagram Filters
The screen directly after you take your picture is where all of the fun takes place. There are a lot of different adjustments and filters to use.
The icons across the top of this screen are: Top left icon – Removes the border some filters use. Droplet icon – Adds different blur shapes, either a circle or a line. You can also move the center point with your finger to focus in on a certain part of the image. Sun icon – Use this to lighten and darken the image. Tilted square icon – Rotates the image clockwise.
icon – Takes you to the next screen. The Filters are along the bottom of the screen are: Normal – No change to the image. Amaro – Lower quality looking image. Rise – No boarder with a slightly cloudy look. Hudson – Lower contrast image with a black boarder. Sierra – White boarder with a higher contrast exposure. X-Pro – Thin black boarder. Adds an almost journalistic look to the image. Lo-Fi – Slightly degrades the image and adds a thin boarder. The image almost looks like it was set on a piece of paper. Earlybird – White boarder and adds an early morning light feel. Sutro – Darkens the image and adds a black boarder. Toaster – Gives the image a white boarder and adds a slight burned look to a portion of the image. Brannan – Darkens the image and adds a slight amount of contrast, adds a thin black boarder. Inkwell – Black and white image with a white boarder. Walden – Adds a foggy effect and a black boarder. Hefe – Darkens the image and adds a black square boarder Valencia – Adds a slight brightness to the image. Nashville – A blue-ish green-ish color and a black square boarder. 1977 – Faded and vintage looking with a square white boarder. Kelvin– Kind of a sepia golden color with a boarder of warn edges.
Upload your image to Instagram
After the effects are added, it’s time to upload the image. You have a few choices here. Adding a caption so people know what the picture is. Also you can add a Geotag to show the location where the picture was taken. The last step is to add your social networks (Twitter, Facebook, Foursquare, Tumblr, and Flickr) to also upload to those sites as well. Before you can share your images on your social sites, you will need to log into them.
Conclusion
Instagram is pretty easy to use and can add a lot of flair to your images. Do some playing around and I’m sure you will find out how fun it can be and why so many people take so many random pictures. Which is your favorite Instagram filter?
