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“I have a shot of my children from the back and they are look-
ing at something, so I use the filter to give it kind of a very
subtle kind of border that focuses their attention a little bit “Sometimes, it’s hard to imagine what I can do with the fil-
more on the foreground and less on the background.” (P12) ters until I get to it. Even when I’m taking the picture. For
instance, this picture [Figure 3] was taken at Central Park.
Manipulating colors. Many of the current filters on Flickr When I clicked it, I just clicked it because it was looking good
and Instagram apps manipulate the colors by adjusting satu- that day. I came back and I tried that, displaying it within
ration, brightness, contrast or simply by changing the color filters, and I realized that this filter looks good. It gives it a
gradients into warmer or cooler colors. Our participants particular look that I could not have even thought of before I
applied it.” (P2)
mentioned that one of the main uses of filters is to either
emphasize on certain colors or reduce the diversity of colors
in a photo: Serious Hobbyist vs. Casual Photographer
“I tend to filter just about almost everything, depending on As we briefly mentioned earlier, there are differences in fil-
what I’m trying to draw attention to in the picture. Say, I’m ter use among serious hobbyist photographers and the casual
trying to bring out the color of something, I’ll use a filter that photographers. While serious hobbyists like to use filters as
does that, or if I wanted to make it look like aged or some- enhancement methods for correcting errors in their photos,
thing, I’ll do something that way.” (P3) casual photographers take advantage of filters to make their
photos more special and fun. That said, serious hobbyists
Some of the participants also mentioned how they use fil- are more selective with filters, having specific filters in mind
ters to adjust for the right levels of saturation and brightness to correct for lighting, focus and color manipulations. Ca-
in colors: sual photographers, however, are more open to new types of
“I’d just try to play around with the saturation to get all the filters and often go through multiple filters before choosing
bright colors. I like to do this once in a while. I just go through one.
all the different filters and see which one looks better.” (P11) Serious hobbyists are interested in subtle changes where
the value is mostly in the imagery itself while mild filters
Making the photos appear more fun and unique. Other made some of the details more visible. They express their
than primarily photographic motives, sometimes filters help dislike in Instagram-like filters where the image completely
users give their photos a fun and unique look that they could changes by filters:
not capture through the camera. The goal of this filter is to
impress the viewers and so the motive is more social and “I don’t want the treatment of the image to detract from
what’s happening in the photograph. A lot of these apps, they
more popular among the casual photographers. Our casual
just pile stuff on top of stuff on top of stuff, so they have
photographers who do not have much knowledge of photog- scratchy lens, scratchy film, vignetted, soft on the edges, hy-
raphy as an art, described the filters primarily as tools that per saturated, super desaturated, super high contrast. Basi-
make the photos more special: cally, pardon my French, they’re taking a really shitty pho-
tograph, and they’re putting so much stuff on top of it that it
“They make some pictures more fun and more interesting and
doesn’t really matter anymore. You don’t even see the image.”
more unique. That being said, because most of the pictures
(P10)
that I’m sharing are just get across pictures of my baby to
show my parents or whatever. I don’t feel like they’re the tar- Some of them also expressed concern in how filters might
get audience.” (P5) devalue the art in the image by making it easy for casual
Sometimes these fun and unique looks are not imagined photographers to create beautiful photos:
by the photographer or not intended until when the filter is “My 10-year-old cousin, he takes the app. He takes the photo.
applied: He passes it through filters and it’s beautiful. You feel great
and you feel a bit sad. Sad because the actual art in it is lost
into the filter” (P6)
For casual photographers, the act of sharing is the primary
intention when taking mobile photos; While in case of seri-
ous hobbyists the image itself is the most important. Our ca-
sual participants confirmed that when they take photos with
their mobile phones they usually think of their audience in-
terest on social media or Flickr.