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span class="inline inline-right">The Instagram app works on iPhones and other Apple products, and is a hit in Indonesia (JP/Ricky Yudhistira)Suddenly, everyone is a pro at photography.

You name it: entrepreneurs, movie stars, architects, doctors, students and housewives.

They can all come up with great photos displaying outstanding objects, dramatic colors and nice composition just like professional photographers.

But these amateurs don’t need expensive cameras or high-level skills at photography and photo editing anymore. All they need is Instagram, a photo-sharing application available on Apple products like iPhones, iPods and iMacs. With just a few clicks, users can evolve into great photographers.

Instagram is like a magic wand for photography beginners to transform their average pictures into works of art.

Here’s how it works.

The application provides a series of filters that can instantly be applied to photos, changing the look to be more artistic. Users can add layers of effects like vintage looks, black-and-white or withering frames. They can even perfect blurry pictures or photos with bad composition and, with additional applications, the photos can become truly outstanding.

It is indeed true when they say that with Instagram you are only a few clicks away from being a good photographer.

“[I like it because] it is effortless. You just put filters on your photos and they change into something that has value,” video editor Artopo “Thole” Setyawan, 36, said.

For Thole, who started using Instagram in January, that is not the only fun part. The freelancer said he enjoyed sharing and connecting with other users through the application.

Each user can follow others, adding comments or “liking” their friends’ photos.

With such interesting features, no wonder the application, which was created in San Francisco by Mike Krieger and Kevin Systrom in 2010, has become a new favorite on social networking sites. The New York Times reported in June that Instagram attracted close to five million users in eight months, with an additional one million users every month since.

The data confirms Instagram’s position as the number one online photo sharing service, defeating rivals like PicPlz, Lightbox, Pixable, Mobli and Path.  

Apart from its interactivity, what makes Instagram so favored, according to a few users, is the fact that it offers a sort of competition that makes picture-taking more interesting. The competition pushes users to collect “likes” for their pictures. The reward for the winners is they can go into the Popular page. The app sets different requirements for each user depending on the number of followers and the amount of pictures they upload in a certain timeframe.

The urge to be popular is one of  the reasons so many people have become addicted to the application, said Aries Lukman, the founder of iPhonesia, a community for Indonesian Instagram users or Instagrammers.

“Indonesians like the application because they want to be on the Popular page,” said the man, who set up iPhonesia with a few friends in January 2011.

The membership in iPhonesia has rapidly grown from about 30 to more than 1,400, making it the largest Instragrammer community in the world.

Aries said iPhonesia members come from all around the world, not only Indonesia.

“It is mostly because we are the biggest,” said Aries, explaining that people join the forum because it is very active, enabling users to get feedback easily and collect as many “likes” as possible.

Commenting on Instagram fever in Indonesia, blogger Wicaksono said the trend was triggered by a number of factors, including iPhonesia.

“Basically, people like to take pictures and they also like to be photographed and the application is so simple, making photo taking not as complicated as it used to be,” said Wicaksono, who is better known by his avatar name ndorokakung.

The presence of celebrities on Instragram has also attracted people, Wicaksono said.

Artists like Luna Maya and Nadya Hutagalung, who post pictures of their daily lives, have drawn new Instragrammers.

The Instagram system even went down last July after pop star Justin Bieber posted an Instagram photo on his Twitter account.

In one minute Bieber added 50 followers. His picture collected 234 “likes” instantly and got a comment every 10 seconds.

Yet, this celebrity phenomena has inspired cynicism from a few.

“I don’t get these people, do they like the photos because the photos are just simply amazing, or because they are fans?” said 34-year-old freelancer Arief “Oyik” Hartawan, who has been using Instagram for a year.

Oyik also doesn’t like the fact that people misuse the application solely for exhibition purposes.

“For me, Instagram is more about the spontaneity of sharing moments with others and not about having the most beautiful pictures.”

Negative reactions have also come from professional photographers who feel threatened by the application that has empowered laymen to become somewhat skilled photographers.

But senior photographer Indra Leonardi begs to differ. He said Instagram should challenge photographers to enhance their skills.

“Photographers must continue to innovate. The world is always filled with new and different things, we have to compete and become faster and better,” Indra said.

Thanks to Instagram, everyone can be a good photographer, embracing day-to-day events or certain monotonous surroundings.

And we may agree with French novelist Marcel Proust: “The voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes”.