Social networking has become a way of life for millions of people across the globe. The likes of Facebook and Twitter have become part of our everyday language with ‘Tweets’ and ‘Pokes’ developing into their own distinct verbs. One of the most popular features of this genre has been the ability to share not only messages but also pictures with your friends and relatives. Of course, many of these images are visible to the general public whereby users normally have to engage privacy filters to avoid open viewing. However, just recently, Instagram (one of the most popular photo sharing platforms out there) has come under fire in the light of its intention to strip away the intellectual property rights of their users. This effectively means that your pictures will be the company’s to use as they please which includes selling them. With this in mind, below we have constructed a list of six alternatives which allow users to maintain ownership of their own images.
Flickr
Flickr has come a long way since it began. It might have been forgotten in the photo editing arena but it has come back fighting with a fresh new website and app. It now has filters which make it easy for the user to manipulate their images like never before. Most importantly, you own your images under copyright.
Camera+
This application is a little different from the rest in a sense that it allows the user to take better photos from the offset. The editing feature is still available after shooting the picture but those pictures you do edit will be inherently better. There are great features such as burst mode, focus prints and a stabilizer.
Hipstamatic
Hipstamatic can perhaps be seen as a forerunner to Instagram. Yes, they have suffered in recent years in the shadows of the latter but the original retro filters and a plethora of features which outstrip Instagram may open some eyes as to seeing this application as a viable alternative.
EyeEm
Some might say EyEm is almost identical to Instagram but it does have it’s differences. The most important being that it is unlikely to sell off your pictures to third parties which should leave you with some piece of mind. Eyem also enables you to categorise your pictures by different themes and events.
Pixlr-o-matic
Some are saying that this application is well on it’s way to leaving Instagram in the shade even without the recent privacy issues. This is because Pixlr- o-matic has many more features with over 5000000 finishes, 100 filters and 200 borders available. Now available on iOS as well as Android, users can share their images first through the app menu before they choose to share through any of the social networks.
500px
Regarded by some as the now the best photo sharing application, 500Px has actually been around for quite a while in early versions. Many consider it to be superior to Instagram in a sense that the focus is more on quality, professional looking photos as opposed to an over reliance on Polaroid-esque saturation and other gimmicks. You have the option of finding friends and can share images within the app itself. You can even download HD versions of pictures as well being able to vote and leave comments on the many examples out there. This application looks set to knock Instagram firmly off its perch!
Featured images:
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
Jo Warrell is the Social Media Coordinator at PrinterInks.com; the online portal for printer cartridges from well-known brands such as Canon, Lexmark, Epson, Kodak and Dell.
