> <i>Even if you compare Instagram photos to professional Adobe Lightroom plug-ins, Photoshop Actions, and all the tricks and desktop software that photographers use, Instagram photos have a decent quality. The Instagram images are certainly not comparable, in terms of quality or resolution, duh, but the images are at least interesting.</i><p>These two sentences are exactly contradictory. 1) “If you compare... Instagram photos have decent quality.” 2) “Instagram images are certainly not comparable in terms of quality”.<p>In any event, the second version is right. Instagram photos are cute gimmicks, and applying predetermined filters to snapshots can be fun, but the results are not remotely comparable in terms of “quality” to work by competent photo printers (whether in a darkroom or in Photoshop).
I like what they said about the amount of media thrown at us sucking our souls and numbing our senses. It's so true! I think that's why there's such a big push toward minimalism on the web today. People can no longer handle having so much information thrown at them at once with things flashing everywhere, gratuitous onMouseover events, and especially the huge amount of choice we have to deal with.<p>I think it boils down to choice. Instagram takes much choice out of the equation. Just like they said, there isn't a huge grid of photos to choose from and that's a good thing.<p>On kind of a side note, I'm so baffled by the funding of sites like this. Please don't take this as a criticism, I'm just genuinely curious about why instagram or any small online startup needs funding? First off, aren't a lot of these companies something that people can just run on a shoestring budget from their home? From what I see, a lot of startups require a competent coder, servers to handle the load, and a budget just large enough to handle that. Also, how are these companies making money? How is instagram worth 7 million? I don't see ads or any membership model so how wil they pay back that money? From where I sit (living off web design while building my own web app on the side in Chicago with no employees or funding or even an office) it seems these companies could run without the millions and actually be n a better position once they get big as they won't be beholden to VCs and have heavy debt. I know it's off topic but damn does it bug me. I honestly don't understand.<p>Edit: the only thing I can think of that requires a lot of money would be the momentum (marketing) and hype that money can buy. Otherwise couldn't it just start as a weekend project for $20 a month with a VPS and elegant code?