I do not like image filtering services like Instagram and their ilk, because the purpose of those services is to change reality and alter in situ facts.  Why bother preserving in image if you don’t want it saved and displayed with the highest possible, non-filtered, quality?  I recently mentioned my concern in the comments flow for this article:

Here’s what I don’t get about services like Instagram — we always want better cameras with higher megapixel counts and clearer optics — and then many of us “dumb down” those crisp and beautiful images with predefined filters from services like Instagram.  Why?  If you are preserving a moment in history — why are you coloring that moment, and inherently changing it, to look like a 1970’s Polaroid?  Why are you losing all the magnificence of the original shot that your camera is able to create?

Continue reading → Against Instagram and Other Filtering Agents