Printing Instagram Collectibles

Instagram is now over half a decade old. Recently, the Facebook-owned service announced that users can now add up to 5 Instagram accounts and quickly switch between them without having to log out and log back in. If you’re one of its over 77 million regular users in the United States today, you’ve probably already amassed quite a collection of photographs that you would want to get off your computer or smartphone and into print. You may want to hang them on your wall, put them in and album or otherwise share them with friends and family in a more tangible way.

At Walgreens, you can have your favorite photos into 4-by-4 or 8-by-8 square prints from your Instagram account printed directly on photo paper. You can have it available for pick up in about an hour at your local outlet. Alternatively, you can have it shipped to your home within three to five days after processing. A 4-by-4 print costs $0.39 each while an 8-by-8 is at $3.99 a piece.  

For those still not in the know about Instagram, it’s a photo sharing service within the social media circuit. Once you open an account, you can post photos and people that “follow” you can see them. Instagram is a free service. The associated apps that you can download for your smart mobile devices are also free. With Instagram, you can share photos with family and friends without having to email them. Those who want to can tap a “heart” button , or double-tap the photo itself, to tell you that they “like” your photo. You can also set your account to private and allow only the people you approve to see your photos. With an Instagram account, you can find new people to follow. Just tap the button that looks like a magnifying glass. At the top of the next screen, you’ll see a search bar which you can also use to search for new friends.

One great feature of Instagram is that the site give you access to several photographic filters that you can use to make your images look more intersting. For instance, with the “Inkwell” filter, you can make your picture a black-and-white composition. With “Earlybird.” you get an old-look picture with a sepia tint. With “Sutro,” your picture will have a picture with burn edges, increased highlights and shadows with a focus on purple and brown colors. “Valencia” fades the image by increasing exposure and warming the colors to give it an antique feel, “Walden” increases exposure and adds a yellow tint, “X-Pro II” increases color vibrance with a golden tint and high contrast, and “Slumber” desaturates the image as well as adds haze for a retro, dreamy look.
Aside from the photo filters, Instagram also have tools for editing pictures. The one with the sun icon will give youe what they call the “Lux” effect. Using a simple 100-point slider, you can quickly adjust the exposure, contrast and brightness of each photo.