As photographers, sharing our photos is paramount. And what better way to do that than to share it on Instagram? But often, we shoot with our dedicated camera rather than with our phone, because “quality.” So how can we share our photos from our camera to Instagram as quickly as possible without shelling a lot of cash? Here's how I do it.
Tools Required
· Camera
· Media reader (SD-card, Compact Flash, etc.)
· On-the-go (OTG) Cable
· Android Phone with a file management app and the Instagram App
Many Android smart phones support on-the-go (OTG) USB devices, including keyboards, thumb drives, and media readers. The media reader is what we're interested in. For me, I use SD-cards, so a passive SD-card reader is what I'm using. Other than the media reader, you will need an OTG cable, which you can find online for less than $10 USD.
On your phone, you need to get a file management app so you may access the photos on your media. I use ES File Explorer as my file manager of choice, but just about any file manager will work.
And finally, you will need your Instagram app, which is pretty much the only way you can get photos up on their service.
Workflow
Take picture
This part is pretty self-explanatory. Just follow your usual photography habits with your camera.
Move media
Moving the media from one device to the other can be a little tricky, but is fairly straight forward. Remove the media from your camera, insert it into your media reader, plug the media reader into the OTG cable, then plug the OTG cable into your phone.
Open your file manager app and locate your media. In ES File Explorer, it comes up as a USB device. Tap on the media and navigate to your photo. Copy the photo to your phone's photo folder.
Edit the photo
Editing the photo is really up to you. You can apply a filter directly on Instagram, but if you shoot RAW photos, you will have to edit the photo in a separate editor before opening it in Instagram (Instagram does not support RAW format). To edit RAW images, I recommend using Snap Seed.
Upload the photo
When you're finish with editing the photo, simply upload as you usually do.
And that is it. Getting better quality photos onto Instagram takes a few more steps, but it can be done fairly quickly.