Photo courtesy of Nathana Rebouças.
This piece is a breakdown my editing process for my photo edits that I posted on Instagram.
by Jessica Welner
The Start of It All
In the last two years, editing has become a huge passion of mine. I am not talking about editing in terms of photo manipulation like Adobe Photoshop. I am talking about editing for Instagram. I create edits to show my support for my favorite television shows. Instagram, for those who do not know, is a photo-sharing social media platform. The social media platform is an outlet for creative and artistic people to express themselves through various forms of digital art such as photographs, edits, and so much more.
I have gained so much knowledge about editing and what it entails along with the literacy that is involved in the process. Karin Tusting and Uta Papen’s Creativity in Everyday Literary Practices: The contribution of an ethnographic approach takes a look into the process of how people use and interact with an assortment of literary texts. We don’t really think about the process of how literacy texts are created. Most of the time, we just read them and analyze them whether it is for school or for ourselves. Tusting and Papen argue that even the simplest of texts are creative. Texts that we would not have originally considered as creative at first glance. I will be explaining the step-by-step process of how I make my edits. As my edits may initially appear as simplistic, the editing process is more technical which allows me to produce digitally creative visuals.
The account that I will be focusing on is @rvdeffect. I post edits based on the CW television show called Riverdale. I have had this account since February of 2018. I have another account which is based on Netflix’s Stranger Things. I have had this account since November of 2017. When it comes to editing, there are multiple literary texts involved such as the text in the edits themselves and researching ideas on Instagram or Google. Tusting and Papen claim that basically any literary texts are creative whether it is a Parish newsletter or a campsite sign in Namibia.
The Editing Breakdown
The following process is for the Riverdale related quote edits I make. The process for my Stranger Things edits is a bit different as I use a different filter and font. I do not make the type of edits that I make on my Riverdale account. I make what are called scene edits. I take different scenes and turn them into edits. Similarly, I turn on the closed captions to grab the dialogue and make sure the dialogue in my edits are accurate. For my Riverdale edits, the very first step is finding quotes whether that is going through my saved edits on Instagram or searching on Google for some. Usually, I will go through my saved edits (see figure 1) because I get inspired more by other editors than I would if I just Google searched quotes.
The second step is screenshotting off of Netflix (see figure 2). I found that this is the best way to make good quality edits because the screencaps are in HD or high-definition so not only the edits are aesthetically pleasing to look at but the screencaps add quality to them. I just press command, shift and 4 and drag the crosshairs to screenshot the desired screencap. Now if I do not screenshot off of Netflix, I will go through my folders of screencaps that I have previously saved if there is a screencap that will work with the edit I am making.
The third step is airdropping those screencaps to my phone (see figure 3). I found this to be easier than emailing them to myself because they get sent to my phone right away. So, if I am in a rush to edit, the screencaps will be sent to my phone faster.
The fourth step is applying a filter on my screencaps (see figure 4). I apply the filter through an application I use which is called Polarr. I find my filters on different Instagram accounts. Polarr allows the user to create their own filters but I resort to using other people’s filters because I cannot make good filters. I just screenshot the code they share and import it into the app. I have been using one specific filter for a while now because I love the colors and tones in it. Depending on the screencap, I will adjust the brightness or exposure to brighten it up. Then, I will go into my phone bring up the exposure for the entire edit two notches.
The fifth step is bringing the filtered screencaps in Layout or Photogrid to create a collage (see figure 5). It just depends on the type of ratio I want for my edit. I will use Layout when I want the traditional square type of post or a 4:3 ratio on Photogrid for more of an artsy type of look. For this specific edit, I will be using the 4:3 ratio on Photogrid. I also use white lines in my edits to create a blog kind of aesthetic.
The sixth step is bringing the filtered collage into Phonto (see figure 6). This is where I apply text to my edits. I will usually screenshot the quote I’m using to refer back to or go to the Notes application on my phone. I will type any quotes that I find on Google over there on my Notes application. Anyways, fonts vary depending on the style I’m going for. Most of the time I like to mix and match different fonts because it creates an aesthetically pleasing appearance.
For the edit to the left, I combined two fonts. The combinations of fonts do vary. The fonts include a cursive type of font and a bold, smaller type of font. I have been using this combination for a quite a while now. I have recently been using lowercase letters instead of uppercase because they appear more delicate than the uppercase letters. They are a little harsher and the edit as a whole flows better.
I always include a watermark that says my username because there are a lot people who re-post my edits and don’t give me credit for them or sometimes they erase my watermark completely. I like finishing my edits off with the watermark mainly to show who made it. Just looking the edit in its entirety may seem as if it took 5 minutes to make when in reality all of these steps take me a good hour or so to complete an edit (see figure 7).
The seventh and final step is posting the edit to my account (see figure 8). I have a specific caption style that I have using for about a year now. It consists of the subject of the edit in brackets, a question to increase engagement and interaction with my followers, and mentioning my username to follow it for similar editing content. The last part of the caption is great if I end up getting my edits on the explore page. It might persuade people that stumble upon a random edit of mine on the explore page to check out my account and possibly follow it. Additionally, I will tag the actor or actress in the edit for the slightest chance to get noticed by them. I use lowercase letters for my caption style because it is less formal than if I used uppercase and lowercase letters.
This is what my account currently looks like (see figure 9). I have covers for my story highlights to keep my account organized and consistent as I used the filter I am using on my edits on the cover photos. In my bio, I mention what I post, a warning that I do post spoilers, and tagging my other accounts that I have. I use the business option for my account so I can keep track of my insights (engagement, number of profile visits, follows, etc.) It’s helpful to know all of this information because it allows me to curate what content I should post and not post. The physical aspects of my account such as my story highlights and my profile picture change quite often.
Originally, I never thought that my entire editing process was creative whatsoever. Tusting and Papen prove otherwise. They explain that “as we have argued previously…by exploring practices involved in text production, we can see that there is creativity even in seemingly routine or mundane literacy practices” (6). Now that I have thoroughly went through and studied Tusting and Papen’s piece and the points they make, I am further convinced that my editing process is creative. I have always seen my editing process to be more technical than creative.
As I create edits almost every day, Tusting and Papen mention that “…creativity is inherent and essential in people’s everyday lives” (6). This is relevant to me because I do feel that need for creativity when it comes to making edits. The editing process has been stable for me for a while but it is “a process that entails adaption and change” (7). At the beginning of my editing journey, it was all about adapting to changes whether it is the change of fonts or filters. The change helps me with getting more motivated and inspired to edit as there are periods of time when I have no interest to edit. It gets me excited to edit as using a new filter or font is something new.
David Barton’s Vernacular Writing on the Web explores how writing has changed since it has been molded to fit internet standards. There so many activities that we do on the daily which becomes a part of our routine such as editing for me. Most of our activities are “…currently being transformed by the possibilities offered by new technologies” (109). As it is clearly noticeable, my literate activity being Instagram editing is entirely digital and the process is all completed on a Mac laptop and an iPhone 7. Technology continues to advance and many literate activities are done on technological devices. This activity could be considered as a vernacular literate activity that is “learned informally” and is “not systematized by education or other outside institutions” (110). Essentially, this literary event is self-taught. No teacher or instructor taught me how to edit in an educational environment or another public institution. Barton asserts that vernacular texts “are often treated as ephemera, they tend not to be kept and are easily disposed of” (110). Ephemera is defined as items that exist or are used or relished for a short amount of time. My edits have taken up so much space on my phone so I decided to delete some of them. Also, I have also archived some of the older edits on my account because I ended up not liking how they appeared on my feed for aesthetic purposes.
Barton discusses how “vernacular practices like the activity on Flickr may also be a source of creativity, invention, and originality…” (122). Henceforth, the edits I make are a source of these three concepts. I try my best to make my edits as creative, innovative, and original as possible. I do not like conforming with what everybody else is doing. I prefer to stand out amongst accounts that are similar to mine.
In summation, the editing process can be intense. It requires patience but also a creative mind. Tusting, Papen, and Barton all have their own interpretations on creativity when it comes to everyday literacy practices. Tusting and Papen argue that the process of how we create these activities is automatically creative. Barton uses Flickr as an example of a vernacular literary practice to represent how technology is becoming a major force in the digital world of literacy. My editing process is both technical and creative. This process will continue to immerse me in an endless supply of literary texts and visuals.
Works Cited
Barton, David. “Vernacular Writing on the Web.” The Anthropology of Writing, 2010, pp. 109-112, 122
Papen, Uta, and Karin Tusting. “Creativity in Everyday Literacy Practices: The Contribution of an Ethnographic Approach.” Literacy & Numeracy Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, 2008, pp. 5–24.
