On Tuesday, April 28, the British Museum announced that it is the latest institution to make digitized images of its various collections available for free online. The ‘revamped’ online collections database now contains 1.9 million images that are offered to the public under the restrictive Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 4.0 license, which allows for non-commercial use with attribution.
According to the announcement tweet from British Museum, its team expedited the release of this new online database so that the public can browse the museum’s collections while in quarantine at home. The launch follows similar big digitized collections launches from institutions like Paris Musées and The Smithsonian.
This revamp simplifies things for public users who are no longer required to register in order to use the images. Going forward, anyone can browse the online collections database and download any of the 1.9 million images for non-commercial use with attribution. Each image is scanned at a high-resolution; the online viewer enables users to zoom in on objects to view fine details.
Today we’re excited to launch a major revamp of our Collection online! ??
We’ve been working extra hard to bring you this update early so you can #MuseumFromHome even better than before.
Access the collection digitally wherever you are: https://t.co/a2CPohwarP pic.twitter.com/py0ppV4ktV
— British Museum (@britishmuseum) April 28, 2020
According to the British Museum, this collection features two million years’ worth of history that spans six continents. The museum digitized nearly 4.5 million objects, making it the largest online collection of its kind. British Museum explains that its revamped interface not only provides access to these images for free but also makes it easier for the public to find the specific items they’re looking for.
The online collections are vast, including everything from ancient Egyptian sculptures to Assyrian artifacts, Greek objects, Iranian jewelry, artwork from the Roman Empire and much more. Viewers can sort through the content based on collection galleries, as well as searches using museum numbers, persons, places and keywords.
This launch is a welcomed addition to the growing body of digitized artifacts and other works made available to the general public online. However, the release isn’t without criticism. Unlike The Smithsonian and Paris Musées, both of which released their online collections with Creative Common 0 licenses, the British Museum’s collection is made available under the CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license.
The @britishmuseum has placed 1.9 million high-rez images of objects in its holdings online under a Creative Commons license, which is excellent news! https://t.co/0j5nf0fzhU
1/
— Covered Dish People (@doctorow) April 29, 2020
Author and activist Coro Doctorow highlighted some of the concerns related to this in a recent tweet thread, pointing out, among other things, that UK law states that copyrights can only subsist in cases where the work is ‘original in the sense that it is the author’s own ‘intellectual creation.” Among other things, the nation’s copyright law [PDF, page 3] notes that it’s ‘unlikely that what is merely a retouched, digitised image of an older work can be considered as ‘original.”
Critics have also pointed out that Wikimedia Commons only allows images that aren’t ‘subject to copyright restrictions which would prevent them being used by anyone, anytime, for any purpose,’ meaning the British Museum’s digitized collections can’t be included in the Commons catalog.
Despite these concerns, the revamped database is a step in the right direction. The British Museum has been commended for the effort it put into this launch — not just for the high-resolution images and scans of the content, but also the number of tools and information the museum provides for each listing.
The database includes the name(s) of the original excavator who discovered the items, where the object was found, the materials it is made from, the technique used to craft it, its size and weight, its present condition, where it was acquired, its registration number and more. The collection is available here.
The post Instaproofs Review: An All-In-One Platform to Sell Your Photography Online appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.
Looking for a better way to share and sell your photos online? Then Instaproofs might be the right solution for you.
Whether you do in-person sales or online, Instaproofs can help you organize your sessions, sell products and prints, and even help with contracts. Read more about the platform in today’s article review.
What is Instaproofs?
Instaproofs is a subscription-based platform online that helps photographers use online galleries to sell products, prints, and digitals to their clients worldwide.
They have been around for 15 years and over time have improved their platform to offer beautifully-designed galleries, easy user-friendly cart systems, and create more avenues for photographers to earn more after completing their work.
The galleries are compatible with all devices.
They are similar to other services like Pixieset and require a monthly subscription. Although, they do have a free plan available for those who use online galleries for in-person sales and can work within the 3GB limit.
Here are the current monthly options for Instaproofs that you can choose from:
Key features
The key features that Instaproofs offers are:
Online gallery platform and shopping cart with custom pricing and products
Cloud storage
Contacts and invoicing
Mobile apps
Digital delivery
Reports
Multi-lingual
Marketing tools and email tracking
Managed accounts for multiple users
Migration services from previous online gallery service (extra charge for this $ 3 per gallery).
Lab fulfillment services
Watermarking
Quick payments through Stripe
The service also offers a 14-day free trial so you can poke around and see if it’s right for you and your business.
In-Depth Review
Galleries
These three the are the biggest features that Instaproofs provides. Whether you are a digital delivery photographer or focus more on prints, there are endless features that you can take advantage of to get you more sales.
The gallery homepage can feature all of your galleries or you can choose to hide some. Add passwords and require emails to sign in. It’s fully customizable for each gallery depending on your needs.
The online galleries support high-resolution images up to 50MB per image making sure that you’re able to offer your clients the best image quality available for their images. You’re also able to upload smaller resolution images if you’re looking to present the images during in-person sales. This can save you storage space the monthly plan.
The dashboard will let you customize the views and windows. You can see right away how much storage space you have left, how many galleries are active, and the number of images you have uploaded.
The galleries also have the option of choosing the image you want to be featured for the entire gallery as well as category featured images which can be different. You’re also able to upload the HTML code for a video slideshow if you’ve created one – all to captivate your clients right from the start.
The star shows the images you have chosen as featured and will show as the cover for the gallery.
When setting up your galleries, you have all the options in the same window so that you can set up the purchase minimum, slideshow music, whether you want the photos to display mostly horizontal or vertical, choose a price list for the gallery, and categories.
Currently, they’ve added the option to upload to multiple categories simultaneously for faster uploads making it easier to organize and categorize the images for your clients.
Adding custom links and music to the slideshows is also a great way to engage your clients during the selling process. Another great plugin: Direct uploading from Aperture, Lightroom, or FTP applications.
Not into selling digitals? You don’t have to. The galleries offer the photographer to have a minimum purchase amount, offer only web-sized digitals or only watermarked digital images.
You have full control over how you want to set up each individual gallery. You can give your clients permission to hide images, download all, or none, and a customized link. You can also have guests who enter the link to only be able to purchase images and not download at all. Each gallery is personalized as much or as little as you want.
From the galleries, you’re able to create mobile apps that hold 50 images from a particular gallery. You can also make one without a pre-existing gallery, where the client can save the mobile app onto their smartphone and have 50 images to view and share on the go! Especially useful to do sneak peeks/previews.
Shopping cart and selling
Instaproofs’ motto is “Sell more prints” and that is exactly what they aim for. More than a digital delivery service, they make it really user friendly for photographers to set up price sheets, sales, coupons, and products to the storefront for clients to purchase.
You can also choose to create add-ons so that you can maximize the sale. Rather than just selling a print, you can also add on the frame and offer your clients more value for their purchases.
When creating the shopping cart, you can also use lab pricing and a certain markup percentage to make it easier to set pricing. This can be really useful for beginner photographers who are getting into selling products and don’t really know how to go about pricing their prints and products.
From the cart, you can activate whether you’ll want to sell prints in black and white and/or sepia. This is a preference and each photographer can set up the cart as they wish.
There are many features to the shopping cart that gives the photographer full control of what to sell, how many, bulk pricing, options for black and white or sepia, cropping to help clients crop properly, lab fulfillment, pricing sheets, discounts, sales, coupons, promotions, and much more.
It’s a complete selling platform for you and user friendly for your clients. You will need a Stripe account in order to activate the storefront in order to get paid.
These are the professional lab partners that offer print fulfillment through the online gallery.
Contracts and invoicing
Instaproofs have added contracts and invoicing to their services and allows photographers to create their own contracts or use a pre-made template.
Choose templates for weddings, portraits, model releases for both adults and minors, independent contractor agreement (freelance work or similar) or you can make your own.
Just fill in the fields and required information, then choose to save a draft or finalize and send it to your client for signature.
Right from the contracts window, you are also able to create an invoice for your client by filling in the information fields for the invoice.
You can also choose an online gallery for the invoice in the event that you’ve already made a gallery.
Choose to attach the contract to the invoice, add an auto-reminder, and save your invoices as templates for future use.
Reports
Another great feature for photographers is to get reports of what you’re selling, products most purchased, email deliveries, and much more. This can be really great to see how your business is doing year to year.
Pros and cons
The biggest pro for signing up with Instaproofs is the number of features it offers photographers all from the same platform. Meaning, you don’t have to use different services to send gallery invites, emails including cart and expiration reminders.
The service allows photographers to ultimately customize the entire interface from adding your logo to the galleries, custom links, custom products, and print options, add-ons, and pricing sheets.
Instaproofs also has a referral program that gives existing users the opportunity to get more storage (2gb per referral) when a photographer signs up and says you sent them. It’s a great incentive if you’re a satisfied customer.
The con may be the price and limited galleries in the free and basic options.
There is also a commission fee for the free option and limited cloud storage.
We’ve rounded other top services so you can compare them and determine which is best for your business.
Instaproofs leads in cloud storage in the bottom level monthly subscriptions but doesn’t offer an unlimited version for companies with a higher volume. Which is a big con if you’re a multi-photographer studio that needs unlimited galleries and storage space for high resolution selling and viewing.
Sharing to social media or via email is really quick and easy for your clients.
Also, it’s important to note that Instaproofs isn’t an online archiving site and so if you’re looking for a service that backs up your digital files, you might want to look elsewhere. It’s primarily for uploading client photos and selling photo products.
Conclusion
Instaproofs has a lot of features that aren’t just bells and whistles. Many of the top photographers like Jonathan Canlas, Laura Murray, and Abby Grace use Instaproofs for their own businesses.
The slideshow feature allows you to set music and wow clients.
Having an all-in-one platform for both product-based photographers and digital format photographers, with customization in all of their features, gives you a great advantage in generating more sales and offering a beautiful and easy to use interface for your clients to view, enjoy, share, and buy their images.
With a 14 day free trial, you can try it out yourself and see if it’s the right service for you and your photography business.
The post Instaproofs Review: An All-In-One Platform to Sell Your Photography Online appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Jackie Lamas.
Over the past few weeks, there have been rumblings behind-the-scenes that Photo District News (PDN) is shutting down. Curious to know the veracity of these claims, DPReview contacted PDN’s publisher, Emerald Expositions, last week and were connected with a high-level source who confirmed off-the-record that the details in the rumors were indeed true and an official statement would follow ‘in the next few weeks.’
This afternoon though, American Photography’s Pro Photo Daily published a statement from an Emerald Expositions spokesperson confirming the exact news we were told was off-the-record: that PDN would cease operation of its print magazine and no longer post new articles to PDN Online, but continue to publish Rangefinder Magazine as well as continue both the PhotoPlus and WPPI tradeshows.
A look at what will be the final six print issues of Photo District News.
We have confirmed, via our aforementioned source at Emerald Expositions, that Pro Photo Daily’s quotes were from an Emerald Expositions spokesperson, but that they were said off-the-record and not meant to be shared at this time. Thus, we’re now at a point where Emerald Expositions hasn’t publicly confirmed its closure but has confirmed the now on-the-record statements are indeed true.
Until Emerald Expositions publicly shares further details, we will stick to quoting only what Pro Photo Daily shared in its article:
‘PDN’s current owner, Emerald Expositions, has confirmed that the print edition of the magazine will no longer be published, and that no new content will be added to its online edition. Rangefinder magazine, also owned by Emerald Expositions, will continue to be published […] “The PDN online content will not vanish, and we’re looking for ways to ensure that what content there is will continue to be easily accessible, but there won’t be new content,” said a spokesperson for Emerald Expositions, which operates business-to-business trade shows in the United States, including the PhotoPlus show in New York and the WPPI show in Las Vegas, the largest trade show for wedding and portrait photographers and filmmakers. Both trade shows will continue.’
Our source at Emerald Expositions also shared with us the following statement, paraphrased for clarity with permission:
‘We [at PDN are] extremely appreciative of the PDN community and photo community at large. Our goal is to give our engaged and committed community the info they want when and where they want it. PDN, in its current form, is being retired [but] our community and content isn’t going away; it will just be servicing the community in different ways.’
We will share more information regarding PDN when the details are made public by Emerald Expositions.
Paris Musées, the public institution that manages all of the museums in Paris, has launched a new Collections portal that offers the public access to more than 100,000 high-resolution digital reproductions of classic artwork and photography. All of the content offered in the Collections portal is available under a CC0 license.
In addition to high-resolution images of artwork from such notable names as Rembrandt, the online collection also includes a portal with more than 62,000 high-res photo scans showcasing some of the nation’s earliest photography from photographers that include Pierre Emounts ou Emonds, Eugene Atget, Ernest Charles Appert, Hippolyte Blancard and Roger Henrard.
Maison de Balzac, 16th arrondissement, Paris. Eugène Atget (Jean Eugène Auguste Atget, dit) (Libourne, 12–02–1857 – Paris, 04–08–1927), photographer
Because the photos are all under a CC0 license, anyone can download high-resolution copies of the images alongside documents with full details on the photos, including when and where they were taken, which museum they’re located at and the materials and techniques used to produce each print. The institution will also make copyrighted images from its museums available as low-resolution previews.
In its announcement of the new online collection, Paris Musées explains that it receives a large number of requests from students and others who want to view and/or use some of the images from its museum collections. This portal now makes it possible for anyone to quickly locate and download the content.
The holidays are right around the corner, and if you plan to send out cards or make prints as gifts you’re probably in the midst of figuring out where to get your photos printed. There seem to be more options than ever when it comes to online printing services, which makes choosing one a bit overwhelming.
So to figure out what service you should use, we tested out five popular online printing companies and assessed them based on their ease of service, price, turnaround time and most importantly, print consistency/paper quality.
Print services:
Printique
MPix
Amazon Photos*
Shutterfly
Snapfish
We placed an order for three 8×10 and three 4×6 prints on the same day (October 23rd) from Snapfish, Amazon, Shutterfly, MPix, and Printique (formerly known as AdoramaPix). We used the automatic ‘smart crop’ feature on each website when preparing the prints and, when it was possible, requested that the image be printed on Lustre paper. All prints were shipped with the economy shipping option.
After receiving and assessing our prints, the service you should use this holiday season is…
Our choice: Printique or MPix
We recommend ordering your holiday prints from either Printique or MPix. These companies had the most consistent results and were the truest representation of the digital files that we uploaded.
Although all of the print services are fairly easy to use, the winners are pretty clear. Based on our print orders we would gladly recommend ordering from Printique or MPix. These companies had the most consistent color results, the best paper quality and were the most true to the digital files that we had uploaded through the sites. They aren’t the cheapest options on the list, but they are also not the most expensive – at $ 16.72 (Printique) and $ 13.96 (MPix), they both fell in the mid-range level in terms of pricing. MPix did offer a nice 25% discount on our order and it arrived a few days before the order from Printiques. But we preferred Printique’s overall photo/paper quality.
Now let’s take a closer look at each of these print services including the process of ordering, the speed of delivery, the condition prints arrived and the overall quality of our purchase. First up is Printique…
*FULL DISCLOSURE: DPReview.com is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Amazon but is editorially independent of our parent company.
The post Why These are My Favorite Free Online Photo Editing Tools appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.
Are you looking for a way to keep your photography workflow going without your computer? Fortunately, there are some free online photo editing tools that can help you out. Here are a few of my favorites and why.
Maybe you’re traveling light or your computer doesn’t have enough capacity? Perhaps it just crashed and you sent it to get fixed? Whatever the reason, sometimes you just can’t work with downloadable programs.
But there are no more excuses because here are some great browser tools to solve your needs regardless of your level of expertise.
Google Photos
With Google Photos, you can have unlimited storage in their Cloud, but your photos and videos are limited to 16 MP in their file size. If you store files that are bigger than that, it eats into your Google Drive quota. Still, you can back up or share your images from anywhere you have Internet access.
If you want to learn more about protecting your work, check the article Are Your Photo Backups Rock Solid?
Archiving
In order to keep track of all these images, you can organize them by album. But in case you haven’t gotten around to doing it, you can find them by type: video, movie, animations, collages or photos. Furthermore, you can search for them by the things or places featured in them, even if you didn’t tag them.
You can use Google Photos for free; all you need is to have a Google account. In this day and age, most of us already have one anyway.
Features
You can also create photo books to print directly from Google Photos. Other features include movies, collages, and animations.
It includes some photo editing tools, but it’s mostly filters and very basic adjustments. If you need to do further edits, I suggest to move on to my next favorite on the list.
Fotor
Fotor is a photo editing and graphic design platform that you can use online or download it to your desktop. There is a free version or a paid pro version. The tools available depend on which of these combinations you’re using. Here, I’ll talk, as the title says, of the free online one.
Photo editing
I like the Fotor editor because it offers a good balance between customizable adjustments and one-click effects. If you want to do some controlled editing, just go to the Basic tab. If you prefer presets, go to Effects and Beauty. In these last ones, you’ll find some free choices and some premium ones.
Collage
For the collage feature, it offers many more designs than Google Photos. There are four main categories, and each one has a series of templates. What I find particularly useful is Photo Stitching. With this, you can create a panorama by ‘stitching’ many images into one.
Graphic Design
However, my favorite part is the ability to do graphic design. From a thank you card to a brochure, you can easily customize the templates with your photos. You can then adjust colors, fonts, and stickers to your liking.
The templates also cover any social media needs as well as the more traditional formats. Some are free and some you have to get the paid subscription.
Storage
If you decide to create an account, you also have free storage in the cloud for your photos and any work you make in Fotor. And, of course, if you go for the paid version, the storage space increases.
Pixlr
Pixlr is a browser photo editor that offers different versions to fit your needs. Again, there are different versions available that offer certain levels of functionality and effects.
The free Pixlr Express is very basic – not much more than any other editor.
Still free, the Pixlr Editor allows you to do more controlled and personalized edits and is the one I prefer to use.
Pixlr X, which is a blend of the first two, is the paid version, and it comes with more professional features.
Pixlr Editor
The interface is similar to Photoshop or GIMP, to explore these more in-depth, you can check my previous articles: A Brief Introduction to GIMP and How to Set Up the Photoshop Interface.
You’ll find a tool panel on the left side, the canvas for your image in the middle, and the panels for history, layers and other options on the right.
Tools
You have all the adjustments you need to correct and fine-tune your image and filters and effects for you to choose from. It also includes two of my most important tools when doing photo retouching – layers and masks.
Conclusion
I hope you liked my list of favorite free online photo editing tools. Remember, there are many solutions out there that are free. I’ll leave you some related articles in case you want to explore some more tools and software.
Please, also share your favorite free online photo editing tools with us in the comments section.
Related Topics:
Your Comprehensive Guide to Photography Post-Processing Software
3 Alternative Post-Processing Applications that Challenge the Adobe Throne
Tips on Choosing a Free Photo Editor for Post-Processing
Free Versus Paid Photography Portfolio Websites – Which is Best for you?
36 of the Best Online Tools to Boost Your Photography Business
The post Why These are My Favorite Free Online Photo Editing Tools appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Ana Mireles.
A news report from NHK World-Japan claims a crazed fan used eye reflections in images uploaded to social media, among other things, to track down a famous Japanese pop star’s condominium in Tokyo where he allegedly assaulted her.
The report claims Hibiki Sato admitted to figuring out which train station the star left to walk home by studying the light direction visible in some of her videos, as well as a reflection of the station visible in her eyes in an image she uploaded to social media. Equipped with those details, Sato allegedly waited at the station for the pop start to arrive, followed her to her residence, and assaulted her.
Though the situation is bizarre, the idea of high-resolution images inadvertently revealing information via eye reflections isn’t new. In 2013, for example, a study published in PLOS revealed that it is possible to extract images of identifiable bystanders from eye reflections captured in high-resolution images. The technique was presented as a potential tool for helping law enforcement gather data as part of investigations, but it’s clear the concept can be used by anyone for nefarious reasons as well.
New York-based photography and electronic equipment retailer Adorama has redesigned its website and brought with it an updated logo.
The website redesign was done ‘with a focus on content, a reorganized catalog, and more, all to improve the shopping experience for our customers,’ according to a statement given to PetaPixel via an Adorama spokesperson.
The new website features a streamlined navigation menu, a more prominent featured slider, a ‘Top Picks This Week’ section and an icon-based ‘Featured Categories’ section for displaying different sections of the online store. The updated UI extends elsewhere on the website to create a cohesive experience.
As for the logo, Adorama eschewed the sharp edges of its older logo in exchange for a rounded sans-serif that looks a little reminiscent of Google’s updated Android branding. Along with the updated logo is the tagline ‘Equip Your Creativity,’ a change from the previous tagline ‘More than a camera store.’
As an online store owner, you are constantly striving to design your shop in the most appealing way to your customers. And the first step to success is to make your product photos shine bright like a diamond. Why Exactly You DO Need Great Product Photos for Your Online Store People don’t buy before they see. Some of them even Continue Reading
The post 5 Attributes of a Great Product Photo for Your Online Store appeared first on Photodoto.
In May, Samsung launched its 64MP Tetracell image sensor for use in smartphone cameras. Like the 48MP Sony equivalent that’s already inside several current flagship devices, the Isocell Bright GW1 is designed to produce full-resolution output in good light conditions and use its Tetracell technology to combine four pixels into one, for better detail, lower noise levels and increased dynamic range, in more challenging circumstances.
Like Sony’s Quad Bayer technology, Tetracell appears to duplicate the Bayer color filter pattern over groups of four pixels at a time, making it easy to combine their data for a lower-resolution, lower-noise image. On a device equipped with the Samsung sensor, this would result in 16MP images vs. 12MP files from the Sony sensor.
Samsung has even come up with the name ‘re-mosaic algorithm’ for the process of reconstructing a full-resolution image in well-lit conditions.
Now we are seeing the first sample image captured with the new Samsung sensor:
Realme first announced a sample of the 64MP camera, which comes from the ISOCELL Bright GW1 released by Samsung not long ago, but the mobile phone has not yet released. Another competitor is Redmi. This photo is 16MB with a resolution of 9216×6912! pic.twitter.com/eNNgTJ606z
— Ice universe (@UniverseIce) June 24, 2019
According to mobile industry ‘leaker’ Ice Universe, the 64MP sensor will not only be available in Samsung phones. This first sample image was captured by an unreleased Realme device, according to the tweet. Budget smartphone manufacturer Redmi (a sub-brand of Xiaomi) is also interested in the sensor, according to the same Tweet.
A higher-resolution version (4096 x 3072px) of the image has also been shared (h/t eno2). We are looking forward to testing the first production devices with the Samsung Isocell Bright GW1 sensor and comparing its image output against the Sony-equipped high-end rivals.
Update (June 24, 2019): Added a link to a higher-resolution version of the image.
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