What are you to do when you realize the piece of software you’re looking for doesn’t exist? If you’re photographer, developer, and Redditor Nick Smith, you go ahead and make it yourself.
Frustrated by the inability to find the proper hashtags to use on his Instagram post, Smith took it upon himself to solve the problem. In an effort to grow his Instagram following in the most proven way possible, he built from the ground up Dehaze, an Instagram hashtag curator designed specifically for photographers.
It took Smith a few months to research hashtags and build the application, according to his post on Product Hunt. Although far from complete, he’s decided to share the beta with the world in an effort to gain feedback and improve the product.
https://www.instagram.com/p/BHhPbgZjcYL/?taken-by=dehazeco
The premise is quite simple. Choose the style of photography you’re capturing and the location where you’re shooting from a predefined list and a curated collection of hashtags will be presented for you to copy and paste into place.
Right now, there are only 19 locations to choose from and 14 genres of photography. As time goes on, Smith hopes to add more variables in order to better suit the needs of photographers around the world.
With Instagram switching to an algorithmic timeline, using hashtags is now becoming one of the best ways to make sure your work gets the attention it deserves. As Smith noted in a comment on Reddit, he is well aware there are other hashtag options out there, but Dehaze “is purely for the photography community.”
If you want to suggest hashtags for future updates to the app, you can do so using the Dehaze Beta feedback tool.