PhotoRocket: The Blog!

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Anyone who works in a photo sharing start-up has been asked (and probably will be asked again), “How do you plan to compete with Facebook?” 

PhotoRocket was armed against this question with a battery of obvious answers: we specialize in the ease and quality of your viewing experience, we allow you to collaborate around group albums, we respect the privacy of personal information, et cetera. Nevertheless, Facebook continued to haunt us; their viral conversion (500 million users in three years), and user engagement (700 billion minutes logged in every month) had set a new, unreachable standard.

Finally, we decided something needed to change. Instead of “competing with Facebook” (as the world so irritatingly phrases it), we decided to work with Facebook. We built an integration with Facebook that allows our users to import their Facebook photos and contacts into PhotoRocket. In doing this, we provided three new benefits to our users:

• An easy way to get your friend’s photos. PhotoRocket released a collaborative photo sharing capability this summer, but found that many groups have a designated memory keeper. If that’s you, you no longer have to ask your friends to help consolidate all the photos from an event. Simply import your friend’s Facebook albums into PhotoRocket!
• Easily share photos with your non-Facebook friends. While most of your friends are on Facebook, we know that you have a few “holdouts” in your life. Now with one click of a button you can suck a whole Facebook Album into PhotoRocket to share with your your regular email contacts. (Grandmothers the world over are thanking us.)
• Share photos privately on Facebook. We wanted to develop a smart way to integrate with Facebook but realized that not everyone likes to share their photos with the Facebook universe. Now PhotoRocket lets you invite your friends to view your Gallery via Facebook direct message, so not everyone sees your pics.

So far our users have really liked this integration. Try it out now, and let us know what you think!

Get started in three easy steps:

1. Start a new Gallery and select “Facebook Albums” on the Welcome screen.

2. Connect PhotoRocket to your Facebook account.

3. Select an album to import.

Happy sharing!

PhotoRocket loves to create cool, new features. We thrive off of it, we take pride in it. That said, our Team is always most excited about delivering the features that you, our users, ask for. That’s why we are particularly delighted to announce the release of our new Download all capability.

The new “Download” button (located in the left tool bar), allows you to download all the photos in your Gallery at once. Simply click the download button, and a zip file with all of your photos will be sent to you via email. 

Download, upload, freeload- we’ve got you covered!

Download: In addition to downloading all photos in a Gallery, you may still download individual photos. Just hover over the desired image with your mouse, and click the download prompt in the lower left hand corner. 

Upload: If you use PhotoRocket to upload lots of high resolution photos, make sure to get the Windows, Mac or iPhone app. Our apps (rocket-fuel-powered-uploaders as we like to call them) make it quicker than ever to get all of your photos safe in the cloud.

Freeload: PhotoRocket is always fun and free. Get started now.

1. Do your research

Find out where the leaves are changing colors for dramatic nature shots and backdrops. The Weather Channel is a good place to start; they offer an interactive map that shows peak leaf-changing seasons around the country. 

If you don’t have time to drive to the countryside to snap a few photos, find out about local events. Pumpkin festivals, Halloween parties and farmers markets offer endless photo opportunities. 

Photo contributed by Ted Anthony

2. Fall (and photo sharing) is all about Food 

Did you know that the most frequently shared photos are of food? Yes, everyone loves taking pictures of food – and oddly they love receiving photos of food too! Next time you make a pear tart, homemade squash ravioli, or rack of lamb make sure to get some close-ups. 

Photo contributed by Shafergaza

3. Turn up the drama 

Autumn is the most naturally dramatic time of year. It is the season of crimson leaves, the harvest moon and ghostly long shadows. Turn up the natural drama with the help of a handy app. For the iPhone we like PhotoToaster, Instagram and Camera+.

Once you have given your photos a warm, rustic look arrange them in a PhotoRocket Gallery and share them with your friends. They will love seeing Fall through your eyes!

Create a Gallery now.

Photo contributed by Michał Koralewski

Did you know that PhotoRocket automatically stores a full resolution copy of all your photos? Yes, you heard me: full resolution! That means that you can use PhotoRocket to share or store your raw or large format photos - without losing the quaility of your original image. 

Why we do it:

We live an an HD world and believe our photos should be too. Whenever you revisit those important memories, or share them with a friend, they will be just as vivid as you remember them.

How to download a copy:

Use your mouse to hover over the image you want to download, and click the “download” prompt in the lower left corner.

Get the PhotoRocket app:

PhotoRocket will always allow you to upload and download your full resolution photos. However, if you make a habit of sharing large files we suggest you download one of our apps (Windows, Mac or iPhone). The app is free, and will upload your photos at rocket speed! Download the app now.

We’ve been a very busy bunch over the past few months working hard to make PhotoRocket even better. After lots of deliberation, coding, testing and coffee, we’re ready to share a huge update that we think will transform your photo sharing experience by making it more social and more collaborative. Without further ado, we’d like to introduce…

PhotoRocket Galleries!

We’ve always said “Life’s better when shared.” PhotoRocket Galleries are an evolution of our first product that makes it fun for friends and family to celebrate their shared experiences.  Groups can easily create galleries to view, comment and share the photos they took together, all in one place. 

Previously, if groups wanted to share their photos with each other, they had to email photos as bulky attachments, send them all to one person to upload into an online album, or look at multiple Facebook albums. PhotoRocket Galleries simplify the way people share photos with each other. 

Create a PhotoRocket Gallery in 3 steps:

1). Drag and drop photos into your browser to create a PhotoRocket Gallery.

2). Share a link to the gallery with your friends and family.

3). Friends and family can add their photos to the group gallery.

While we are excited about these fun new features, we want you to know that all of your favorite PhotoRocket features are still at your fingertips. That means you can still:

• Send unlimited high-resolution photos
• View and download your friends’ photos without logging in
• Share to your favorite people and social sites at once.

Read on to learn how these changes will make your PhotoRocket apps more useful than ever.

All apps

If you’re using PhotoRocket to share to Facebook or Twitter, we’ll generate and post a link on your wall or feed. This link will direct viewers to your Gallery on PhotoRocket’s website, where your friends can can view and comment on your gallery. This is great for sharing a finished Gallery once you’re satisfied with all of your changes. If you prefer to send only direct invitations via email to certain people, you can invite select recipients to contribute photos and make changes to the gallery.

Windows

PhotoRocket for Windows will be automatically updated to take advantage of these new features and make it easy to create and upload galleries right from your desktop. Use your app to choose a theme and layout for your photos and, as always, upload your photos at rocket speed. All the photos you share will now be sent in a PhotoRocket Gallery rather instead of a photo set. The people you share with will be able to add their photos to the gallery and leave comments.

Mac

Mac users can still use PhotoRocket for Mac to share photos with friends, family and social networks.  All the photos you share will now be sent in a PhotoRocket Gallery instead of a photo set. The people you share with will be able to add photos to the gallery and leave comments.

To give your gallery a title and custom layout, log into the PhotoRocket website to finish customizing your gallery. While you are there, add some text boxes and re-order your pictures to make the gallery your own.

iPhone

PhotoRocket for iPhone is the best way to send lots of photos on-the-go. As always, you can send as many photos as you want to your friends, Facebook, and Twitter. Your friends will receive an invitation to your PhotoRocket Gallery where they can contribute pictures and comments of their own.

We’re very excited about PhotoRocket Galleries and look forward to your feedback to make it even better. Share your thoughts with us at: support@photorocket.com

In the age of digital photography, point-and-shoot cameras can produce some admittedly unexciting photos. Seeing an image strictly as it’s seen in real life, while great for the football game on your HDTV, can be a serious bore in photography. Life’s images are full of color and contrast, interest and meaning, so expressing these aspects in different ways can be a lot of fun.

Anybody can take a photo of a Godzilla doll, so why not add some minor tweaks to make the photo your own? Here’s a quick and dirty way to give a photo a little vintage Polaroid lovin’.

Open up your image in Photoshop. It’s important to work non-destructively in PS, so instead of making modifications directly to the image we’ll apply an Adjustment Layer by clicking the button at the bottom of the Layers palette. Select “Curves…” and a graph will appear in its own palette.

S-curves are a quick shortcut to color adjustment

Without getting too deep into the nitty-gritty of the Curves tool, the graph represents the color information of a photos: the upper-right represents the highlights, the lower-left represents the shadows, and the middle portion represents the midtones. Looking at the graph for this photo, it looks like most of the color information is concentrated in the shadow and midtone range.

Tweaking the Red, Green and Blue channels in the drop-down menu is where all of the magic will happen. Using your mouse and click-dragging portions of the line in each graph will change the way colors are represented in the photo. A good rule of thumb is that making an “S” shape (either regular or inverse) in color curves will create contrast effects that make a photo more interesting. Here you can see how making S-curves changes the way colors pop or wash out. The changes below are done progressively, so the effects stack and combine.

As is evidenced in the curves graphs above, the end result will push the higher-end greens and reds of the image while knocking back these colors in the darker parts. The lower-end blues are pumped up too which helps contribute to the “washed out” look. Play around with this tool and you too can quickly make these changes.

If you’ve got any color correction experiments of your own, we’d love to see them!

Photo source

I think everybody has more than a few photos of themselves in their collection that aren’t the most flattering. Whether it’s a bad hair day or forgetting to wash your face the morning of the photo, it’d be nice to be able to make small adjustments here and there. I think you’re beautiful just the way you are, but that’s just me. Well, folks, that’s exactly what Photoshop’s Spot Healing Brush is for. Be wary, however, that this tool is a gateway drug to severe and uncontrollable perfectionist narcissism.

You’ve been warned.

What is it?

In short, the Spot Healing Brush with Content-Aware takes color information surrounding the area you select and fills the designated spot with closely-matching color information. The area “healed” by the tool is determined by the brush size used to select the area, so different areas demand different sizes.

Okay, great, now how do I use it?

In Photoshop, open up a picture you want to modify.

Select the Spot Healing Brush tool . Ensure that “Content-Aware” is selected in the menu above your photo otherwise this will not work correctly. In looking at your photo, identify spots you may want to change/eliminate. In my example, I’ve highlighted hairs that come across the subject’s forehead and eyebrow, some freckles, a birthmark and some facial lines.

As I said, you’ll have to adjust the size of your area selector for each individual adjustment, so using the bracket keys [ and ], change the size of your area selector until it is slightly larger than the area you want to alter. For items such as freckles, a single click with an area slightly larger than the freckle will “heal” the spot to blend in with its surroundings. For longer/larger items such as strands of hair, make many small strokes over the area as you would with a brush. This will prevent too much information being contributed to coloring the spot which can cause dark, warped or generally undesirable fills to occur.

As you go through, you’ll notice these spots start to disappear and the image to look cleaner and cleaner. Continue with this until you are happy with your photo.

And after some tinkering, voila! Your photo will look as perfect as you want it to. This can be a lot of fun (and oddly addicting), so give it some practice and see how you like it.

And just remember, at least one blogger thinks you look great just as you are :)

[Photo credit for Afghan Girl: Steve McCurry and National Geographic. Check out Steve’s other works here!]

The fact that you are reading this post means that at some point in your past you have thought about the looming question. If you were like me in the beginning of my photography endeavor, you have probably found yourself at Costco trying to compare the two deals offered for what look like the exact same camera. The only difference of course is in the name right?

I like to think of Nikon and Canon as identical twins. For the most part, both companies produce DSLRs that are similar both visually and functionally. Dig deeper, however, and you will find that there are slight differences in their “personalities”. While such differences may go unnoticed to the average user, minor feature distinctions become apparent to professional photographers.

Before setting out to buy one of these bad boys, it’s important to understand your purpose in purchasing a DSLR.

Beginners

Let’s face it, if you are just setting out to buy your first camera so that you can take a few shots here and there then you aren’t going to be too concerned with ISO ranges, image stabilization, and shutter speed. Instead you are going to probably pay more attention to more aesthetic-related features such as the size of the LCD screen, the positioning of the buttons, and the weight and feel of the camera in your hands.

Intermediate users

After fiddling with your first camera, you decide to step it up a notch and purchase a nicer DSLR. While many of the important features that existed for beginner users are still important, your focus is likely to transition to autofocus points, ISO and exposure adjustments, and shutter speeds.

Semi-professional – Professionals

Welcome to the big leagues! For semi-professionals/professionals, you are going to find very similar characteristics for both Nikon and Canon cameras. Nevertheless, Nikon cameras are known for their performance in low light and generally have a greater number autofocus points than their canon equivalents. Canons are generally more cost effective, have a higher pixel count, take superior video footage and are more readily available on the market after release.

If you still can’t make a decision after comparing every feature and button placement, then I suggest you buy one of each camera. It is not uncommon for most serious photographers to carry two cameras with them at all times.

Ultimately the decision to go Nikon or Canon is up to personal preference. Both companies produce outstanding products that will surely leave you more than satisfied. However, if you are just itching to get that perfect shot, it may be worth doing some research on what sort of camera lenses exist for your respective brand. I hate to break it to you, but the camera body is only the beginning …

For Mac users, we decided to build iPhoto right into PhotoRocket. Clicking on the drawer icon (see screenshot below) opens a drawer with all your iPhoto photos and albums. Just click or drag and drop groups of photos straight into the app.