The Troll has advised me not to publish non-recipe related posts in the early stages of the blog. Something to do with google rankings or SEO or whatnot. But I just cannot resist with this one!
Before My Discovery
I am sitting at my computer. What seemed like a fun part of food blogging – posting pretty vegetable pics to instagram – has turned into a time sucking black hole. My toes are starting to curl with frustration, and my chest is constricting from stress at the thought of all the work I should have been doing in the time I am taking to load ONE image.
The reason? The complete lack of compatibility between instagram and desktops.
If you have been in this situation, I feel ya!
Grambler
The first app I downloaded to try and get pics from my computer into instagram was Grambler. They have some pretty cool features, and some nice editing tools. However, as I edit my pics in Lightroom after transferring from camera to pc, the funky editing tools are superfluous : (.
But the worst part was that Grambler just refused to work after a while. Determined to get my dreamy Basket of Basil picture uploaded, I retried until the app finally got the pic through to instagram. Hallelujah! But it took so long that I felt like I had spent almost a whole afternoon to get one picture up!
Thankfully, the other day Grambler would not even open. Consumed with frustration, I did some more googling.
And I came upon THIS.
LR Instagram
Lightroom Instagram. Thank you, thank you, thank you to the kind person who developed this app. If you edit your pics in lightroom, then this is the perfect route to effortless uploading to instagram.
Quick Side Note on Why Lightroom is Awesome
Before we jump into how LR instagram works, there might be some amongst who do not use lightroom yet, and are thinking – but I don’t have or want Lightroom. Maybe you are considering working with Photoshop, or already use other editing software.
If this is the case, I want to put in a big thumbsup for Lightroom. I have never regretted my choice in editing software, and personally I find it to be the ultimate editing software for a food blogger. I have tried to use Photoshop – but find it unwieldy and time consuming. Since buying Lightroom, I have come across a few great articles such as this one, which put forward some solid points outlining why Lightroom is a smart choice in editing software. Take a look if you are in the process of choosing what to use.
So, if you are trying to make a decision regarding editing software there is my two cents.
Back to LR.
How it Works
The app is a plugin for Lightroom. Once you have installed it, an Instagram uploads folder will appear on the left of your lightroom screen along with your other photo collections. To upload a pic to instagram, simply drag it from the collection it is in, to new folder. Click publish and it will automatically appear in your instagram feed.
What to Do
Download & Install
- Download the app from the LR Instagram site.
- Extract the files from the zip folder.
- Go to ‘Plug-in Manager’ in Lightroom.
- Select ‘Add plug-in’.
- Add the LR Instagram file.
- Enter your Instagram login details.
- Click ‘Save’
First Uploads
- Find the pic that you want to upload in your lightroom collection.
- Drag it across and hover over the folder on the left under ‘Publish Services’ which says ‘LR Instagram’. Drop.
- Go into that folder. Your pic should be there.
- Hit publish.
- Go check your instagram feed to see if it is there.
Adding a Description (and hashtags)
To add a description before your pretty pic goes live, simply head over to the ‘Caption’ box under the Keyword section on the right hand menu of lightroom. This will then show in instagram. So cool!
A Little Tip on Deleting
If you upload too many pics at once, or the wrong one, and you want to delete from your instagram feed – you will have to open up instagram on your phone or tablet. It seems that the delete function is not available from browser mode.
Pin to Share
