Instagram has gone from a chronological feed to an algorithmic one. For startups and small businesses, this means having to work doubly hard to engage followers while trying to successfully leverage the app’s capricious “intelligence”.
You could use a DSLR and some heavy-duty PC software to churn out catchy Instagram images, but sometimes you have to make do with just your smartphone and a less-than-professional camera crew. Here’s a look at some apps that can help spice up the content that your startup can use to lock in a strong presence on Instagram.
Product Photography
Not all phone cameras are created equal, but there are apps out there that level the playing field to an extent. These are especially useful if you need to quickly capture up-to-date pictures of your product or service for Instagram followers.
Camera+ ($2.99 for iPhone; 4.99 for iPad) is an iOS app famed for its Clarity filter, which can deftly fix common problems like a camera shake or poor lighting without having you go through a bunch of confusing controls. Android Camera Zoom FX ($ 2.99) offers comparable features on Android, and is especially useful for its stable shooting and variety of post-processing features.
Adobe Photoshop Express (free) is perfect for when you need to quickly edit pictures on a smartphone. The app allows you to create your own presets, which is a handy feature that not a lot of other editing apps offer.
Camera+
Promotional Images
Creating fun content for promotional campaigns means making sure you get the images just right, but also manage to get important information across at the same time.
An easy way to get details across is with typography and overlays. Quick (free) – available on both iOS and Android – makes it simple to overlay text on images, which you could use to add a hashtag or a website URL to any image. Typic ($2.99) offers typographical image manipulation features that are more artistic, in case you’re feeling adventurous with your editing choices. SnapPen ($0.99) keeps it simple with an app that simulates a pen – great if you have some artistic talent want to take a more “raw” approach by just doodling over your images.
Typic
Video
Sometimes the thousand words that a picture conveys isn’t enough, and you need to step up to video.
iOS app 8mm Vintage Camera ($1.99) was used to shoot Oscar nominated documentary Searching For Sugar Man; it has since become a popular choice for anyone looking to record stellar video on smartphones. If you already have a bunch of videos or photos that you’d like to combine into a video collage, VidStitch (free) gets the job done on Android and iOS. Vintagio ($3.99) is a powerful editing app that can be used to add filters and soundtracks to videos.
Vintagio
GIFS
Your Instagram marketing strategy isn’t quite complete without a strong GIF game.
GIF repository and hosting service Giphy offers a mobile app (free) not only to give access to its vast library of gifs, but also the Giphy Cam feature, using which you can record GIFs. Well-known image editing app VSCO’s GIF-creation app DSCO (free) takes advantage of its parent’s imaging technology to help create quality GIFs that can be recorded over a maximum of 2.5 seconds. So while Giphy is more for goofy GIF loops, DSCO lets you create GIFs that have a more refined feel to them.
Team Pictures
At times, you may need to post pictures of the team or specific team members – you know, to make things personal! There’s a suite of apps specifically geared towards such occasions.
For the more vain of heart, FaceTune ($3.99), which can be accessed on iOS and Android, offers an easy way to “touch up” portraits. The app lets you easily correct details such as skin tone, facial structure, hair and even teeth color. If you prefer an app that makes some of those edits automatically, Pixtr (free) would be the way to go.
Once past the editing stage, you may need to combine pictures of the team members into a single image. PicStitch (free) is a great app to put collages together on iOS. PicFrame (US$ 0.99) gets the same job done for those on Blackberry and Android.
Facetune
Prateek Jose is a writer and engineering undergrad from India with an unhealthy obsession for obscure historical trivia. Conversations about absurdist fiction and the technological singularity make his day. He’s already uploading parts of his brain to servers by writing for websites such as this one.
- Apple September 2018 Event: iPhone XS, XS Max, and More - September 13, 2018
- Apple September 2018 Event: What’s in Store - September 11, 2018
- E3 2018 – The Highlights - June 15, 2018
For most recent news you have to go to see the web
and on the web I found this web site as a finest web site for newest updates.
There may be a lot more duties and responsibilities an internet developer might
need to perform, which often relies on the need for this project he is working on. Web programmers play an crucial part in the market today.
While they must have the ability to communicate effectively in order to understand what’s needed to find the task done, nearly all of their job is completed.
Backend web developers utilize coding languages
to be sure all the characteristics in the site really
do the work properly.
I like Pixtr, but it is limited, but what are you going to do for free? I might check into a couple of these other ones to see how detailed they can be.
I have always wanted to shoot with an old school 8mm and that vintage app is one thing that gets me a little closer to using one. I really like that app.
GIFS are fun to watch and search out online, but I never really thought about making my own. With free apps on the market, I cannot find any reason I would not want to try them out.
I love using SnapPen. It is just a buck and really allows me to whip up a doodle of art in now time.