My kids introduced me to Instagram (like SO many other cool things over the years!) Not that Facebook has acquired Instagram it will get better or worse – lol. BUT you will certainly being seeing more and more Instagram photos on Facebook. Instagram has a cool feature called filters and here is some help in figuring those filters out – from TheAtlantic:
Your coffee, filtered on Instagram [Image: Jessica Zollman/Creative Commons]
Now that it’s been acquired by Facebook, Instagram is no longer just a social network; it’s part of the social network. Which means, among other things, that Facebook is about to become prettier/cheekier/even more full of unmitigated ’70s flare.
It also means that users of Facebook will soon have many more options when it comes to the ways they represent themselves, visually, through its platform. Is that photo of you and your dog Walden-worthy, or is it more Brannan-y? Was your birthday party the serious stuff of black-and-white Inkwell, or does it call for the ironic saturation of a Nashville or a Toaster?
To help you navigate these unfiltered waters, here’s a guide to some of the Instagram products you may soon be seeing on Facebook.
Normal
Effect: Also known as “no filter” (or, more popularly, #nofilter), this is Instagram at its purest: filter-free
Use for: Anything, really
X-Pro II
Effect: Warm, saturated tones with an emphasis on aquas and greens
Use for: That photo of you on the beach with your new boyfriend, meant to make your old boyfriend jealous
Earlybird
Effect: Faded, blurred colors, with an emphasis on yellow and beige
Use for: That photo of you at brunch with your new boyfriend, meant to make your old boyfriend jealous
Lomo-fi
Effect: Dreamy, ever-so-slightly blurry, with saturated yellows and greens
Use for: Food pictures — those cookies you just baked, that steak you just grilled, etc.
Sutro
Effect: Sepia-like, with an emphasis on purples and browns
Use for: Arting up photos of otherwise mundane objects: cups of coffee, coffee stirrers, coffee stains on napkins, etc.
Toaster
Effect: High exposure, with corner vignetting
Use for: ”Mad Men”-esque takes on your night out, your picnic with friends, your backyard BBQ, etc.
Fun Fact: This filter was named after Kevin Rose’s dog.
Brannan
Effect: Low-key, with an emphasis on grays and greens
Use for: Pictures of your dog
Valencia
Effect: True-to-life contrast, with slightly gray and brown overtones
Use for: Pictures of Kevin Rose’s dog
Inkwell
Effect: Black-and-white, high-contrast
Use for: Giving any old picture a classically old-school effect, and/or disguising bad lighting in your #nofilter photo
Walden
Effect: Washed-out color with bluish overtones
Use for: Pictures of last weekend’s pool party
Hefe
Effect: Fuzziness, with an emphasis on yellow and golden tones
Use for: Making last weekend’s pool party look like it took place in Palm Springs, in 1960
Nashville
Effect: Sharp images with a magenta-meets-purple tint, framed by a distinctive film-strip-esque border
Use for: Photos that call for ironic nostalgia
1977
Effect: Gloria Gaynor-level ’70s flair
Use for: Photos that call for in-your-face nostalgia (particularly useful now that Facebook is Timelined)
Lord Kelvin
Effect: Super-saturated, supremely retro photos with a distinctive scratchy border
Use for: Photos that call for actual nostalgia
