Advertisements now part of Facebook's auto-playing video repertoire

When Facebook rolled out auto-playing videos into its users' mobile and desktop news feeds last week, along with a collective groan came the question, 'How long until those videos include adverts?' Five days is the answer. Auto-playing advertisements aren't coming to all Facebook users immediately; it's a test group that is currently receiving them, and the adverts are for Divergent, a film due to be released next year. Given it's a trial run, if the users find it abhorrent enough and say so loudly enough, it's possible that the plans could be shelved. However, Facebook does have to fund itself somehow and this is likely an appealing pitch to marketers.

Much the same as with the auto-playing shared content videos, they'll be soundless until you click on them and you can ignore them by just scolling on by. When you're using a mobile device adverts will still play automatically if you're on a cellular connection but they would have been downloaded the last time that you were connected to wi-fi, which should help to prevent data-gobbling. If you watch a video avert through to the end, two further adverts will appear. This, says Facebook, is to make it 'easy to continue to discover content from the same marketers.' It's the price we pay for something that's 'free'.

(Hedsup to Techcrunch)

Samsung merges its digital imaging and mobile communications divisions

Almost all mobile phones now have cameras, barring the very lowest on the scale; some cameras run apps, making them more like smartphones or baby-computers; and plenty of cameras come with wi-fi and NFC capability now. Digital imaging and mobile communications technology are on a steady path of convergence. Samsung has brought this amalgam a step closer by merging its Digital Imaging and Wireless Business divisions. What will this closer working relationship between the two areas mean for consumers? Better cameras in mobile phones? Almost certainly. More development of devices such as the Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom? Highly likely. Improved wireless communications in mirrorless cameras? Watch this space!

(Headsup to The Verge)

Adobe extends its Photoshop + Lightroom bundle deal deadline, again

First it was meant only for those who had legacy versions of Photoshop; then they made it available to everyone until 2 December; next they extended the deal deadline to 8 December; now, anyone can sign up to Adobe's Photoshop + Lightroom bundle for a monthly fee of £8.78 ($9.99) until 31 December 2013.

Happy holidays – deadline extended till Dec 31! Get Photoshop, Lightroom, ProSite & 20GB of storage for £8.78/mo: http://t.co/5z6jejntFu

— Adobe UK (@AdobeUK) December 9, 2013

The website is still giving 8 December as the cut-off date, but Adobe UK has confirmed that it's running until 31 December 2013 and available for everyone.

Adobe extends its Photoshop + Lightroom bundle deadline

Adobe's Photoshop + Lightroom at $9.99 a month special offer? The one that was opened up to anyone, whether a previous Photoshop CS 3 subscriber or not, but you had to sign up before 2 December? The deadline has been extended until 8 December 2013.

Extended. To Dec 8. Photoshop's Photo Program: Photoshop CC + Lightroom + Behance ProSite. For everyone, $9.99/month. http://t.co/pv36xWFOJi

— Adobe Creative Cloud (@creativecloud) December 3, 2013

The official site is still saying sign up before 2 December, but hopefully that will be updated soon. Meanwhile, I have Adobe to confirm. Furthermore, one wonders how well the offer's been received.

Update! I've been told that the website will be updated tomorrow (4 December 2013) to reflect the extended offer period.

Flickr launches Yahoo PIcture of the Day

Flickr is home to billions of pictures and the stories that they go with them. There are glimpses into different lives, snapshots of the everyday and the mundane, and insights into the curious, beautiful, and wonderful. By teaming up with Yahoo's picture editors and the Yahoo News site, Flickr is hoping to reveal more of these stories to an audience larger than just the Flickr community with its Picture of the Day project. From 9 December, Yahoo News will be featuring a Picture of the Day on its French, German, Italian, Middle Eastern, South African, and UK sites. Anyone who submits one of their images to the Yahoo Picture of the Day pool on Flickr can be in with a chance of seeing it, and its story, shared with Yahoo News' readers. The plan is to expand it to other countries with time.

As well as submitting your image to the Yahoo Picture of the Day pool on Flickr, it'll need to be titled meaningfully and carry a description that outlines its story adequately. After that, it's down to the Yahoo picture editors.

The chances of seeing your photo on Picture of the Day? Slim-to-none, at a guess. But it's good to dream. And it's another way for Yahoo! to get more eyeballs on Flickr, too.

Thanksgiving + Chanukah = Instagram's busiest day yet

Last year, Thanksgiving saw Instagram's busiest day in its history. At its peak, over 200 images were being uploaded to the photo-sharing site every second. This year, when Thanksgiving and the first full day of Chanukah (but not the first night) co-incided, that record was broken again. Instagram hasn't divulged exactly how many photos of turkeys, latkes, and chanukiahs went through its system on Thursday, but we know it'll be more than 10 million. It's on its blog.

Olloclip, now in Gold and Space Grey

For anyone who likes to keep their accessories in keeping with their phone, Olloclip has announced its 4-in-1 iPhone Lens is available in gold and space grey, to match the iPhone 5s. The 4-in-1 lens offers iPhone photographers fisheye, wide-angle, 10×, and 15× macro lenses that easily connect to your phone. There are a limited number of 4-in-1 gold and space grey lenses available now. They need to be ordered direct from Olloclip and should ship by the second week of December. If you miss out on this round, they should be available in stores from next year. Otherwise you can content yourself with one of the standard red, silver, or black versions.

Olloclip started as a Kickstarter project, making a 3-in-1 clip-on lens for the iPhone 4 in 2011. It's good to see their success and watch their business expand.

Pushing a pop-up flash further with Rogue's Safari Flash Booster

Rogue has announced a nifty, battery-free attachment that should enable anyone using the pop-up flash on a Canon or Nikon dSLR to send its light further than it could otherwise reach. The Safari Flash Booster has been optically engineered to focus up to eight times more light from a pop-up flash and optimized for lens focal lengths over 100mm. With luck, it should enable you to use faster shutter speeds and achieve sharper photos.

The Rogue Safari Flash Booster costs £25 and should be available in stores and online in time for Christmas. To check if your camera is compatible, check here, and the rest of the details are here.

Oxford Dictionaries' Word of the Year? Selfie

'Selfie?' I've been taking them for yeeeaaars, dahling! The word isn't exactly new, we've been using it since 2002. And the concept definitely isn't new, seeing as the first one was taken in 1839 by one Robert Cornelius. But a staggering 17,000% increase in its use over the past year has meant that 'selfie' has taken the crown as Oxford Dictionaries' 'Word of the Year' for 2013.

It had stiff competition from the likes of 'twerk' and 'binge-watch', but fought them off with unselfconscious vigour and now joins the likes of 'credit crunch' (2008) and 'omnishambles' (2012) in the pantheon of neologisms. Its next task is to gain respectability from an entry into the Oxford English Dictionary. A place in the Oxford Dictionaries Online, awarded in August this year, isn't quite sufficient.

For some, selfie is an indictment of the self-obsessed instant-gratification generation. Those of us in the know, however, aren't at all concerned by the self-portraiture arrivistes with their smartphones and duckfaces. And you can always keep one step ahead of the game with a little help from Haje's book!

Ooh! Ilex has some copies of Haje's Shooting Yourself to give away in honour of this momentous day! All the details are here!

Sony's hunting for the UK's best photographer

As part of the 2014 Sony World Photography Awards, the search is on the for the best UK photographer. In addition to the 15 Professional categories, 10 Open categories, the Student Focus competition for higher education photography students aged 18-28, and a Youth Competition for photographers under the age of 20 that comprise the competition, the winner of the UK National Award will be chosen from entries to the 2014 Open category taken by UK nationals. The Open competition categories are: architecture, arts & culture, enhanced, low-light, nature & wildlife, panoramic, people, smile, split second, and travel.

Whichever talented person is selected as the best in the UK, the announcement will be made on 18 March 2014. The winner will receive Sony camera equipment and see her or his work displayed alongside the two runners up, as well as the winners and runners up from the other categories, at 2014 Sony World Photography Awards Exhibition held in London from 1-18 May 2014.

Entry is free and can be completed via the World Photo website. All of the necessary terms and conditions are there, too. But the crucial factor is the deadline for entries: 6 January 2014.

No more Fujifilm FP-3000B?

I woke up this morning to the plaintive cries of a small but dedicated group of photographers who are lamenting the loss of the next in Fujifilm's line-up of films that has hit the discontinuation wall. Apparently, Fujifilm is winding up production of its FP-3000B instant black and white film. This peel-apart film was renowned for being quick to develop and being highly sensitive to light with an EI of 3,200. With its axing, there will be no other 3×4 black and white instant films available. For anyone who shoots medium format and uses instant film as a quick proof, it's a loss. And of course it's a loss to the people who just enjoy taking photos with it.

If you're particularly concerned by the loss of 3000B, a petition has been established to request that Fujifilm reconsider the decision. There's also the #fuji3000b hashtag to keep interest levels up. But in the meantime you might do well to stock up on the remaining supplies.

As I've not seen any official correspondence on this, I have emailed Fujifilm UK to confirm. I await its response.

Update: Fujifilm US has issued confirmation via Twitter.

SmugMug's Camera Awesome now available for Android

Riding high on the success of Camera Awesome for iOS, SmugMug has released Camera Awesome for Android. Camera Awesome lets you take control of your smartphone photography with creative editing features that includes special effects, pre-sets, filters, and frames. You can also share photos straight from the app, whizzing them to social networks or via email and text to family and friends.

So as to make Androind users feel loved and not left out because they had to wait, there are some Android-specific features for them to enjoy, too. These include:

• Shooting modes that include high-speed burst, panorama, and HDR
• Anti-shake video mode for video image stabilization
• Face recognition and tracking to automatically identify and track multiple faces in a shot to keep subjects in perfect focus
• ISO, White Balance, and Exposure: power users can choose from multiple white balance modes, exposure compensation values, and manually select ISO settings from 100 to 1600
• Resolution settings that allow you to shoot both photos and video in multiple resolutions
• Selective Editing that lets you add or erase a filter to particular areas of an image at a touch
• Sharing: in addition to sharing on Facebook, Twitter, Sinaweibo, Google+, Instagram, Photobucket, Picasa, Tumblr, YouTube and Flickr, you can now share to any other services via supporting apps installed on a device

Camera Awesome costs £1.87 on the UK Google Play store or $2.99 in the US. If you'd like the iOS version, you can find it in the App Store here.

So long, Everpix

Everpix, the San Francisco-based photo management and organisation app, has announced that it has commenced shut down of its service and will cease operations entirely on 15 December 2013. The idea behind Everpix, founded in 2011 by two ex-Apple employees and an ex-Odopod designer, was to bring organisation to the thousands of photos that we all have, scattered across different devices, sorting them according to creation date, making them searchable, and allowing you to share them easily by email, photo page, or social media. According to the Everpix team, in a blog post, 'We were unable to secure sufficient funding in order to properly scale the business, and our endeavors to find a new home for Everpix did not come to pass. At this point, we have no other options but to discontinue the service.'

There are full details on the shut-down process on its support site, and users will be emailed in due course, too. But the team has assured users that their images will be available for download until 15 December 2013, they will receive refunds on the cost of their apps, and their data will not be sold or transfered to any other companies. From now on, no one will be able to sync images from their devices to Everpix and sign-ups have been suspended.

You'd think with so many million photos in existence, there would be ample demand, but Everpix's demise proves that it isn't easy money. The image storage, sharing, and back-up space is a crowded place. Everpix isn't the first, and I doubt that they'll be the last, especially now that the likes of Flickr and Google+ offer oodles of free storage and the beginnings of automated back-up. If nothing else, please remember not to place all of your eggs in one basket.

Alamy changes payment structure; Photographers complain; Alamy backs down

'Okay, hands up... we got it wrong and we’re sorry we messed everyone around.' That's a fair admission from a company that manages millions of images and millions of pounds-worth of sales every year. It happens to be the response from stock house Alamy to the backlash it faced from its contributing photographers when it recently changed its payment protocols. In a move that gave with one hand but took with another, it announced that it would be lowering its payment threshold from $175 to $100—allowing photographers to be paid more frequently for their sales—but that there would be fees for some methods of payment. Get your money more often, but pay for the privilege. This didn't go down very well with Alamy's contributing photographers. Not very well at all.

Hence the apology, the admission that it got it wrong, and the redrawing of the payment thresholds. Again.

From the December payrun onwards, Alamy photographers only have to accrue $75 in fees before they can be paid and no transaction charges are being applied, regardless of the currency selected.

According to Alamy: 'We respect our photographers, you’re important to us and we want to be fair.' They also appear to listen, which is somewhat refreshing.

(Hat-tip to Will)

Fujifilm to cease UK E6 processing

Fujifilm has announced that from 1 November 2014, it will no longer provide E6 processing in the UK. The year-long notice period is to ensure that anyone with remaining rolls of Fujichrome Sensia process-paid film and pre-paid processing vouchers have sufficient time to use them. Gabriel Da Costa, product manager for Fujifilm, commented that the lab's closure had a degree of inevitability to it: '... increased production costs coupled with decreasing global demand led to the Fujifilm Corporation in Japan discontinuing Sensia film in 2010. As UK stocks of Sensia were run down the numbers of E6 films being processed has obviously declined too.'

Fujifilm ran its lab in partnership with CC Imaging, a Leeds-based pro lab. CC Imaging will continue to trade as normal and its customers will still be able to have their transparency films developed there, but not under the 'Fujifilm Processing Laboratory' brand after 1 November 2014.

Da Costa added: 'Particular recognition must go to Mark Senior and John Weldon, the owners of CC Imaging, and their team who have looked after the lab and its customers so well. We would also like to thank all the lab's customers for their support over the years. We are delighted that CC Imaging plan to continue and we wish them every success for the future.'

Queries regarding this announcement can be addressed to the Fujifilm Processing Lab by email: info@fujifilmprocessinglaboratory.co.uk, or visit the processing lab website, or call 0113 244 8221.

There's a Snapseed update in town, but it's not for everyone

Snapseed has released an update to its iOS and Android apps, bringing two new features to its editing suite. You can now apply an HDR effect to your photos using the HDR scape filter and in the Tune Image function there is now the ability to adjust shadows with a dedicated shadows slider. BUT if you're still running iOS 5 or 6 (some people are) please don't update yet. There's a bug that is presenting problems with saving or sharing images when you're running these versions. The team behind Snapseed is aware of this and they're working on an update to address it.

Update! If you're an iOS 5 or 6 user, it's now safe to download. HDR-away.

Another Olympus Image Space pop-up event

Olympus' second pop-up event, Image Space @ Icetank, kicks off on Saturday 2 November in London's Covent Garden. A series of activities has been scheduled that includes workshops, talks, debates, and interviews. There will also be opportunities to go hands-on with Olympus' new OM-D E-M1. Sessions include the chance to assist Damian McGillicuddy when he photographs model Ulorin Vex on a commercial shoot, a discussion of the power of the personal photographic project, and an introduction to social media for photographers.

You can see the full run-down of of what's available and book yourself onto a session or two on the Olympus website. All of the sessions are free but you do need to reserve a place.

Olympus Images Space @ Icetank runs from 2 to 9 November 2013 at 5-7 Grape Street, LONDON WC2H 8DW.

Pinterest does a metadata deal with Getty Images

Ever since Pinterest popped up and people were able to virtually cut out a recipe for white chocolate and raspberry cake and stick it to their online kitchen cork board or paste a photo of their ideal living room into an electronic scrapbook, there has been a slow and steady grumble about the copyright implications of doing this. If it isn't your photo, you don't necessarily have the right to pin it to your Pinterest board. Pinterest was quite clear that it was their users' responsibility to seek permission from copyright holders that would allow pinning and sharing; but were Pinterests' users all clear? On Friday, Pinterest announced that it was doing a deal with Getty Images to ensure that any Getty image appearing on the site will have its metadata appear alongside it: description, photographer, and date taken. Pinterest is paying for this, but it hasn't said how much.

Ostensibly, this is about Pinterest helping users to increase the value of their pins: the more information they hold, the better they are. More realistically, this is about Pinterest helping to assauge Getty's copyright concerns. Either way, proper attribution for photographers is a better state of affairs than orphaned pins.

Headsup to Mashable

How adverts will appear on Instagram

Instagram has released a preview of how the advertisements that its users will soon be seeing—as soon as next week if you're in the US—will appear. This is a one-time ad from Instagram to serve as a taster. Real ads will start with those from a select few brands that already make use of the service.

Advertisements will be identifiable by a 'Sponsored' label in the top right corner, where the timestamp would normally be. So that Instagram can determine what works and what isn't so successful in terms of adverts, you can tap on the '...' button to hide an advert and explain what made it unappealing.

I've already made the case for adverts on Instagram; this example looks tasteful enough but of course you can't be sure what any other company will come up with. They are, however, easy enough to identify as adverts.

Headsup to TechCrunch

Instagram, meet Windows

It has only taken three years since Instagram's launch and 18 months since the Android app was released, but people using Windows phones will no longer have to indulge in techno-shenanigans or work via third party apps, some of which pushed Instagram's patience, to access Instagram. The news was made public at the Nokia World conference in Abu Dhabi earlier today and then confirmed by Instagram. According to Instagram's CEO, Kevin Systrom, 'Our ultimate goal is to bring Instagram to everyone who wants to use it.' As a consequence, an Instagram app will be rolled out to Windows phones users in the next few weeks.

With Windows phones being all dressed up in terms of cameras but having fewer photo sharing parties to go to, Nokia and Microsoft had been pushing for Instagram compatibility with their devices for quite some time. As far as they were concerned, the lack of access was something that gave iOS and Android platform phones a significant edge. How much this changes anything with respect to numbers and sales figures remains to be seen, but Nokia and Microsoft are certainly feeling quite happy about this right now.

(Headsup to the Verge)