

Socialcam: Further Proof That You Folks Really Like Your Filters - mwseibel
http://techcrunch.com/2011/10/28/socialcam-further-proof-that-you-folks-really-like-your-filters/

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nroman
Almost all of the photos that people are filtering are uploaded straight off a
phone. Generally the cameras on these devices suck. You get tons of pixel
noise, weak colors, and relatively low resolution. You also don't get much in
the way of creative control, such as the ability to play with depth of field
and exposure.

Filters cover up these flaws. You no longer see all the noise and general
crappiness after taking a photo blurring it, overlaying textures, and then
blowing out the color. Plus they give you a bit of creative control. I think
that's the reason that these apps are so popular.

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skulvr
Thats a pretty good explanation. I always wondered why do people love filters
so much.

I think another reason is because its "cool" now.

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nickburlett
Filters are quite a lot of fun, but they can't turn a crappy photo into a
masterpiece. At best, they turn a bad photo into a mediocre on, or a decent
photo into a good one. You can alter the mood, but in the end the subject
matter needs to be interesting.

Not to say that filters are inherently bad. The "Mastergram" blog
(<http://mastergram.tumblr.com/>) has some excellent examples of how
masterpiece photos can be altered by Instagram but still retain that je ne
sais quoi that made them masterpieces in the first place.

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mwseibel
Nick - I don't think the goal is to make a masterpiece.

Anyone with a smartphone is no more than 5 feet away from a video capture
device 24/7. For the first time in history hundreds of millions of people have
the ability to capture and share video instantly. Unfortunately most people
don't take advantage of this fact because they find video intimidating.

Socialcam is trying to break down the wall and make video fun. It turns out
that filters do a great job of this.

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lurker17
I just find video really slow to upload, and the motion capture quality /
framerate awful.

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dave1619
Socialcam was featured a few times but still they're not ranked very high in
the Appstore (#41 top free in Photography, not even top 1000 overall free).
They probably have most of their downloads from the times they were featured.
I'm not sure if I buy the hype. Video is a difficult problem to solve and I'm
not sure if they've really solved much.

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Qz
I made a mod for Oblivion back in the day that basically let you just add some
filters to the game. It was way more popular than any of the gameplay mods I
spent far more time on. People love filters.

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mwseibel
Its pretty crazy how much people love filters. Now almost 50% of Socialcam
videos are taken with filters.

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mmagin
"Oh, and he also noted the biggest new use case for Socialcam: the folks at
Occupy Wall Street."

Nice to see hipsters aren't too busy protesting to be ironic.

