Instagram Review for 2015 | The Year in Pictures
Instagram Review for 2015
The Year in Pictures
All of the images in this video were captured by me during the year 2015. This is a collection of the images and short videos that were uploaded to Instagram by me over the past year.
Watching a video such as this can inspire memories from the previous year. It reminds me of where I'd been and what I'd been doing in 2015. I encourage viewers to make their own "Year in Review" montage. It might be easier than you think!
A special thank you is owed to the band you see playing at the Fallasburg Fall Festival for the Arts. The band called Paddy's Cure. Look for them on line (see the link below)! Their performance is being used here under the Fair Use Law with respect to copyright and ownership. The band has not endorsed this video nor is it affiliated with this YouTube channel.
Lessons Learned...
Initially, I used a tool within Sony Movie Studio which imported all of my images into a slideshow. I set the import feature to perform and automatic crop/pan/scan function across all images. The result was actually terrible but not because the automated tool did anything wrong. It was the quality of the source images that ultimately lead to the creation of a rather bad final production.
The images stored on Instagram are not HD quality and their aspect ratio is square and not the widely popular 16:9 ratio used in HD displays. They look great on a telephone but they do not scale up to full HD very nicely.
The original crop/pan/scan function zoomed in on what were already low resolution images and had the effect of further degrading the quality. After the final video was rendered and reviewed on my full HD computer monitor, the shortcomings were glaringly obvious.
The video you see here is not that original video. In this version, I removed all of the crop/pan/scan adjustments and allowed the images to maintain their original Instagram resolution and aspect ratio. This had the effect of restoring some of the perceived image quality.
After removing the crop/pan/scan effects, I decided to use only the default "crossfade" transition and accept a less fancy production. Even though it may not be as complicated of a production as the original version, this one looks much better. Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned there as well. Sometimes less is more.
The major lesson learned today is that while making a slideshow from my Instagram images is fun and useful, the low image quality does not warrant spending a lot of time trying to make a complicated (or fancy) production. Next time, I'll keep it simple and practical. I must always consider the effect that the quality of my source material will have on my final production.
The video also allowed me to experiment with combining video, still images, and multiple channels of audio all within the same video. All in all, this was a very good exercise and a valuable learning experience.
It is my hope that someone will read this before they create their own slideshows from their Instagram image collections.
I hope you enjoyed the video and that the lessons learned are useful to you with your projects.
Share the video and remember to subscribe. Have a great day and keep coming back!
Thanks,
Don
LINKS...
Fallasburg Fall Festival for the Arts
http://www.lowellartsmi.org/#!fallasb...
Paddy's Cure
http://www.paddyscure.com/