Gadgetstronics

So, you’ve found and purchased the camera that is just perfect for you. (If you haven’t, check out The Gadgetell guide to finding a camera) You’ve been been playing with it, experimenting with it, and taking a ton of shots. Now what? Well, there are quite a few options if you want your work seen or even sold.

There are lots of places on the ‘net that allow you to post your photography work.  Of course, there is the well known flickr, which seems to be used by everybody and their brother to post everything from little Johnny’s 4th birthday party to girls showing off their ass-ets, to some photos that really do have photographic merit.  But, if you are looking to have your work seen and critiqued by other photographers, you may want to look into some other sites as well.

Sites to get seen

JPG Magazine

One fast growing site that offers a fantastic community of photographers is JPG Magazine.  This site allows users to upload a certain number of photos per day, although they do stress that they only wish to see your best work. 

They also don’t allow for any shots that have been overly “edited.” If Photoshop can claim more credit for your shot than you can, they don’t want it on their site.  This site is very easy to navigate and uploading photos is rather self-explanatory.  You can either choose to join for free, or subscribe to JPG and get their magazine which is published six times a year. 

This site holds theme contests for photos where the users get to vote on which photo they feel should make it into the magazine.  You can favorite photos, add contacts, and leave comments and props on other people’s shots.  This is a good site to gain some feedback on your work as well as see others’ work and get some fresh ideas.

Click for a larger image.

Photonet

This is another great site that offers up a community of photographers and a chance to have your work seen and critiqued.  At Photonet, you can either register for free or pay to subscribe for a pretty reasonable yearly fee ($25). 

If you are a “free” member, you are able to upload up to five images a day, and request one critique a day from the forum.  Subscribers have unlimited uploads and may request up to four critiques a day.  The site also offers 33 forums, chat boards, articles and much more.  You have a portfolio that you can separate into folders like “children,” “architecture,” “fine art,” and so on. 

Other perks for subscribers include getting a photo.net email address (your-name @photo.net), a Personal ImagePRO web site (your-name.photography.com), unlimited posting in their classified ads, and special offers just for subscribers.  This site has some amazing photographers, and you will get real critiques on your work.  This isn’t where you want to post shots of Aunty Sally’s party where everyone is out of focus.  Put up your best stuff.

Click for a larger image.
Portfolio categories are able to be looked at as “slideshows”, with thumbnails on the bottom as the slideshow scrolls.

Sites to Sell

OK, so you’ve posted your work on some photography sites.  You’ve gotten some feedback from some sources a little more objective than your mom.  You think you may really have what it takes when it comes to photography, even if you are just doing it as a hobby.  So, where to go from here?

There are many sites online that sell photos.  These are called stock photo sites.  Some are easier to get your work on to than others.  But the main thing is, keep trying, and don’t get discouraged if you don’t have your work accepted the first time around.  You can sell your regular shots that you’ve taken that you feel are really good, and might have commercial appeal.  No matter how crisp and clear and well framed your photo is of your kids opening Christmas presents while your hubby sits there eating cookies in the shot, that may not be just what the mass markets are looking for. 

What sells on stock sites?

Most stock sites will have a section that will tell you if they are looking for something special.  But in general, they are looking for photos that have that commercial appeal.  Photos than can be used on greeting cards, calendars, or for businesses who are doing presentations or developing websites and are looking for a certain shot.  They come to stock photo sites. 

Preview some stock sites.  Get a feel for what other photographers whose work is on the site are selling.  Do this before you try to submit your work because in most cases, you can only submit a certain number of images when you are first trying to get accepted onto their site.  And if your work is not accepted, you usually have to wait a specific amount of time (anywhere from a couple of weeks to several months) to be able to re-submit. 

In general, clean images sell—nothing with too much going on.  Shots of children and teens are big, but they have to have a certain “feel” to the shot.  But keep in mind, you must have a model release form for absolutely anyone in your photos.  This includes yourself, your children, or the guy down the street.  You are also not allowed to use licensed insignias in your photos, or have trademarked items or buildings or famous people unless the shot is being submitted as a “News” photo.  (As in a shot of McCain or Obama giving a speech).

List your work on more than one stock site.  They know you are going to do that and as long as you don’t mark it as exclusive to their site that is just fine.  So where to?

Shutterpoint

This is a good starting place to list your work because you don’t need to have your work accepted to list it on the site.  Your work is also rated by other members on a scale of 1-7.  If you received too many low ratings, or “skips,” where members didn’t even bother rating your photo, Shutterpoint will email you about that photo and suggest you remove it. 

They watermark your photos (you can either use their generic mark or use your own), and potential buyers are not able to lift images because of both that and the fact that Shutterpoint only shows a smaller version of your photo.  So there is not much chance of your work being stolen.  You upload your images, tag them with keywords, and set the price.  The site walks you through the process.

In the following images, you can see the watermark and layout of what a shot looks like on their screen, as well as an image of the rating/comment page.

Click for a larger image.

Click for a larger image.

Shutterstock

Shutterstock calls itself the “largest subscription-based stock photo agency in the world.” This is a site where you do need to have your photos accepted.  They definitely serve a more commercial client.  The way this site works is that the buyers pay a monthly fee and can download up to 750 images every 30 days. 

This, of course, means the people being willing to pay that higher monthly fee do, in fact, use the site that much and will be doing all that downloading, so you have a good chance of having your work seen and used.  The seller (you!) on the site earns a set amount each time the photo is downloaded.  Because of the way Shutterstock works with allowing buyers such high numbers of downloads per month, the payout per photo used is much lower compared to other sites, although this is somewhat combated by the fact it might be downloaded MANY more times than on others sites just due to sheer download volume by buyers.

PhotoShelter

PhotoShelter is another site where you need to have your work accepted to be able to sell.  An account on the site gets you a custom website, e-commerce capabilities, bulletproof image archiving and more.  Again, you upload photos and list your keywords. 

Photoshelter has set minimum pricing for their “pro” photos which you are not able to undersell.  Like the other stock sites, buyers enter keywords to search through all the images from each photographer listed on the site.  However, this site isn’t really a true “stock” site.  You work more directly with the client.  You can choose to sell directly from your Photoshelter webpage, or they will handle the transaction for you for a 10% fee.

Click for a larger image.

Final Words of Advice

So from just posting your shots to selling them for a profit, these are just a few suggestions to get you started.  Keep in mind what’s important is finding your own personal style, and going with that.  Shoot what speaks to your soul, and it will come through the lens.

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FROM APPLETELL - Lutron has announced an iphone app for controlling your house lights.  From this device, it is possible to turn the lights on and off, as well as dim them to preset levels.
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The iBoogie is one of those devices that you may not need, but you will probably want. Simply put, the iBoogie is designed to attach to your MP3 Player, and an LED stick figure gets its groove on to the music. By the way, it also works as a speaker, which would probably be the first reason that you would buy it.

Unless you are easily impressed by dancing stick figures like I am. The stick figure is “sound responsive”, so I’m guessing it is in tune with music. I’ve heard that it has over fifty signature dance moves. It can actually work without an mp3 player, but it can only play one song: Canned Heat.

The iBoogie is powered by 3AA batteries, and it comes with some audio cable. It is compatible with most MP3 Players including the ipod. All you need to do is plug it into the headphone jack.

You should be able to get the iBoogie at the HSN site for a surprisingly low price of $19.95. For a lower price, you can purchase a blank notebook and draw stick figures on it. Then turn on your music and have a flip-book stick figure do the dancing. That might be tough to synchronize, though.

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This ZTE C79 headset has one big thing going for it — the price. At $159, it will appeal to a buyer intested in a basic phone, but who still wants a few cool features. Here’s what we thought after taking it for a test run: there are no tricky settings or menus, everything from the contacts to the call log were easy to find and understand; the SMS was very standard and had all of the usual formats (abc, ABC, T9 or Word, etc); the camera was decent, and had some nice features like zoom, brightness, and color themes (black & white and sepia). It packs some pretty good speakers and comes with a GPS feature where in case of an emergency, your phone can be located (unfortunately you can’t use it for directions). It also comes with a speaker phone and is stereo bluetooth capable.

By far the best feature turns out to the music management system which is as easy to use as the rest of the phone. Just drag and drop from your PC, and the external music keys make it a cinch. If you need more memory, there’s an expansion slot on the side.

What we didn’t like: the screen size and resolution was a little small and weak. Funny to scrimp here when they’ve built a solid phone with some surprisingly good features.

It’s only available on the carrier MetroPCS network so check to see the national coverage page first to see if they’re in your area.

FROM APPLETELL - Apple quietly released an update for the fourth generation iPod nano last night to fixes various bugs and add support for forthcoming ipod earbuds with mics and remotes.
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Pharos has just released a couple more GPS smartphones for the masses that features full navigation capability and comes unlocked, being able to connect via 3.5G - hopefully you’re on an unlimited data plan if you want to take full advantage of that capability, and make sure you do stay in an area where the coverage is far and wide. The Pharos Traveler 117 and 127 are also Pharos’ maiden attempt to include include Pharos Smart Navigator, a special hybrid navigation product that merges both navigation software and location services on a Windows mobile device. Features include :-

• Turn-by-turn navigation with voice prompts
• Real-time services for maps, traffic and POI
• Innovative “Follow Me” service

ComicZeal is another application for reading comic books on the iPhone and, despite being a little rough around the edges gets things pretty much right. Back in August we took a look at two other comic readers for the iPhone but they both failed on one essential point: They split the pages into individual frames, leaving the reader unable to enjoy more complex, dramatic page designs.

Comic Zeal lets you read whole pages in the same way as Mobile Safari lets you read whole web pages: You just pinch to zoom in. And although the iPhone’s screen is a little small for the medium, reading comics with Comic Zeal works surprisingly well.

We had a quick chat with the author of the application, Emiliano Molina.

First, the features. Comic Zeal comes pre-loaded with some public domain titles — Out of This World, Racket Squad and Romantic Adventures. You can also download a lot of free “Golden Age” comics direct to the iPhone for some retro reading. This last lets you browse the cover art on a wooden bookshelf.

Far more useful is the ability to add your own comics. Or it would be, if it worked. First you need to install Python (a programming language) on your computer and use the free ComicZeal Creator application to convert your comics (in either cbr or cbz formats) into a form that the iPhone app can use. Then you need to fire up the open source application SyncDocs, which will do the work of transferring the new, smaller comics to your iPhone.

Assuming you do manage to get through this meandering journey (I didn’t), the actual process of reading comics is pretty slick. Pinch to zoom, swipe to turn pages, and press once to bring up a navigation menu. That’s it, and it works well, although the page-turn animation is a little unsettling the first time you see it — new pages slide in from the right, but at the same time your finger-swipe moves the existing page around. The app even remembers where you left off in the comic, so you can come back later.

If you’re happy rolling up your sleeves to get things working, then the $2 app is cheap enough to play around with. If you want to read your own comics on the go, and you want it to be iPhone-easy, we’d suggest you wait a little while for the computer end of things to mature.

We asked Emiliano a few questions about the birth of Comic Zeal, the problems of synching files between iphone and computer, and whether comic books have an electronic future.

Gadget Lab: Syncdocs is a little janky. Is it Java? Any plans for a native OS X app?

Emiliano Molina: SyncDocs is Java, we originally had a web-based process for getting the comics into the iPhone but it had a couple of shortcomings. First it only allowed for transfers of one comic at a time, and second, it could be difficult to set up the networking. Even worse for us it made it look as though the networking problems people were having were due to ComicZeal or ComicZeal Creator.

As I was wondering what to do a post went up on the Apple developer forums about SyncDocs. It’s an open source software project which is used by a number of apps.

I gave it a go and found it easy to install and very functional, it’s very reliable and the configuration is a breeze. Since we started using it our support emails have gone down dramatically.

It’s also cross-platform, which is great, but it also means that it just doesn’t look like a Mac app.

GL: Viewing full sized comics works surprisingly well. Any thoughts on the iPhone as an official delivery platform for comics — ie. Marvel and DC actually selling comics through the iTunes Store?

EM: I’d love to see that happen (hey, lets ALL use ComicZeal), but the problems here are not really technological any more.

I KNOW ComicZeal doesn’t match the experience of reading a real paper comic, but it does give the user options that paper comics don’t. You can read one-handed on a train, you can take your whole collection on holiday, you can read a comic as many times as you want and it won’t be damaged.

The roadblock is the required change in business models for comic publishers. They are not experts in digital distribution, it must scare the heck out of them to think that their wares can be replicated time and time again with no cost, and there is no copyright protection methods that truly work. What are they going to do?

They can’t sell digital comics at the same price as paper ones, they can’t reach the same audience with them, the iPhone and ipod touch are great sellers but the overlap of people who own them and people who buy comics may not be great.

Something else worth considering is this, what’s in it for them? Can publishers make more money by selling digital comics? If you buy a paper comic, will you pay more to get a digital version? If you don’t buy a paper comic, are you likely to buy a digital version?

GL: There are a lot of slick iPhone apps with terrible Mac and PC back ends. Why?

EM: That’s because every developer is being forced to do it from scratch, by themselves. It’s huge time sink and very difficult to get it right. Assuming that all the software works perfectly on both ends, the user would still need to set up a wireless network between their PC and their iPhone. It’s the only way to move data between them that doesn’t require a web-server. Of course, for a lot of types of data the user won’t trust a web server they don’t own anyway so you’re back to a wireless network.

What we need is for Apple to come up with a way for us to use the iTunes sync framework.

GL: Anything else?

EM: Next up on the to-do list is a way to sort comics on the iPhone. When we came up with the requirements for ComicZeal we thought users would have around ten comics on the device. Delete them as they read them, put new ones on as needed. It turns out that users want to keep most of their collection in ComicZeal, so we had to add support for batch downloads - thanks SyncDocs - and now we need to provide a way to sort hundreds of comics.

Product page [ComicZeal]

The Samsung’s Q1 Diamond portable media player has been released in UK. The device are extremely pocket friendly, featuring a 2.4-inch LCD, FM tuner, voice recording and text viewer capability, landscape widescreen playback, Samsung’s DNSe 3.0 audio technology, 4 hours of video playback / 30 hours of audio, and supports to playback a wide range of codecs, including OGG Ogg and FLAC. At £50 you can get the 4GB Q1 Diamond to become yours.
[Source]

Faster, bigger and, erm, anniversary-er. A year ago, Eye-Fi launched its splendid Wi-Fi enabled SD cards which let you beam your photographs directly at the internet, or onto your home computer. To celebrate, the Eye-Fi folks are selling an Anniversary Edition card, which doubles the capacity to 4GB and offers faster read/write speeds beween camera and card.

The Anniversary Edition is priced the same as the Eye-Fi Explore: $129, but comes without the geotagging and the year-long free hotspot access offered by the Explore. You do get access to Eye-Fi’s webshare service, though, which sends your photos into the cloud towards the photosharing site of your choice.

But while these extra features can be added to the Anniversary Edition just by buying them from Eye-Fi, if you get the all-included 3GB Explore, you’re clearly not going to be able to just download more storage — you’re stuck at 2GB.

Available “while supplies last”, although we can’t imagine Eye-Fi won’t be adding a 4GB card to the permanent collection soon enough.

Product page [Eye-Fi. Thanks, Gina!]

Portable projectors seem to be all the rage these days as people are willing to take a rather massive hit in image quality as long as the projector itself is highly portable. 3M caters to this need with its new Mpro100 handheld digital projector that targets business, entertainment and versatile field applications. Weighing less than a pound and sharing somewhat similar dimensions as a digital camera, the Mpro110 is able to throw a 50″ display at VGA resolution, regardless of whether it is connected to a notebook, DVD player or even a games console. It relies on an LED light source, which means it is unusually quiet and you don’t have to worry about replacing bulbs. The 3M Mpro110 is also the only handheld projector on the market that comes with an integrated VGA input. [Press Release]