The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Artificial Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
There’s no question that when we start out in photography, at some point, we find ourselves needing to add light to an image we have in our mind.
But you only use ‘natural light’ I hear you say? Well, flash is available, so is a desk lamp or a torch – this is the week to try them out!
This week’s photo challenge is ‘Artificial Light’ you can use any light source that isn’t the sun (or you can combine the sun with artificial) for your photo. Use the hashtag #dPSLight
Light comes in MANY shapes and sizes, my first try with adding light to a photo came from a funny little desk lamp (We called it ghetto lighting) I used to stand around trying to get the ceiling light (one of those big paper ball things) in the right spot to give me the light I wanted, the addiction starting mostly on the 29th of September, 2008…
These days lighting comes in many (as many as it always has, plus a couple more?) forms, I’ll share the ones I use – I have a single flash, it’s a Jinbei HD-2 Pro and a very capable little unit! If I need more power, and what I use on any commercial shoot, as well as the HD-2 Pro, are my two Westcott FJ-400 studio lights, they’re very nice, powerful enough for pretty much anything I need them for. Other lights I love and use often are the two little Aputure AL-MW lights (they’re waterproof) and I have two Spiffy RGB LED lights, too… A collection of many years I guess you’d say!
BUT you don’t need to have “proper lighting gear” you need to have a desire to learn and a desk lamp! SO for this week’s challenge, we want you to use ANY sort of artificial light in your photograph (Just one photograph for the challenge, folks) and share it in the comments below or via social media (Tag us!) and make sure you tag #dPSLight on social media.
Missed a Challenge? Don’t sweat it, find all of our previous challenges here!
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSEyes so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
Have a great weekend!
If you get stuck, leave a comment below or drop us a note on the dPS help desk! support@digital-photography-school.com
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Artificial Light appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Eyes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
They say eyes are the window to your soul, I say “I almost always want my eyes to be in sharp focus!” but each to their own! This week we really want to see your interpretation of ‘Eyes’ – #dPSEyes
A man on a wall in a photograph of a painting…
Now, I guess the first thing we think of when we think of eyes are the things we see with, right? But there are many more options when it comes to photography! It doesn’t just have to be your eye, up close, lookin’ all crazy! Let’s make a list…
Your eyes
Someone else’s eyes
The eye of a needle
The eye of the storm
Your pet’s eyes!
Something that looks like an eye?
You should see the other guy…
Missed a Challenge? Don’t sweat it, find all of our previous challenges here!
So many options when it comes to eyes, but the main goal of these challenges is to be creative in your photos, to make you think about different ways to photograph your subject – if you want to set your camera up on a tripod (or the bench) and photograph your eye, you need to think about lighting and angles to best capture all the crazy details in your eye (Yes, I’ve done this, with a macro and lots of light – it’s crazy!)
Looking outward…
As ever, post your photographs here, in the comments (there are instructions at the bottom of this post) or visit us on the socials and post and tag your photographs there! Whenever, wherever, we look forward to seeing what you photograph!
A night on the Thames – London Eye…
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSEyes so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
Eye!
If you get stuck, leave a comment below or drop us a note on the dPS help desk! support@digital-photography-school.com
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Eyes appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post The Best Online Photo Storage Platforms in 2021 Compared appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Of all the options for managing our digital images, which one offers the best online photo storage?
With dozens of services to explore, it can be difficult to find the right storage for your needs. Some prioritize features, while others compete based on price. Some services are basic but easy to use, and others are highly customizable but intimidating to set up.
The trick is to find the service that works right for you!
And that’s what this article is all about:
Exploring the current photo storage options to find one the one that best meets your needs.
Let’s get started.
Online photo storage: a brief overview
Not long ago, cloud-based storage was slow, expensive, and out of reach for most users. People kept their digital photos in folders on their computers, and images weren’t widely shared like they are today.
But now people take more photos than ever, and all those images can quickly fill up a phone, memory card, or hard drive.
Fortunately, online photo storage solves this problem – by giving people a way to store photos remotely and access them at any time from any device.
In 2013, Flickr rocked the photography world by offering one terabyte of free storage, and in 2015, Google fired back by offering unlimited photo storage.
Sadly, these deals didn’t last; in 2018 Flickr slashed the storage limit for free accounts to 1000 photos, and in June of 2021 Google will limit users to 15 GB of storage for their entire account: photos, movies, documents, and everything else.
Flickr’s redesign in 2013 gave every user one free terabyte of storage. It seemed too good to be true. Turns out it was!
While the halcyon days of near-infinite online photo storage might be over, that doesn’t mean there aren’t options.
In fact, you now have more storage solutions than ever, but they have a few caveats and tradeoffs that didn’t exist before. Pricing has finally caught up with demand, and most online photo storage sites now have a limited free tier along with paid options.
One immutable fact we have learned over the last two decades of digital photography is that the old adage rings true: There’s no such thing as a free lunch. Or in this case, free online photo storage. Some sites have free tiers, but all are limited in important ways.
So if you want the best online photo storage, you’re going to have to pay for it.
Not much, mind you – generally only a few dollars each month. Just know you can’t get something for nothing, especially when it comes to storing your photos in the cloud.
Will you use online photo storage for backup or sharing with others? The answer could affect your choices dramatically.
The best online photo storage in 2021: Flickr
Flickr has been in the online photo storage business longer than almost any other site. That doesn’t mean it automatically earns a place at the top of my list, since longevity does not equal quality when it comes to internet ventures.
But in the case of Flickr, it is a huge advantage, since the site carries a rich legacy that photographers have enjoyed for years. Its interface is specifically designed around sharing photos, which is a pleasant change from social media sites that seem to be more interested in advertising than photography.
Flickr’s main interface is the Photostream, or a scrollable list of the most recent pictures you have uploaded.
The Flickr Photostream is a public showcase for your most recent images.
You can create Albums and Galleries, and mark photos as viewable for the public as well as friends or family members. Pro members get detailed statistics on how often their photos are viewed, favorited, and commented on. The mobile app automatically uploads all recent photos and videos. Images can be categorized with keywords, added to groups, and licensed with several types of Creative Commons.
Flickr shows complete EXIF data for photos, which is an invaluable tool that helps photographers learn more about how a given image was taken. Images can be embedded or downloaded (if the photographer allows), and prints can be purchased directly on the site.
Flickr also has over two million groups – online communities organized around specific topics where users engage in discussions about photos and share information and advice.
Flickr Pro users have access to advanced statistics and data for their images.
While the 1000 photo limit for free users seems positively anemic in the age of smartphones (when average users could easily reach that in a month or two), it does strike a good balance between end-user practicality and long-term business sustainability.
Also, the mobile app for Flickr can automatically upload pictures from your phone (though its interface is a bit simplistic compared to some other options).
Free Version: 1000 photo limit, ad-supported, no statistics for photos.
Paid Version: $ 59.99/year, unlimited photo/video uploads, no ads, advanced statistics, desktop app for automatic photo backup.
Pros: Easy to use for casual photographers. Rich set of tools for power users. No ads or storage quotas for Pro members. Photos are uploaded at full resolution with no compression.
Cons: Some interface elements are very outdated. RAW files are not supported, which limits Flickr’s appeal for professional photographers.
2nd place: Google Photos
Born from the ashes of the Google+ social media site in 2015, Google Photos quickly became the most popular photo-sharing site in the world thanks to its free, unlimited photo storage.
For five years, Google Photos reigned supreme as the go-to place for over a billion users to upload their images. Unfortunately, starting in mid-2021, a 15 GB limit will be imposed on new files added to free accounts.
But just because Google will start charging users who exceed 15 GB of storage doesn’t mean it is no longer a great option for people looking for online photo storage.
Google Photos is a great option for mobile users who want easy, intuitive photo storage, organization, and sharing.
Unlike Flickr, Google Photos is built for mobile. The Google Photos app uploads your images automatically, where they are sorted, tagged, and automatically analyzed by Google’s AI-driven software. Some users find this to be a bit invasive, but Google has said that this data remains private and is not used for advertising. The app also contains a surprisingly in-depth photo editor that also uses AI to enhance your images and suggest edits.
Google Photos has powerful built-in sharing features that let you set up shared albums and galleries and allow multiple people to contribute to a single album. This works great for parties or events where everyone is taking photos; the files can be instantly shared among attendees.
Photo albums can be shared publicly, or they can be shared privately with anyone who has a Google account.
AI software also recognizes people and uses geotagging for places, and this can help with sorting through your images. These algorithms also find objects in your photos, so you can search for words like “pumpkin” or “fireworks” and the app will display relevant images, all without you doing any extra work to add tags.
For privacy hawks, this might be a little too intrusive, as there’s no telling exactly what Google is doing with all this information in your photos. And there’s no way to adjust or customize the AI scanning and analyzing of your images. However, you do get to control who sees your images, and all photos are private by default.
Instead of offering a quantity limit, Google Photos restricts the free option to 15 GB. That might seem like a lot, but the 15 GB is for your entire Google account, not just your photos. If you have large files or other data already taking up lots of space in your Google account, there won’t be much left for your photos.
Free Version: No limits on functionality, but storage is limited to 15 GB.
Paid Version: $ 19.99/year for 100 GB. $ 29.99/year for 200 GB. $ 99.99/year for 1 TB. Same features as the free version, but storage is increased.
Pros: Excellent mobile interface. AI algorithms help with tagging and organizing. Sharing albums is easy since most people have Google accounts.
Cons: Some privacy concerns related to how Google uses your data. Storage that you pay for includes all your documents and files, not just photos.
3rd place: Apple iCloud Photos
Apple iCloud Photos is the de facto standard for iPhone and Mac users and with good reason. It’s designed to be extremely easy to use and integrates deeply with the Apple software and hardware ecosystem.
All photos you take with your iPhone are automatically uploaded to your iCloud account, where they can be synced with other devices such as iPhones, iPads, and Macintosh computers. The iOS Photos app has a rich set of editing options, and all edits are automatically synced across devices, as well. Images can be edited with the Photos app on a Mac, and edits are synced instantly.
iCloud Photos is excellent for Apple users, though the free 5 GB of storage is very limiting.
Apple has steadily been improving iCloud Photos over the years with on-device machine learning, which ensures your photo information is not sent to the Cloud or mined for advertising or other purposes.
You can search for people, places, and objects without doing any extra work; on-device software analyzes your photos, organizes them into groups of related images (i.e., vacations, holidays, etc.), and even attempts to pick out favorite moments and memories. None of this information is done in the cloud, which makes iCloud Photos a little more attractive for people who value privacy at the expense of some functionality.
One of my favorite iCloud Photos features is its ability to back up all the images and videos on your mobile device and retrieve them instantly. This is great for people whose phones are constantly low on storage space. Small thumbnails of all your photos are left on the device, while the full-size originals are safely stored in the cloud. Tapping a photo will download the original file on the fly, so you can take thousands of pictures without using up all the space on your phone.
All your mobile phone pictures are automatically uploaded to iCloud Photos. They can be synced with other Apple devices or shared publicly.
Unfortunately, iCloud Photos stumbles with the social and sharing functions. Flickr and Google Photos have easy options for sharing images and albums with others, making some photos public, and letting people leave comments or even their own tags. Some of this is possible with iCloud Photos, but it’s not as easy or seamless as other platforms.
Also, while Google Photos and Flickr work on both iOS and Android devices, iCloud Photos is specifically designed to work with Apple hardware and software. This is a dealbreaker for anyone who prefers to use non-Apple products.
Free Version: No limits on functionality, but storage is limited to 5 GB.
Paid version: $ 12/year for 50 GB, $ 35/year for 200 GB, $ 120/year for 2 TB.
Pros: Incredible suite of editing tools in the Photos app. Integrates seamlessly with Apple devices. Private and secure, with no advertising or data mining.
Cons: Limited to Apple devices. Sharing and social elements like commenting are not as easy as other platforms.
Honorable mentions
Flickr, Google Photos, and iCloud Photos are great options for online cloud photo storage, but you might have other requirements or workflows that are better suited to other platforms.
Thankfully, there are a host of other companies to consider. So if none of the above options meet your needs, here are a few excellent alternatives:
SmugMug
SmugMug has a suite of features and tools that make it great for professionals, but even casual photographers will find a lot to like.
SmugMug is designed for professionals who need a way to showcase their images and create galleries for clients, but it has a good option for casual users, too.
The Basic plan has everything most non-professionals could want, including unlimited uploads, solid organizational tools, options for sharing, and even a front-facing website. The latter is somewhat unique among online photo storage tools and makes SmugMug one of the best options for people who want a web presence along with storage.
SmugMug’s features are about what you’d expect. You can upload images from your phone or computer, and people can follow you to see your public photos.
You do have some options for sharing photos with SmugMug, but not nearly the same as Flickr or Google Photos. There isn’t the same level of community and engagement as on other sites, but if you want a simple method for storing your photos, SmugMug might be worth a look.
SmugMug lets anyone create a website to showcase their best work.
If you’re a working professional who needs control over how your photos are presented, as well as methods for selling your images to clients, SmugMug is definitely worth considering.
Paid version: $ 55/year for unlimited uploads. $ 85/year, $ 200/year, and $ 360/year options for professionals, which include advanced organization options and client tools.
Pros: Unlimited photo uploads. Price includes a website for showcasing your best work, plus a high degree of control over organizing your images.
Cons: No free option with limited functionality (but you can get a 14-day trial).
500px
Like SmugMug, 500px is generally geared towards professionals and more serious artists, but it is worth considering for people who want a solid option for online cloud photo storage. It offers a limited, ad-supported free tier, but the basic paid plan is priced similar to other sites.
What separates 500px from other options on this list is its communal focus. It’s a great option if you want to get exposure and build engagement with a community.
500px is more geared towards building a photography community, and it gives users a chance to build a brand and grow their following.
In some ways, 500px is better compared with Instagram than Flickr or Google Photos. You can quickly gain a following and view statistics on which of your photos lead to the greatest audience engagement.
If you are tired of the endless advertising and data mining on social network sites, then 500px might be worth a look, but its walled-garden nature somewhat limits its appeal. That can be a good thing, as it leads to more considered, curated content – but ultimately, 500px doesn’t have the same level of broad appeal as other sites.
500px has Quests to help members grow their skills and educational resources offered for free or at a discount.
Free version: 7 uploads per week, ad-supported, with limited access to some of the more powerful features like statistics and liked photos.
Paid Version: $ 48/year for unlimited uploads, data on how your photos perform among the 500px community, and tools to organize, share, and promote your images. $ 72/year for professionals who want a powerful platform with tools for creating a website, gaining clients, and finding jobs.
Pros: Unlimited photo uploads and access to a vibrant community of artists sharing quality work. Tools to organize and share images with the community and others.
Cons: Free option is extremely limited.
Adobe Creative Cloud
If you pay for a $ 9.99/month Adobe Creative Cloud plan, you already have pretty awesome online photo storage built into your subscription. Whether you have the cloud-focused Lightroom plan or the desktop-centric Photography Plan, you can create online galleries and share them with specific people, or make them publicly viewable for anyone who has the link.
You can upload photo galleries to the cloud even if you just use Lightroom Classic. This is extremely useful for sharing images publicly, privately, or with clients. (Note: The uploads are not full-resolution originals.)
Best of all, if you use Lightroom Classic, these online galleries don’t even count against your storage quota. When you create a public gallery, Lightroom uploads Smart Previews of your images to the cloud. These aren’t full-size, high-resolution images, but they’re great for just sharing pictures with friends and family.
You can also use the Discover feature in Lightroom Mobile to join a community of photographers in order to showcase your work and engage with an audience.
Adobe has been building a photography community similar to Instagram and 500px through their Discover tool (which is built into Lightroom Mobile).
While Adobe Creative Cloud isn’t as full-featured as Flickr, Google Photos, or others on this list, it’s definitely worth investigating if you already have an Adobe subscription and don’t want to pay more for an online photo storage site.
Paid Version: $ 9.99/month for 1 TB cloud storage or 20 GB cloud storage. Creating online galleries to share does not count against your cloud storage.
Pros: Included as part of the Adobe Lightroom or Photography plans. Unlimited images with no storage quota. A decent level of control over how your images are shown in online galleries.
Cons: Images you upload to online galleries are smaller-size previews of your images. Not as full-featured as other photography sites. No built-in support for sharing videos or allowing your photos to be purchased.
Amazon Prime Photos
If you’re one of the millions of people who pay for Amazon Prime, you already have access to Amazon Photos at no additional charge. This service allows you to upload an unlimited number of images (including RAW files) from desktop or mobile. You can organize your photos with Albums, buy prints, and share images with other people in just a few clicks.
If you pay for Amazon Prime, you also have access to Amazon Photos, which allows for unlimited photo uploads to the cloud.
The Amazon Photos app lets you back up all the images on your phone to save space. However, accessing them afterward involves using the same Amazon Photos app instead of the native Photos app on your device. You can also use the desktop app to automatically upload all the pictures on your computer to your Amazon Photos account.
All these features make Amazon Photos great for online storage, but there are a few glaring issues that hold it back from being a true competitor to the others on this list. For one, there are no social networking features and viewers can’t leave comments on your images. The desktop app is kind of clunky, and all your uploaded images are organized solely by the folder they happen to be in on your computer.
The user interface for Amazon Prime Photos is pretty basic, but it gets the job done. You can create albums, share images, and order prints.
Amazon Photos also does auto-tagging by default, but you can turn this off if you prefer to keep Amazon’s artificial intelligence algorithms out of your images. This feature looks for easily-recognizable objects and also analyzes people using facial recognition algorithms, which is similar to a feature that Google offers. Some people find these extremely useful, but your mileage may vary.
If all you want is a simple way to back up your images, then Amazon Prime Photos is a great choice. If you are looking for robust organizing tools, options for sharing your images, and a full-featured image browsing experience, it’s best to look elsewhere.
Paid Version: Included with a $ 119/year Amazon Prime account. No limit for photo uploads; a 5 GB upload limit for videos.
Pros: Great for backing up your images. No extra charge for Amazon Prime members.
Cons: No social features. Web interface is unrefined and desktop uploading app is clunky with occasional bugs.
Dropbox
In the search for the best online photo storage platforms, Dropbox might not be the first option that comes to mind.
While it’s not exactly designed with photos in mind, if you want a solid option for storing, backing up, and even sharing your images, Dropbox is a great choice.
Now, there’s nothing in the way of social features and the web-based user interface is fairly utilitarian, so keep your expectations in check. But it’s one of the best services around for easily transferring and managing huge amounts of data, including images.
Dropbox is made for online file storage and not specifically geared toward photographers, but it’s definitely an option to consider if you have a vast library of photos that you want to keep safe and secure.
Designed first and foremost as a cloud-based storage platform, Dropbox works great, not just for storing photos, but also for syncing them across multiple devices. If you want to back up your photo library to the cloud and mirror it to another computer, Dropbox just might be the solution you are looking for.
DropBox’s free version is positively anemic with only 2 GB of storage, but the paid version is outstanding – if a little on the pricey side.
Photos can be shared publicly, and other Dropbox users can leave comments next to an image or by clicking directly on a specific portion of an image.
One of my favorite features of Dropbox is the ability to instantly share a file or folder with anyone via a public link. Navigate to a file or folder on your computer that is synced with Dropbox, right-click on it, and get a link you can copy and paste into an email, text message, or social media account. Anyone with the link can view the file or the contents of the folder, and of all the photo services on this list, Dropbox handles this simple task easier than the rest.
The mobile app can automatically upload your images to Dropbox and includes a host of other features for managing all your cloud-based files.
Free Version: 2 GB storage, limited to 3 synced devices.
Pros: Rock-solid cloud storage with outstanding backup and syncing features. Easy to share photos with a public link. Images can be easily downloaded from the public link.
Cons: Designed more for file storage and backup than sharing photos. No social networking features. 2 TB storage is generous, but the price is expensive.
Microsoft OneDrive
We’re a little off the beaten path here, since OneDrive isn’t exactly known as the world’s greatest online photo storage platform.
However, it’s a service many people already pay for in order to use Microsoft programs such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. And since 1 TB of storage is included in a personal or family OneDrive plan, it’s something to consider if you want a simple way to back up your photos.
Microsoft includes 1 TB of OneDrive storage with their cheapest paid plan, which also includes access to Office software such as Word, Excel, and PowerPoint.
OneDrive is similar to Dropbox in that it is designed around file storage and syncing, but it has some useful features for photographers, as well.
You can automatically upload your mobile device pictures directly to OneDrive and share individual images or folders with others. OneDrive syncs across devices, too – though over years of using both platforms, I have found Dropbox to be more reliable and less prone to head-scratching glitches.
Photos in OneDrive can be viewed online and shared with others.
OneDrive won’t blow you away with its photo-centric features, AI-based image organization, or a community of shutterbugs to connect with. But if you already pay for the service, then it’s worth checking out for the features it does offer.
Free Version: 5 GB storage only. No access to Office apps like Word/Excel/PowerPoint.
Paid Version: $ 2/month for 100 GB storage. $ 70/year for 1 TB storage as well as access to Office apps.
Pros: If you already pay for OneDrive, you can use your 1 TB storage for managing photos. Great for backing up your images and sharing with others.
Cons: Designed more for file storage and backup than sharing photos. No social networking features.
iDrive
For photographers who want a simple, robust, and fairly inexpensive solution to backup their photos, it’s hard to beat iDrive. iDrive has a long history of offering cloud-based storage and backup, and this reputation makes it easy to recommend them over other storage providers.
While iDrive is more specifically geared toward backing up your entire computer, that doesn’t mean it has nothing to offer photographers. Quite the opposite, in fact.
iDrive is built for file storage and backup. It’s a good choice if you have a huge photo library, but doesn’t have the same level of features as Dropbox in terms of sharing and commenting.
If you have a massive photo library and care more about making sure your work is safely backed up than sharing your pictures with the world, iDrive is a good option to consider. Their software will securely transfer all your data, or just the files and folders you choose, to their cloud servers. You can sync everything with another computer, access your photos via the web interface, and use the mobile app to automatically upload your camera photos.
Don’t expect image editing tools, a community of photographers, or other advanced features found on photography-centric platforms. But you can share images with others and use iDrive to transfer large batches of photos to clients.
Free Version: 5 GB Storage
Paid Version: $ 70/year for 5 TB storage. Back up one or more computers continuously. Clone an entire hard drive, which is useful for backing up a photo library.
Pros: Great reputation for cloud-based storage and backup. Price is very good for the amount of storage, which is important for photographers with large photo archives.
Cons: Not specifically created for photographers, and options for creating galleries and for sharing images are limited.
pCloud
Like Dropbox and OneDrive, pCloud isn’t known first and foremost for online photo storage. It was created for easy-to-use file storage and syncing, and has a free tier with 10 GB of storage for people who want to try it out without committing to a monthly fee.
What sets pCloud apart is its price: It’s the only cloud storage option on this list that has a one-time fee option instead of monthly or yearly charges. While the one-time fee is expensive, it is far cheaper in the long term if you plan on using the service for years.
pCloud is a great choice for photographers on a budget who don’t want to commit to expensive yearly fees but require solid online photo storage.
pCloud’s options for photographers won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but they do have some pleasing features. The mobile app can upload your images directly to pCloud, and the web-based interface lets you resize your photos to make them smaller. This is useful if you want to share photos while keeping an eye on file sizes and bandwidth usage.
Free Version: 10 GB storage. Includes all pCloud features in the commercial version.
Paid Version: $ 175 one-time fee for 500 GB storage. $ 350 one-time fee for 2 TB. Annual plans also available.
Pros: One-time fee. Uploading via the mobile app. Offers an easy way to resize photos.
Cons: Expensive up-front cost. Not designed for social networking or easy image-sharing.
Synology Photo Station
Synology Photo Station differs from the other options on this list because Synology isn’t really a cloud-based photo storage platform.
With Synology, you essentially build your own cloud storage server, called a NAS (network-attached storage). It’s a physical device you keep at home and can access from anywhere with advanced, highly-customizable software. This might make its inclusion on the list a little confusing, but hear me out.
Synology gives you your own personal cloud storage on a device you own. You can then access your photos and other files from anywhere.
Instead of an external hard drive that you plug into your computer, a NAS is a disk or array of disks that you access over a network. NAS devices are standard in many businesses, and are becoming more popular at home as people realize how flexible and powerful they can be.
In late 2020, Synology released a service called Photo Station. It’s designed for people who want to easily share images with others in online galleries, but need to control the physical media themselves. That way, you can buy a Synology NAS and use it to host photo galleries, share images, and manage all your digital images – without relying on a cloud server you can’t always control.
Introduced near the end of 2020, Synology’s Photo Station tool gives photographers a way to share images and create public albums. It’s a nice perk for those who have already invested in Synology hardware and don’t mind a bit of a learning curve.
Synology Photo Station lets viewers engage with your images by leaving comments and clicking on highlighted areas, so it’s great for sharing images with clients or even the general public. Storage space isn’t a problem, since you can just add more drives to your NAS or swap out the existing disk for a bigger one.
There is a learning curve to set it all up, and if something goes wrong you might find yourself spending more of your own time to fix it than you want. But it’s definitely worth a look for photographers who require the highest level of control over their photos.
Price: Around $ 200 for a basic enclosure, but drives need to be purchased separately.
Pros: Highly customizable, infinitely expandable. Easy to share photos with others and no long-term recurring fees.
Cons: Steep learning curve. Not true a cloud-storage service, so your photos aren’t backed up remotely.
How to choose
At the end of the day, you just want the right solution for you and your workflow.
With so many options available, how can you possibly pick the best online cloud storage option for your photos?
To answer that question, it’s helpful to reframe things just a little and realize that there is no one single solution that is ideal for everyone. Different people have different needs, and no single cloud platform is going to meet the needs of every individual.
Keeping that in mind, here are my picks for the best online photo storage options for three types of people:
The casual photographer: Flickr
Flickr occupies the ideal middle ground between storage, price, features, and community. Its yearly cost is right in line with what many other services offer, and it offers unlimited photo uploads so you never have to think about running out of space or upgrading your storage plan.
Flickr has existed since 2004 and has outlasted many competing services while still remaining relevant today. Its mobile app is perfectly usable, if not as feature-rich as some alternatives, and the 1000-photo free tier is enough for you to get plenty of use before paying to upgrade.
The lack of RAW uploads makes Flickr less appealing to professionals, and there’s no front-facing website for showcasing your best work to clients. Additionally, some elements of the Flickr web interface feel like they haven’t been updated since 2004, which can make using them a bit of a challenge.
Flickr has been around since 2004, which is also the last time some parts of its interface appear to have been updated. Nevertheless, it’s the best online storage option for many photographers.
You won’t find artificial intelligence sorting and organizing on Flickr, either. But if you’re a casual or even semi-professional photographer looking for an outstanding online photo storage platform – one that can meet your needs without requiring too much money – Flickr is the best option.
The professional photographer: SmugMug
SmugMug is the best storage option for professionals who require more feature-rich storage. The Basic plan is fine for casual photographers and shares many of the same features as Flickr, though it lacks the social elements and photography communities that have made Flickr so useful over the years.
SmugMug has tools for professionals to create a website and let clients order prints, and its SmugVault tool allows for uploading RAW, TIFF, and other high-quality image formats. Combine that with unlimited storage and the result is an online photo storage platform ideal for working professionals.
The archiver: Dropbox
If you’re a person with hundreds of thousands of photos and you just want to store them safely in the cloud, Dropbox is your best choice.
The price is a little higher than some of the other options, but you do get what you pay for. Dropbox handles tasks like uploading, downloading, syncing, versioning, and restoring deleted files and folders more smoothly than any other platform.
Dropbox has been refining its file syncing technologies since 2007. They only do one thing – online cloud storage and syncing – and they do it very, very well.
Dropbox syncs your files instantly across multiple devices and has a robust and full-featured mobile app for uploading photos and managing files. Plus, the one-click public sharing for pictures and entire folders is so useful that, once you have it, you won’t ever want to go back.
The cheapest paid tier offers a generous 2 TB of storage, and if you want to free up space on your computer, you can tell Dropbox to store originals in the cloud; you can then download them on an as-needed basis.
Dropbox doesn’t have productivity apps like OneDrive, and it’s more expensive than iDrive or pCloud, but it handles the straightforward task of cloud storage better than anything else on the market.
The best online photo storage: conclusion
I hope this guide was useful to you!
And now that you’ve finished, you should know the best online photo storage provider for your needs.
Now I’d like to ask you:
What do you think about online photo storage options? Do you have a site you like that didn’t make it on this list? Are there features of these tools that you use but I didn’t mention in my review? Leave your thoughts and questions in the comments section below!
The post The Best Online Photo Storage Platforms in 2021 Compared appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Simon Ringsmuth.
Nominees were recently announced for the 64th annual World Press Photo Contest. The list includes contenders for the World Press Photo of the Year, World Press Photo Story of the Year, and World Press Photo Interactive of the Year.
“The nominated images, stories, and productions we introduce today present different perspectives of one of the most important years in recent history, marked by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the social rights movements around the world. Amongst the nominees are remarkable stories of hope, resilience, and social change. I would like to thank the independent jury for their dedication and commitment in selecting the stories that mattered in 2020,” said Joumana El Zein Khoury, executive director of the World Press Photo Foundation.
The World Press Photo Foundation was founded in 1955 to connect the public with trustworthy photojournalism. Some captions for these nominated photos won’t be available until the end of March. Winners will be announced on April 15th through an online ceremony.
Nominee, World Press Photo of the Year: ‘Fighting Locust Invasion in East Africa’ by Luis Tato (Spain) for The Washington Post
Story: In early 2020, Kenya experienced its worst infestation of desert locusts in 70 years. Swarms of locusts from the Arabian Peninsula had migrated into Ethiopia and Somalia in the summer of 2019. Continued successful breeding, together with heavy autumn rains and a rare late-season cyclone in December 2019, triggered another reproductive spasm.
The locusts multiplied and invaded new areas in search of food, arriving in Kenya and spreading through other countries in eastern Africa. Desert locusts, Schistocerca gregaria, are potentially the most destructive of the locust pests, as swarms can fly rapidly across great distances, traveling up to 150 kilometers a day.
A single swarm can contain between 40 and 80 million locusts per square kilometer. Each locust can eat its weight in plants each day: a swarm the size of Paris could eat the same amount of food in one day as half the population of France. Locusts produce two to five generations a year, depending on environmental conditions. In dry spells, they crowd together on remaining patches of land. Prolonged wet weather—producing moist soil for egg-laying, and abundant food— encourages breeding and producing large swarms that travel in search of food, devastating farmland.
Even before this outbreak, nearly 20 million people faced high levels of food insecurity across the East African region, challenged by periodic droughts and floods. COVID-19 restrictions in the region slowed efforts to fight the infestation as supply chains of pesticides were disrupted.
Caption: Henry Lenayasa, chief of the settlement of Archers Post, in Samburu County, Kenya, tries to scare away a massive swarm of locusts ravaging grazing area, on 24 April. Locust swarms devastated large areas of land, just as the coronavirus outbreak had begun to disrupt livelihoods.
Nominee, World Press Photo of the Year: ‘Those Who Stay Will Be Champions’ by Chris Donovan (Canada)
Story: The Flint Jaguars basketball team in Flint, Michigan, USA, embodies efforts to nurture stability, encourage mutual support and strengthen community spirit in a city struggling to survive. Flint, the birthplace of General Motors, is striving against outmigration caused by a precipitous decline in its motor industry, a health crisis brought about by the authorities switching water-supply sources without proper safeguards, and the systemic neglect of high-poverty, predominantly Black neighborhoods. Basketball is an integral part of Flint culture, and the city once produced dozens of big names at collegiate and professional levels.
For decades, four high school teams battled as fierce rivals. Now there is only one high school in town. The Flint Jaguars were established in 2017, merging the teams of the last two schools that remained at the time. In 2020, the team fought to turn around what had up until then been a nearly winless history. By March, they were prepared to head to the division finals with an 18-4 record, having won more games in 2020 than in the previous three years combined. Their play-off run ended prematurely when COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the season. Nevertheless, the student athletes had had a taste of collective success.
Caption: Flint Jaguars team star Taevion Rushing jumps from one locker to another in the team locker room before the last regular season game of his high school basketball career, on 24 February 2020. He aims to go on to play basketball at a junior college.
Nominee, Contemporary Issues Singles: ‘Doctor Peyo and Mister Hassen’ by Jérémy Lempin (France)
Story: The Second Nagorno-Karabakh War began on 27 September, and conflict continued until 9 November. It was the worst fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan over the disputed territory since the First Nagorno-Karabakh War in the 1990s. The first war ended in an uneasy ceasefire, with victorious ethnic Armenians unilaterally declaring an independent state, and sending hundreds of thousands of Azerbaijanis into exile.
In the intervening 30 years, little was done to resolve the status of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was still internationally recognized as belonging to Azerbaijan, and there were periodic military clashes between the two sides, which escalated into war in 2020. In a settlement brokered by Russia in November, Azerbaijan regained possession of territory lost in the 1990s, but the regional capital, Stepanakert, was left under Armenian control. The Armenian army gradually withdrew from the Nagorno-Karabakh region, to be replaced by Russian peacekeeping forces, who will be deployed until 2025.
Animal-assisted therapy, also known as pet therapy, is used in many clinical environments, especially in psychological therapy and palliative care. Animals appear to be able to reduce anxiety and stress, and also to have physical effects, such as lowering blood pressure, improving heart rate, or helping in pain management.
In hospices, the aim is to use the natural bond between humans and animals to provide comfort, peace, and companionship to terminally ill patients. Horses seem particularly suited for palliative care as they are especially in tune with their surroundings. Peyo works with his trainer Hassen Bouchakou at Les Sabots du Coeur, an organization devoted to animal-assisted therapy, and to scientific research into the subject. He supports around 20 patients each month, and scientists are now studying his instinctive ability to detect cancers and tumors.
Caption: Marion (24), who has metastatic cancer, embraces her son Ethan (7) in the presence of Peyo, a horse used in animal-assisted therapy, in the Séléne Palliative Care Unit at the Centre Hospitalier de Calais, in Calais, France, on 30 November.
Nominee, Environment Stories: ‘Pantanal Ablaze’ by Lalo de Almeida (Brazil), Panos Pictures, for Folha de São Paulo
Story: Nearly a third of Brazil’s Pantanal region—the world’s largest tropical wetland and flooded grasslands, sprawling across some 140,000 to 160,000 square kilometers—was consumed by fires over the course of 2020. According to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research, there were triple the amount of fires in 2020 compared to 2019. Fires in the Pantanal tend to burn just below the surface, fueled by highly combustible peat, which means they burn for longer and are harder to extinguish.
The Pantanal, which is recognized by UNESCO as a World Biosphere Reserve and is one of Brazil’s most important biomes, is suffering its worst drought in nearly 50 years, causing fires to spread out of control. Many of the fires started from slash-and-burn farming, which has become more prevalent due to the weakening of conservation regulation and enforcement under President Jair Bolsonaro’s administration. The Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA) has seen its funding reduced by around 30 percent.
Bolsonaro has frequently spoken out against environmental protection measures, and has made repeated comments undermining Brazilian courts’ attempts to punish offenders. Environmentalists say that this is encouraging agricultural burning and creating a climate of impunity. Luciana Leite, who studies humanity’s relationship with nature at the Federal University of Bahia, predicts the total collapse of the Pantanal, if current climate trends and anti-environmental policies persist.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, General News Stories: ‘COVID-19 Pandemic in France’ by Laurence Geai (France)
Story: The first confirmed cases of COVID-19 in Europe were reported in France on 24 January. Reports of infections in other European countries followed quickly, and on 13 March the World Health Organisation declared Europe to be the epicenter of the pandemic. By the end of March, Paris and its suburbs accounted for more than a quarter of the 29,000 confirmed infections in French hospitals, with 1,300 people in intensive care.
France went into home lockdown between 17 March and 11 May, with restrictions in Paris being extended to 14 June. Schools, cafés, restaurants, non-essential shops and public buildings were closed, and people outside the home had to carry identification and signed declarations for any travel. Care homes were closed to visitors. Hospitalizations reached a peak in April, with 7,148 people in intensive care, when ICU capacity was only 5,000.
Specially converted trains transported patients from overcrowded hospitals to regions that had fewer cases, and the French military airlifted critical cases from eastern France to hospitals in neighboring countries. As the death rate rose, morgues filled to capacity and ad hoc mortuaries were opened in places like the refrigeration hall of Paris’s Rungis wholesale food market. Funeral homes were ordered to bury or cremate bodies immediately, without any ceremony, mortuary preparation, or anyone in attendance.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, General News Stories: ‘Cross-Border Love’ by Roland Schmid (Switzerland)
Story: Switzerland closed its borders for the first time since the Second World War, as a consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic. In towns like Riehen and Kreuzlingen, citizens had barely noticed the borders with Germany for decades, and had crossed freely. The closure lasted from 16 March to 15 June. Barrier tapes indicated boundaries that should not be crossed, retracing borders that had been reinforced with barbed wire during the war.
In some places, these barriers became meeting places for people who were no longer allowed to be together. Despite regulations to restrict movement and socializing, many individuals found inventive ways to see their loved ones.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Long-Term Projects: ‘Habibi’ by Antonio Faccilongo (Italy), Getty Reportage
Story: Nearly 4,200 Palestinian security detainees are being held in Israeli prisons, according to a February 2021 report by human rights organization B’Tselem. Some face sentences of 20 years or more. To visit a Palestinian prisoner in an Israeli jail, visitors have to overcome a number of different limitations resulting from border laws, prison regulations, and restrictions set by the Israel Security Agency (ISA).
Visitors are usually allowed to see prisoners only through a transparent partition, and talk to them via a telephone receiver. Conjugal visits are denied and physical contact is forbidden, except for children under the age of ten, who are allowed ten minutes at the end of each visit to embrace their fathers.
Since the early 2000s, long-term Palestinian detainees hoping to raise families have been smuggling semen out of prison, hidden in gifts to their children. Semen is secreted in a variety of ways, such as in pen tubes, plastic candy wrappers, and inside bars of chocolate. In February 2021, Middle East Monitor reported that the 96th Palestinian baby had been born using sperm smuggled from Israeli prison.
Habibi, which means ‘my love’ in Arabic, chronicles love stories set against the backdrop of one of the longest and most complicated conflicts in modern history. The photographer aims to show the impact of the conflict on Palestinian families, and the difficulties they face in preserving their reproductive rights and human dignity. The photographer chooses not to focus on war, military action, and weapons, but on people’s refusal to surrender to imprisonment, and on their courage and perseverance to survive in a conflict zone.
Caption: A portrait of Mazen Rimawi, a former Palestinian political prisoner and uncle to Majd Rimawi, whose father is serving a 25-year sentence, on 22 December 2019. Majd was born in 2013, following IVF.
Nominee, Long-Term Projects: ‘Reborn’ by Karolina Jonderko (Poland)
Story: ‘Reborn’ babies first appeared in the 1990s. Each is unique, carefully crafted by artists known as ‘reborners’. The hyper-realistic reborn babies are created with such details as birthmarks, veins, implanted hair, pores, tears, and saliva. More sophisticated reborns are equipped with electronic systems capable of reproducing the heartbeat, breathing, and sucking of a real baby.
Most of the dolls are made of vinyl, though the more realistic ones are made from silicone. Human hair is used for eyelashes, and completed dolls are sometimes perfumed with a ‘new baby’ smell. Reborn babies are available whole and in kit form, and can be purchased online and at fairs. The process of buying a reborn can be done in such a way as to simulate adoption: dolls come with ‘adoption’ or ‘birth’ certificates.
Reborn babies have been used in pediatric training to teach students practical childcare skills, and the use of the dolls in care homes has been shown to help reduce disruptive behaviour in people with dementia. While most reborn owners are doll collectors, others have experienced miscarriage, neonatal deaths, have no means for adoption, or suffer from empty nest syndrome, and may use the doll as a substitute for a child.
The photographer wished to explore the phenomenon of how artificial babies evoke genuine emotional response in adults. Each woman portrayed in this project has a personal motivation for having a reborn baby. Some who cannot have, or who have lost, a baby, give their love to an artificial one, looking after them, changing them, and buying them clothes. For some, the dolls are a means of dealing with loss or anxiety; for others they provide companionship.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Portraits Stories: ‘The “Ameriguns”‘ by Gabriele Galimberti (Italy) for National Geographic
Story: According to the Small Arms Survey– an independent global research project based in Geneva, Switzerland–half of all the firearms owned by private citizens in the world, for non-military purposes, are in the USA. The survey states that the number of firearms exceeds the country’s population: 393 million guns to 328 million people.
Gun ownership is guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which dates from 1791 and has long been a controversial issue in American legal, political, and social discourse. Those who argue for the repeal of the Second Amendment or introduction of stricter gun control say that the Second Amendment was intended for militias; that stronger regulation will reduce gun violence; and that a majority of Americans, including gun owners, support new restrictions.
Second Amendment supporters state that it protects an individual’s right to own guns; that guns are needed for self-defense against threats ranging from local criminals to foreign invaders; and that gun ownership deters crime rather than causes more crime. According to the independent Gun Violence Archive (GVA), the US has had more mass shootings than any country on the planet, with 633 mass shootings in 2020 alone.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Portraits Stories: ‘The “Ameriguns”‘ by Gabriele Galimberti (Italy) for National Geographic
Story: According to the Small Arms Survey– an independent global research project based in Geneva, Switzerland–half of all the firearms owned by private citizens in the world, for non-military purposes, are in the USA. The survey states that the number of firearms exceeds the country’s population: 393 million guns to 328 million people.
Gun ownership is guaranteed by the Second Amendment of the US Constitution, which dates from 1791 and has long been a controversial issue in American legal, political, and social discourse. Those who argue for the repeal of the Second Amendment or introduction of stricter gun control say that the Second Amendment was intended for militias; that stronger regulation will reduce gun violence; and that a majority of Americans, including gun owners, support new restrictions.
Second Amendment supporters state that it protects an individual’s right to own guns; that guns are needed for self-defense against threats ranging from local criminals to foreign invaders; and that gun ownership deters crime rather than causes more crime. According to the independent Gun Violence Archive (GVA), the US has had more mass shootings than any country on the planet, with 633 mass shootings in 2020 alone.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Sports Singles: ‘Tour of Poland Cycling Crash’ by Tomasz Markowski (Poland)
Story: Groenewegen had deviated from his line, veering towards the right barrier and leaving little room for his teammate, sending Jakobsen crashing over the barricade. The two had been competing for first place in the stage, and were traveling at around 80 kilometers per hour.
Jakobsen sustained severe injuries, underwent a five-hour operation, and spent a week in intensive care. Groenewegen broke his collarbone. He was disqualified from the race and received a nine-month suspension from the Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI). Jakobsen was awarded first place for stage one.
Caption: Dutch cyclist, Dylan Groenewegen (left), crashes meters before the finish line, after colliding with fellow team member Fabio Jakobsen during the first stage of the Tour of Poland, in Katowice, Poland, on 5 August.
Nominee, Nature Stories: Taal Volcano Eruption by Ezra Acayan (Philippines) for Getty Images
Story: Taal volcano, in Batangas province, on the island of Luzon in the Philippines, began erupting on 12 January, spewing ash up to 14 kilometers into the air. The volcano generated ashfalls and volcanic thunderstorms, forcing evacuations from the surrounding area. The eruption progressed into a magmatic eruption, characterized by a lava fountain with thunder and lightning.
According to the Department of Social Welfare and Development, a total of 212,908 families, nearly 750,000 people, were affected by the eruption. Damage caused to infrastructure and livelihoods, such as farming, fishing and tourism, was put at around US$ 70 million. Taal volcano is in a large caldera filled by Taal Lake, and is one of the most active volcanoes in the country. It is a ‘complex volcano’, which means it doesn’t have one vent or cone but several eruption points that have changed over time.
Taal has had 34 recorded historical eruptions in the past 450 years, most recently in 1977. As with other volcanoes in the Philippines, Taal is part of the Pacific Ring of Fire, a zone of major seismic activity that has one of the world’s most active fault lines.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Sports Stories: ‘Faces of Bridge’ by Henrik Hansson (Sweden)
Story: Bridgeklubb i Borlänge, a bridge club in the municipality of Borlänge in Sweden, has around 100 members. For a while, the COVID-19 pandemic put a stop to games, but during the summer, a solution was found by separating players by means of crossed plexiglass screens. A tactical game of skill, contract bridge (or simply bridge) has its origins in the 16th century, in what were known as trick-taking games, but evolved into its present form in the 19th and 20th centuries.
Today’s game is based on rules set out by Harold Stirling Vanderbilt, an American railroad executive, in 1925. A World Bridge Federation coordinates revision of laws, and conducts world championships. Duplicate bridge, in which the same deal of cards is used at each table, is the most widely employed variation of contract bridge in club and tournament play. Bridge, as with chess, is recognized as a ‘mind sport’ by the International Olympic Committee, although neither has yet been found eligible for the main Olympic program. The Swedish Bridge Federation currently has around 27,000 members and operates an annual bridge festival with more than 8,500 tables in play.
Caption: Not available at this time.
Nominee, Spot News Stories: ‘Port Explosion in Beirut’ by Lorenzo Tugnoli, (Italy), Contrasto
Story: At around 6pm on 4 August, a massive explosion, caused by more than 2,750 tons of high density ammonium nitrate, shook Lebanon’s capital Beirut. The explosive compound was being stored in a warehouse in the port. Some 100,000 people lived within a kilometer of the warehouse. The explosion, which measured 3.3 on the Richter scale, damaged or destroyed around 6,000 buildings, killed at least 190 people, injured a further 6,000, and displaced as many as 300,000.
The ammonium nitrate came from a ship that had been impounded in 2012 for failing to pay docking fees and other charges, and apparently abandoned by its owner. Customs officials wrote to the Lebanese courts at least six times between 2014 and 2017, asking how to dispose of the explosive. In the meantime, it was stored in the warehouse in an inappropriate climate. It is not clear what detonated the explosion, but contamination by other substances, either while in transport or in storage, appear the most likely cause.
Many citizens saw the incident as symptomatic of the ongoing problems the country is facing, namely governmental failure, mishandling and corruption. In the days after the blast, tens of thousands of demonstrators filled the streets of central Beirut, some clashing with security forces and taking over government buildings, in protest against a political system they saw as unwilling to fix the country’s problems.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
It’s 2021 and it’s simply time to see your sunrise, wherever you are in the world! This week, simply post your sunrise photograph and roughly where it was taken (which town are you in or near?) in the comment section. #dPSSunrise
Don’t forget, you can go back and try ALL of our CHALLENGES over HERE!
A sunrise can show many things, quality of light, silhouette, rays of sun, clouds, water… Whatever, as long as it’s a sunrise! Tag your post on social – #dPSSunrise
Share on Instagram and tag us so we can repost you! @DigitalPS
Photo by Federico Respini on Unsplash
Remember! Note down where you made your photograph and share it in the comments!
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSCars so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favorite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Sunrise appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
If you don’t have a lens wide enough to capture the vista before you or the skyscraper above you, then creating a panorama is a great option.
Panoramas are often made of wide scenes, but you can also create vertical panoramas of very tall subjects.
Alternatively, you can create an Affinity Photo panorama with images taken in a grid. That way, rather than making a wide or tall panorama, you can stitch together photos to capture an image both taller and wider than you could shoot with your widest lens.
Note that you can make a panorama of anything; it doesn’t have to be a wide or tall scene.
Hardcore pano photographers will insist a tripod is necessary. Personally, I prefer not to use one when I make panoramas, with one exception: when I need a slow shutter speed and want to keep my camera steady.
Include overlap
When you take photos for a panorama, you must include a reasonable amount of overlap from one image to the next.
Without this overlap, Affinity Photo can’t seamlessly stitch the photos together.
But how much overlap should you include? Generally, I’d recommend around 25% or 30% overlap for great results.
When I take photos for a panorama, I look at an element in each frame about 25% from the edge. I then include that element in the next frame (also about the same distance from the edge). As I move my camera across or up and down while taking pictures, I am careful to line up the non-joining edges as evenly as I can. Trying to keep a straight line helps to make a panorama that will crop well.
Using a standard focal length lens or longer is best. If you use a wide-angle lens, you will run into problems lining up the images due to edge distortion.
Once you have a series of photographs for your panorama, open Affinity Photo.
If your photos are in RAW format, edit the colors and tones so the images look their best. Try to give each photo similar tones and color temperatures, because if your photos are different exposures or color temperatures, this will be noticeable.
I generally create a resized set of images for each new panorama. I make sure to reduce the file size, especially when I’ve taken a lot of photos. This makes it easier for Affinity Photo to manage many files at once.
(If you leave your images at full size and full resolution, you’ll be waiting a long time for your panorama to render.)
Once you’ve resized and saved your photos, go to the top menu in Affinity Photo.
Select File>New Panorama. This will open up a dialog box.
Click on Add, then navigate to the folder where you saved your images for the panorama.
Select every file, then click Open. The photos will be imported into Affinity Photo.
Then select Stitch Panorama. Once you’ve clicked this, you will see a preview of your panorama on the right and the individual files on the left.
If there are any images that Affinity Photo cannot stitch with the others, they’ll appear below the preview.
Click OK. Affinity Photo will render your panorama and open it as a new document. This may take a while, depending on:
The number of images you have
How large each image is
How powerful your computer is
Tweaking your panorama in Affinity Photo
Once your panorama is rendered, you will most likely have some blank space around it. There are a few ways you can edit this.
Cropping is the easiest. When you click on the Crop tool, a new menu bar will appear above your document. If you select the option to Crop to Opaque, Affinity Photo will automatically adjust the crop bounding box to exclude any areas that are blank.
You can also rotate your panorama if your horizon or verticals are not straight. And you can freehand crop your panorama.
Another option is to Inpaint Missing Areas. You’ll see an icon in the middle of your screen above your document (though you’ll need to deselect the Crop tool first; otherwise, the icon won’t be visible).
When you click Inpaint Missing Areas, Affinity Photo will use its AI technology to autofill the blank areas around your panorama. This works best when there is not much detail along the panorama edges.
As you can see in my example below, Affinity has managed to fill in the sky very well. But at the bottom, the inpainting is not good because there’s too much detail in the rice field:
With the Inpaint Missing Areas tool selected, click Apply. Affinity Photo will render your panorama and present it as a single image file.
For this example, I chose to use the automatic inpainting because it filled in the sky nicely. Once my panorama rendered, I then cropped the funky area from the bottom where Affinity did not extend the rice field well.
Creating Affinity Photo panoramas: conclusion
Affinity Photo panoramas are very easy to create, especially if you’re careful to add plenty of overlap when taking your photos.
If you haven’t tried creating a panorama, give it a go. Experiment with a simple series of images to start with. You can make a panorama with two to five photos to keep things less complicated. Then, once you have a feel for the process, start to include more images in each series.
Try using different focal lengths to see which you prefer. If you want to make a very detailed panorama, use a long lens and take lots of photos.
Remember, though: The more photos you include, the longer it will take to render your panorama!
Now over to you:
What types of panoramas do you want to create with Affinity Photo?Share your thoughts – and photos – in the comments below!
The post How to Create Panoramas in Affinity Photo appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Cars appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
We’ve had ‘transport’ but I thought maybe this week we’ll look at cars specifically!
We have SO many tips for photographing cars, and I’ve gathered a search for you (Click Here) and I also want to share a link to a friend of mine’s website, Larry Chen, he’s a Canon Explorer of Light and an amazing car photographer (Click Here) for some inspiration.
Don’t forget, you can go back and try ALL of our CHALLENGES over HERE!
Your Cuban Ride
Quick Car Photography tips? Here’s a list of seven that might help you.
Think about details and angles that you don’t often see or think about, perhaps you could try panning for a different looking photo?
You can upload your photo here (comments down below) or over in our Facebook Group.
Share on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSCars so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Cars appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
Texture is one of the seven elements of art. Rough vs smooth, patterns, contrast. We have many ways to show texture and this week we want to see how you interpret and show texture in a photograph. I’ve gathered a few examples of what ‘texture’ is, to me, and I guess we can interpret it in our own way and it might be different for you – but anyway! here are a few examples…
This Week Your Challenge Theme is #dPSTexture
There are some great examples and articles on #dPSTexture on the blog, too! Make sure you pop across and take some extra inspiration from them!
How to use texture to create compelling images.
17 highly detailed images that show texture.
Tips for abstract macro photography using texture and light.
You can upload your photo here (comments down below) or over in our Facebook Group.
Share them on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSTexture so we can see them!
How do I upload my photo to the comments?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Texture appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The post Weekly Photo Challenge – Old appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Sime.
The theme this week was going to be ‘Cold’ but then I thought of all the people in snow&ice I’ve seen online this week and thought no, they’re likely quite done with ‘cold’ and then I realised I’d missed the C and thought I’d stick with ‘Old’ An old scene, an old object like some of my tools, below, or an old person’s portrait even? (And if any of you young people find and post a photo of me, there’s gonna be trouble haha!)
This Week Your Challenge Theme is #dPSOld
With the theme #dPSOld some things you can think about when you’re taking your photos are:
Detail – showing details, lines, cracks, wear.
Story – work at telling a story with your image.
Nothing old? Consider working on your image in post and going for ‘vintage’ look? (Here are some examples)
Don’t forget, you can go back and try ALL of our CHALLENGES over HERE!
Old tools or old cars, they have to be two of my favourite ‘old’ things to photograph! What can you find in your neighbourhood or in your house that you can photograph for this week’s challenge!
That time in Cuba – gtvone
You can upload your photo here (comments down below) or over in our Facebook Group.
Share them on Instagram or Twitter and use the hashtag #dPSMirror so we can see them!
Great! Where do I upload my photos?
Simply upload your shot into the comments field (look for the little camera icon in the Disqus comments section) and they’ll get embedded for us all to see. Or, if you’d prefer, upload them to your favourite photo-sharing site and leave the link to them.
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The post How to Create Cool Effects Using Displacement Maps in Affinity Photo appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
Adding natural-looking text to a photo can be challenging. But with displacement maps in Affinity Photo, you can easily produce awesome-looking text blends.
In fact, it takes just a few clicks to merge text with a second photo, so that it looks like the text was there all along.
There are a couple of different ways to achieve this look in Affinity Photo. If you’re used to other image manipulation software, you may be familiar with some of the steps. And if you’re new to Affinity Photo, you may not be aware of the features that make creating cool effects using displacement maps even easier.
So let’s dive right in!
What are displacement maps in Affinity Photo?
Displacement maps in Affinity Photo allow the texture of an image to be mapped onto another layer.
Displacement maps are commonly used to add natural-looking text to an image. You can use them when you want to place a logo or text on a t-shirt or make text look like a natural part of a scene.
How to create a displacement map: Step-by-step instructions
As with pretty much any editing effect, there is more than one way to reach your end goal.
In this article, I will show you a simple, step-by-step method I use to create displacement maps in Affinity Photo.
Specifically, I’ll use Affinity Photo’s Displace filter.
Using the Displace filter is a great way to work with displacement maps. It’s quick, easy, and non-destructive.
This means you have a great deal of control. You can apply your Displace filter and tweak it as much as you like – without permanently altering the underlying photo.
Step 1: Open your mapping image
Select the image you plan to modify. Open it in Affinity Photo.
Step 2: Add text or your logo
Locate the file with your text or logo, then drag and drop it onto the underlying image file.
You can use a TIFF or PNG file with transparency. Alternatively, type in the text you want to use, as I’ve done in my example file (below).
Position your image or text where you want it to appear. If you’ve chosen to type your text, pick the font and color you think will best suit your needs.
Step 3: Create a live filter layer
In the top menu, choose Layer.
Then go down to New Live Filter Layer>Distort>Displace Filter.
In the Layers panel, you will now see a live displacement map filter added to your logo or text layer.
Step 4: Choose a displacement map
In the displacement map dialog box, you will have the option of loading a map from a file or loading it from other layers. Sometimes you may have a separate image you want to use as your mapping layer. In this example, I will show you how to use the lower layer to create a displacement map, because this is what will typically provide you with a great result.
Click on the option to Load Map From Layers Beneath. At this point, depending on the resolution of the photo you are working with, you may begin to see the effects of the mapping filter.
(But don’t worry if you can’t yet see this; we’ll work on the effect in the next steps.)
Step 5: Adjust the displacement strength
Use the slider in the Displace filter dialog box to increase or decrease the strength of the filter.
Adjust the filter intensity until your top layer merges naturally with the image below.
Note that this is just the first level of adjustment. In the next steps, you’ll discover how to fine-tune the result, so don’t be concerned if you can’t yet get your image looking exactly how you want.
Step 6: Rasterize the text layer
At this point, if you are working with a text layer or some other non-rasterized layer, you need to rasterize it so the next step will work.
Right-click on the text layer and select Rasterize.
Step 7: Control your blending options
Now it’s time to further adjust how your text or logo blends with the layer beneath it.
Click on the cog icon in the Layers panel. (It’s between the blend mode drop-down and the padlock icon.)
A new dialog box will appear; this lets you control the blending options for your layer. Note the two curves graphs:
You’ll want to use the rightmost curve, labeled Underlying Composition Ranges. But before you start, make sure to uncheck the Linear box below it.
Now click and drag from the top left of this curve. Watch as your text or logo further blends with the layer beneath. Continue to click and drag on the curve until you have a look you’re happy with.
Step 8: Tweak the displacement amount
If you’ve merged an image rather than text, you can now go back and tweak the Displace filter.
(If you merged text, this option won’t be available, because the filter is combined with the text layer when it’s rasterized.)
Step 9: Change the blend mode
For further control, you can select a different blend mode for your text or logo layer.
Scroll through the options in the blend mode drop-down box until you find one that best fits the look you want.
You can also decrease the opacity of the top layer so the underlying texture shows through more.
Using displacement maps in Affinity Photo: Conclusion
The key to success in all photo manipulation is experimentation.
So if you want to create a stunning result, use these steps as guidelines, but don’t be afraid to play around. Push the boundaries!
Using displacement maps in Affinity Photo is fun and non-destructive. This means you can try as many options as you like without permanently affecting your images!
Now over to you:
How do you plan to use displacement maps? Share your thoughts (and images) in the comments below!
The post How to Create Cool Effects Using Displacement Maps in Affinity Photo appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Kevin Landwer-Johan.
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