I doubt Instagram needs any more introduction after Facebook bought the company for $1 billion in cash and stock a few weeks ago, but for those unaware, Instagram is an app for iPhones, and more recently also for Android phones, that allows users to share images quickly and easily to an online social community. It also has a few filters and editing tools, but the social sharing feature is its main draw. I’ve been using it for about 14-15 months now, and joined when it was already big. But it seems to have exploded even more in the last 2-3 months, in part because they finally allowed Android users to join the party.

You can share images taken with any camera, as long as you first get them on either an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, but I limit the pictures I post to those taken with the camera itself. Many but not all Instagram users do the same thing. The only exception for me would be sometimes when I travel. If I want to post an image right away, I will do so using Instagram, even if it was taken with a regular camera and transferred to my iPad.

I also do all the editing for Instagram photos either on my iPhone or iPad. That is again, a common practice but not a universal rule.  Truly there are now so many tools to edit images on iPhones and iPads that there is no reason not to do so.

The above images, all posted by me to Instagram this week, were edited using Snapseed, which I first mentioned here, the VSCO FIlm App, which is based on that company’s great Aperture and Lightroom presets, and with the Hipstamatic App. For the details, hover your mouse on each image to get the info.

If you really want some great instruction on iPhone photography, check out the new eBook from my buddy Justin Balog, who just published “Big World Little Lens” through the Apple iTunes Bookstore. Justin does an iPhone photo roundup every Friday on his blog, and has taught classes on iPhone photography. The book is brand new, and I will confess I have been too busy to give it more than a cursory look, but I have no qualms recommending that you check it out. Links for all the apps I mentioned, plus Justin’s book are immediately below. For the ones that lead you to iTunes and involve a cash purchase, if you do so using these buttons I get a minuscule share at no cost to you (or Justin!).  The free apps generate no cash for me of course, and the same is true for the link to the Instagram Android App on Google Play, which I’ve just put in this sentence.

Oh, and if you want to follow me on Instagram just search for user “mgarbowski” from inside the App.