Instagram: A few pointers needed, please!

[Rupert67]

I've recently opened an Instagram account so that I can view a friend's pictures that way. Now that I've got an account I thought I'd maybe upload a few of my own pictures, but I don't know how to do it. I've used Photobucket in the past, to post pictures on forum threads, but the Instagram page doesn't seem to have an 'Upload' button.

I've noticed that all Instagram pictures are in square format .. is that obligatory, because I very rarely crop to square? Would I need to crop my pictures before uploading them? Also, what are the rules about picture file size? There aren't any instructions with my Instagram homepage, hence my request for help.

My computer is a desktop PC running Windows 8.1 x64 .. I do not own or have the use of anything remotely 'Smart', so no mobile phone with an inbuilt camera and no tablet or iPod stuff. I'm told Instagram is primarily for uploading lo-res camera phone pics on the move, but there must be a way that I can upload some of my own photographs from my PC, mustn't there?

I asked a similar question on another forum, where I've been variously advised to try Gramblr or Instapic. I thought before progressing any further I'd ask the same question on a 'proper' photo forum, so can anyone offer any guidance here, please?

 

[rjbell]

Yeah you will need to use a third party app like the instapic you mentioned. No you do not need to use square format.

 

[neil_g]

Instagram limits to 1024 on the long edge if I remember rightly so never going to be amazing quality. It's primarily designed as a photo sharing service for mobile users, but there are ways of loading from a pc via desktop apps as mentioned or by syncing files to a device first.

 

[The W]

Officially you can only upload via the app running on iOS or Android. People do sometes reverse engineer unofficial programs to allow uploading from a PC, until Instagram block it...

As a service it was envisioned as a way to immediately share personal snaps taken on your phone, and I believe for a long time it was considered bad form by many to upload photos from cameras that had been through Photoshop etc. But that's all fallen by the way and 'formal' photography abounds. But they still persists in not supporting uploads from the desktop.

Also for a long time it was square format only but people just put in the white space as required, and eventually they added support for any ratio (although bit still nudges you towards square by having it the default)

 

[JohnStewart]

There is a free plug-in available for Lightroom which allows you to export direct to Instagram. It also uses one of the descriptive metadata fields in the library module to go with the photo, so you can upload a few sentences to describe the photo and add some hashtags etc.

 

[JayJay]

I upload my photos to google drive and then access them in there from the instagram app on my phone.