Instagram Head Calls Out Camera Companies for Going in the Wrong Direction

""The camera companies are betting on the wrong aesthetic," he says. "They're competing to make everyone look like a professional photographer from the past. Every year we see phone cameras boast about more megapixels and image processing. We are romanticising the past. Portrait mode is artificially blurring the background of a photograph to reproduce the soft glow you get from the shallow depth of field of a fixed lens. It looks good, and we like to look good.""

""But flattering imagery is cheap to produce and boring to consume," he continues. "People want content that feels real. We are going to see a significant acceleration of a more raw aesthetic over the next few years. Savvy creators are going to lean into explicitly unproduced and unflattering images of themselves.""

""People largely stopped sharing personal moments to feed years ago," he continues. "Stories are alive and well as they provide a less pressurized way to share with your followers, but the primary way people share, even photos and videos, is in DMs.""

AI can generate photographs and videos indistinguishable from captured media. The polished Instagram feed—square photos with makeup, skin smoothing, high contrast, and scenic landscapes—has declined as people stopped sharing personal moments there. Stories and DMs have become the primary spaces for casual and private sharing. Camera manufacturers continue to pursue higher megapixels, advanced image processing, and portrait-mode blur to mimic professional optics, favoring flattering, romanticized imagery. Flattering imagery is easy and increasingly boring. Audiences prefer content that feels real, and a shift toward a raw, unproduced aesthetic is expected, with creators embracing unflattering authenticity.

Read at PetaPixel