Technology Explained, Practice
Daniela Bowker
Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! ...

When you hear the term 'high-res' thrown about with such abandon when it comes to images for web use, have you ever stopped to think just how big or how high quality and image meant for the web needs to be?

Resolution and pixels and image quality! Oh my! Saving images for the web
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring

There's an assumption that high-contrast images are more dynamic, more compelling, more inviting. Have a go at some low-contrast photography. You might surprise yourself with the results.

Low-contrast photographs don't have to be boring
Feature Articles, Theory
Daniela Bowker
Seeking balance in your photos

Balance doesn't mean symmetry; it means an internal consistency and tension within your photos. And it's a vital element of composition. 

Seeking balance in your photos
Feature Articles, Photography Theory
Haje Jan Kamps
Training your photographic luck

Great photos might be down to a little bit of luck, but most of that 'luck' you make yourself. Don't believe us? Read on...

Training your photographic luck
Feature Articles, Practice
Daniela Bowker
The ups and downs and ins and outs of ...

Photographing buildings doesn't have to mean wide-angle lenses and fretting about correcting for the keystone effect. Any lens, and angle. Don't believe us? Let us show you!

The ups and downs and ins and outs of photographing buildings

niece

MoPho - your own mobile photo factory


You've just snapped the most adorably perfect photo of your three year old niece curled up asleep against your dog, using your iPhone. The lighting is just right, the dog is actually still for once, and your niece is looking uncharacteristically angelic. Now what?

Well you could email it to your sister, your Mum, your best friend, and your girlfriend's mother's cousin (who was the woman who gave you the dog), but it's far too good to leave it languishing in a digital format in someone's inbox. If only there were some easy way to turn it into something tangible, like a print, or a postcard, or a t-shirt, so that everyone can go 'Ooh!' and 'Ahh!' and a few others can ask what camera you used because of course, it's all about the camera. Guess what? There's an app for that.

It's called MoPho. (How much did the developers, Penguin Digital, enjoy coming up with that name?) It allows you to take a photo or select one straight from your camera roll and then see what it looks like on a bag, as a re-stick-able poster, or as a mousemat, keyring, or iPhone case - amongst many other things - and adjust it as necessary. Then you decide which you like best, enter your billing and shipping details, and leave them to deliver it.

To give you an idea of prices: mugs come in at $13.99, t-shirts are $22, and aluminium art starts at $12.99. So it seems pretty reasonable as well as convenient.

It doesn't end quite there, however. MoPho is based on Penguin Digital's Penguin SDK, which is something that they're opening up to other developers. If you've your own photo-based app, you can integrate Penguin SDK, and allow your users to turn their photos into products direct from your app. Interested? Sign-up is here.

Right now, MoPho only ships to the US and Canada. So there are no re-stick-able posters to be made on the fly for us Brits quite yet, but they are working on it. Just as they're working on an Android app too. And if the SDK takes off, who knows where it might go.

Another day, another photo-sharing website

ibonthenet

I’m intrigued: just how many photo-sharing websites can the market bear? Today, the answer is ‘At least one more.’ Or so Olympus thinks, anyway. It has just announced details of its latest addition to the mix. It’s called [ib on the net]. Obviously Olympus’ marketing peeps were so convinced that we’d be bowled over by all the lovely functions offered by the site that a catchy name was just not that important. We’d better look at what it can do then, shouldn’t we?

The idea is that you should be able to take your photos, then upload them to the site, share them, store them, and print them in one streamlined process. So far, so good. What’s more, a group of people can upload their photos to one shared area: when you celebrate your niece’s third birthday everyone at the party can share and see their photos in one place. And a photo book can be made from everyone’s pictures, not just yours. That’s rather dandy.

Right now, it, okay, [ib on the net], offers 2GB of free storage, but it’s in beta and it is only available to people in the USA or Japan. That means I’ll continue to use other photo-sharing sites if I want to use my photos creatively. Who knows how it is going to alter. Maybe I’m just being cynical, but I can’t see it taking over the world quite yet. What do you guys think? Have Olympus hit on something here, or are there enough means to share, store, and print your pictures?