The F Stops Here » social media

Thinkstock Launches Innovative Social Media-Based Art Buying Service

Jess — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 10:35:16 +0000

Seattle, WA, June 7, 2010. WHAT: Thinkstock, an image subscription product that offers value-conscious professionals a new industry-standard in quality, simplicity, and value with world-class legal protection, today announced a new social media-based art buying service, the @Thinkstock Social Art Buyer.

Recognizing that today’s customers are working against accelerated deadlines to bring their creative projects to market, Thinkstock is leveraging social media to provide near real-time support.

When a creative professional, photo editor, designer or other image user tweets a request to @Thinkstock, the Social Art Buyer – a team of image research experts – will respond with customized image research results directly to the user, no matter what the project.

The Social Art Buyer will also be accessible through the toolbar carried by any link shared via THNKS.TK, @Thinkstock’s custom URL shortener. Now, when users are inspired by the creative links shared by @Thinkstock on Twitter, the toolbar will allow users to make an image request to the Social Art Buyer without leaving the site of their inspiration.

WHY: Thinkstock exists to support and inspire creativity by developing new tools and services that challenge people’s existing perceptions of how to use stock imagery. @Thinkstock has become a catalyst for sharing inventive ideas and inspiring editorial content, providing a more meaningful experience for creative professionals. An of-the-community presence in social media enables Thinkstock to communicate with, and learn from, image users from a variety of creative backgrounds. The company expands on the @Thinkstock engagement via Facebook at http://facebook.com/thinkstock.

WHERE: Through the @Thinkstock Twitter account, Facebook profile or THNKS.TK URL toolbar.

WHO: Thinkstock is committed to changing the way that creative professionals think about a stock image services by combining useful services, like @Thinkstock and the Social Art Buyer, with the most complete image offering available in today’s marketplace.

For more information, please visit THNKS.TK/SocialArtBuyer or follow @Thinkstock on Twitter.

PhotoBiz Introduces the Smart Light Box

Jess — Sun, 28 Feb 2010 14:14:58 +0000

Greensboro, NC (PRWEB) February 28, 2010 — The “Smart Light Box” opens to display right on top of a website; users can view their selected web content as if they have not left the site, and they can still see the photographer’s moving photo transitions in an opaque view throughout the background.

PhotoBiz customers can bring absolutely any external website link, video, blog, contact form, social network, slideshow, Facebook, Twitter, Chat or Studio Management system or anything else imaginable which is published online, into their “Smart Light Box” which appears directly on top of their website. This feature is available under ANY menu item with PhotoBiz Flash and/or HTML website templates. The power of this tool is the ability to keep website visitors on your site as long as possible, and so they can easily navigate all your content, chat, message, Blog, Network, all about you . There are virtually unlimited options available with the new PhotoBiz “Smart Light Box”.

The “Smart Light Box” is a customizable feature. There is an opaque faded background that goes over the website. Couple that with a very sleek border that surrounds the embedded content, giving all content an elegant frame. All of the colors that can be seen on this embedded page are completely customizable with our PhotoBiz enhanced color picker.

A roll-over caption feature is enabled on each embedded content page so that the PhotoBiz customer can give a little bit more information to their viewers. Colors and fonts choices come in abundance.
The customers are given complete control over the size of this “Smart Light Box”. By simply inserting the size they would like their work to appear in, the “Smart Light Box” will automatically be centered over their website. Since viewers will all have different monitor sizes, our “Smart Light Box” will adjust to any monitor size and maintain the light box as centered. The customer can choose to control background music from their website, without interfering with the Light Box content.

As a PhotoBiz customer; there are no upgrade fees or hassles to add this feature. PhotoBiz is the only website template company that is truly cloud computing, this feature is already enabled in our web based drag and drop control panel and ready to use.

For more information about PhotoBiz.com, or to get started using the new “Smart Light Box”, visit us at PhotoBiz.com.

Beautiful World Brings Photographic Excellence to iPhone, iPod Touch

Jess — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 13:46:46 +0000

Rancho Cucamonga, CA (PRWEB) February 11, 2010 — Hot on the heels of its popular PhotoTrader social photography application for iPhone, Tapestry today announces the immediate availability of Beautiful World for iPhone and iPod touch. It can be downloaded for free from the iTunes App Store.

Beautiful World provides a clean, attractive and exceptionally elegant slideshow interface to the popular Flickr photography service.

With a single touch of a button, users can view a continuously updated feed of the most recent photos submitted to the service. Another option offers a selection of the service’s most interesting – and, just as often, incredibly beautiful and inspiring – photos as selected by its users.

In addition to the above features, optional enhancements to Beautiful World offer selective viewing of photos based on keyword tags, by creator or even the physical location photos were taken. Finally, a combo view option allows users to mix multiple photo feeds in a single display, offering hours of enjoying.

“Whether held in the palm of your hand or docked as an Internet-enabled photo frame, Beautiful World continues Tapestry’s commitment to mixing art and technology in an exceedingly delightful, easy-to-use manner,” said Jeff Campbell, Tapestry’s founder and lead developer.

Founded in 2009, Tapestry’s applications for the iPhone and iPod touch bridge the worlds of technology and artistry.

If you’d like more information about this release, you may contact Tapestry at the following email address: pr(at)tapestryapps(dot)com

Cash for bloggers with Fotolia and WordPress Plug-in

Jess — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 01:04:41 +0000

New York, NY, Feb. 02, 2010. Microstock entrepreneurs Lee Torrens and Amos Struck teamed up to launch the Microstock Photo Plugin for WordPress. Based on Fotolia’s most powerful API, bloggers can now instantly search from 8-million royalty-free images on Fotolia and add them to their posts without leaving WordPress. What’s even better is that the application suggests photos based on blog tags. All bloggers have to do is select the image they want and it’s automatically inserted into the post.

“Thanks to our powerful and unique API, the Microstock photo plug-in not only offers bloggers a fast and easy way to integrate attractive images at unbeatable prices, but users also have the opportunity to make money by using Fotolia images through affiliation options,“ says Garth Johnson, Executive Vice President for Fotolia, North America.

Writers can use the images for as long as they need to because when they purchase images, for as low as $1, from Fotolia, it includes a standard-use license. Plus, if bloggers enable Fotolia’s Affiliate Program, they earn Fotolia credits every time someone follows their image link, creates a Fotolia account, and downloads an image. The commissions are instant and can be used to download more images or can be converted to a cash payout after 50 or more credits are earned. For more information on Fotolia’s Affiliation Program, visit: http://www.fotolia.com/Info/Affiliation.

To get started with the new WordPress plug-in, visit www.microstockplugin.com to download and install. Follow the Fotolia link to sign-up for a free Fotolia membership. Once a Fotolia account is created, set-up the login and password in the configuration in order to be able to buy and download photos using the Fotolia account. Then, activate the Affiliate Program with a click in the plug-in to earn commissions. Blogging and revenue share just got even easier.

PhotoShelter Launches Social Media for Photographers

Jess — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:10:22 +0000

A comprehensive guide to help photographers effectively use social media to promote their work, build a following, increase website traffic, and sell more images

New York, NY, January 22, 2010 – PhotoShelter, the leader in photography websites, photo sales and archiving tools for photographers, today released the latest in their series of free downloadable research reports for photographers. PhotoShelter’s Social Media for Photographers, a free 55-page e-book, provides essential internet marketing guidance for serious professionals and aspiring hobbyists looking to grow their photography business online. Available at http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/social-media-for-photographers the guide is designed to share insights with photographers who want to get started or optimize their productive use of social media platforms like blogging, Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn as part of their overall marketing strategy.

PhotoShelter’s Social Media for Photographers includes tips on: the ground rules for social media, choosing where to participate, smart strategies to stand out, generating social sharing and quality links, suggestions for measuring progress, and a listing of tools to save time and make participation more effective. The guide is designed to benefit photographers new to social media as well as those who wish to generate more results from their current efforts. Photographers can immediately start using the guide’s actionable strategies and benefit from a healthy dose of real life examples from photographers implementing successful social media strategies across the web. Social Media for Photographers is sponsored by Adorama Camera.

“Many photographers already have a website, photo blog, a Twitter account and a Facebook page, but we don’t see many using these tools to effectively market and grow their photography business. By giving photographers the information they need to grow their social media presence, set goals, and measure their efforts, we are providing them with new strategies to promote their work and ultimately generate more revenue from their photography.” said PhotoShelter CEO Allen Murabayashi. “When done right, social media enables photographers to build a following, engage in dialogue, and find new opportunities to showcase and share their work.”

Beyond offering websites and tools to help photographers succeed online, PhotoShelter consistently delivers photography business insights that help photographers use technology to compete in a quickly changing marketplace. PhotoShelter started releasing free research reports in 2009, and has developed a series of comprehensive resources that make PhotoShelter the go-to source for marketing a photography business online. To date, thousands of photographers have downloaded and benefited from PhotoShelter’s previous free reports: Photography Websites: Photo Buyer Survey, the SEO Cookbook for Photographers, and Google Analytics for Photographers. All of PhotoShelter’s free reports are available here: http://www.photoshelter.com/mkt/research/.

“With social media, photographers can increase their online presence and multiply the ways their work gets found online. There are instant benefits, as well as ancillary benefits like better SEO,” said Murabayashi. “To create this guide, we gathered insights and guidance from some of the world’s leading authorities on social media for business marketing and branding. We interviewed successful photographers worldwide to understand who’s getting it right and how we can share the secrets of their success with the greater community of photographers.”

This guide complements the suite of social media sharing tools that PhotoShelter has developed for photographers who use PhotoShelter websites to display and sell their photography online. Embeddable slideshows for posting images on blogs, seamless sharing on Twitter and Facebook (and hundreds of other social networks) and RSS feeds are all available with all levels of PhotoShelter membership. Photographers can register for a PhotoShelter account at: http://www.photoshelter.com/ .PhotoShelter can be found on Twitter (http://www.twitter.com/photoshelter) and Facebook (http://bit.ly/PSfacebook).

No technical experience is required to implement the strategies discussed in Social Media for Photographers, and PhotoShelter membership is not necessary.

Snapixel Sees Growth in High Resolution Photography

Jess — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 13:04:56 +0000

San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 13, 2010 — Snapixel, (http://www.snapixel.com) a photography company based in San Francisco, is finding out that photographers tend to be very loyal to their camera brand. When consumers want the latest and greatest equipment, they are more likely inclined to buy the newest model of their current camera, based wholly on brand loyalty. That said, most skilled photographers can be divided almost equally into two groups: Canon users and Nikon users. The fierce competitors these groups represent have been one-upping each other for years and have established very loyal customer bases along the way. However, with the recent release of their newest high-end models, Canon’s 7D and Nikon’s D3s, it seems that certain special features may be enough to cause some to convert.

Canon’s 7D, released in late September 2009, produces beautiful still shots and is equipped with a durable, dust-resistant body. Its biggest selling point, though, is its video feature. The 7D shoots full HD video in 24, 25 and 30p and is equipped with several manual controls to allow for further customization. Currently offering what some may consider to be the best in video technology on a DSLR, Canon is generating huge sales, even luring in former Nikon users looking to expand into and experiment with video.

But that isn’t to say that Nikon is not enjoying enormous success itself. While its biggest competitor has joined other camera companies in the race to increase megapixels, Nikon has opted to concentrate on making pixels larger, not just adding more of them. This, in turn, has given Nikon the leg up in ISO technology, making the most attractive feature of the D3s its ISO capabilities of up to 120,400. Nikon’s cameras consistently outperform others in low light situations and now, with the D3s released in November 2009, some could argue they’ve even outperformed themselves (the previous D3 model had a maximum 25,600 ISO setting).

Moving into 2010, these models are regarded as the top digital SLRs in features, performance and value. One can only imagine what these companies will come up with next. But for now, you can expect to see photos of the highest quality, shot by pros and amateurs alike, on everything from Facebook to Flickr to Snapixel.

“New SLR technology has significantly improved the quality of digital photographs” said Ivan Wong, Snapixel’s Chief Operations Officer, who subsequently is an active photographer. “However, while much can be said for post production technologies, great photography always starts with a great eye.”

Since the release of these cameras, Snapixel has seen a significant upward trend in high resolution images added to their site by photographers who share their photos and submit their work to the marketplace. Snapixel members are also encouraged to submit their photos to appear in the company’s monthly magazine, which offers a unique opportunity for exposure. It is on this platform, at least, that the work of Canon and Nikon rivals can exist peacefully, side by side.

Four Women Rowing Across Atlantic Rely On iSyndica For Digital Media Sharing

Jess — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:50:07 +0000

Nashua, NH (PRWEB) January 12, 2010 — iSyndica, an online management and distribution service for microstock portfolios, today announced its sponsorship of Rames Dames, a four-woman French rowing team competing in the Atlantic 2009. Organized by Woodvale Challenge, the bi-annual race consists of 31 international teams attempting to cross the Atlantic ocean. Team members Catherine Remy, Laurence De Rancourt, Laurence Grand-Clement, and Quitterie Marque embarked on their journey on January 4, 2010 from La Gomera (Canary Islands), in an autonomous rowing boat and through the use of iSyndica, they will be able to share frequent updates to friends and followers tracking their progress.

We view iSyndica as an ideal platform for easily uploading, managing and distributing our photos and videos during this project,” said Quitterie Marque, member of the Rames Dames rowing team. “Our support team consists of people in various cities in Europe and Asia, and we plan to communicate through various media, like Facebook, Picasa, and our website. iSyndica gives us a single interface and a single-step process to distribute to all of these platforms. This will save us a lot of time and ensure that we have up-to-date information available. We can’t imagine a better digital media partner.”

iSyndica’s platform allows users to upload, manage, distribute and check statistics on their photos, videos and illustrations – all from a single location. The simple, wide-sweeping model became a perfect choice for the Rames Dames team members, who face an extremely difficult mental and physical challenge and were in need of a central location for their content. Using iSyndica, they will be able to instantly share photos and videos on Facebook, Picasa and Twitter, no matter where they are in their journey.

To follow Rames Dames’ latest updates, please visit www.4women4444km.com. To learn more about the iSyndica platform, please visit www.isyndica.com.

KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera Lets You Share and Relive Moments Instantly

Jess — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 12:56:21 +0000

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Jan. 6 — Eastman Kodak Company today announced the latest addition to its consumer digital product portfolio, designed to make it easier than ever for people to share pictures with family and friends anytime, anywhere. The KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera lets consumers carry a personal photo album worth sharing and reliving at all times. With a sleek and intuitive 3.5-inch touchscreen, and the KODAK SLICE Search Feature, consumers can find the pictures they want from up to 5,000 that can be stored on internal memory. Then, they can easily share those pictures right from the back of the camera.

“Kodak knows that consumers want the ability to share life’s memories at a moment’s notice, whether it’s pictures that evoke a tear or just the funny everyday moments,” said John Blake, General Manager, Digital Capture and Devices and Vice President, Kodak. “The power of sharing and reliving life’s moments drove the development of our new SLICE Camera. It provides instant access to all of your KODAK Moments, and it’s right at your fingertips.”

Store, Sort and Share with the SLICE Camera

With the ability to store up to 5,000 pictures in HD resolution, the SLICE Camera’s onboard KODAK SLICE Search Feature and Face Recognition allow consumers to sort through thousands of pictures by person, place, date, or occasion in order to locate and share a collection of treasured moments.

The touchscreen and Share Button allow consumers to tag pictures directly on the camera for effortless uploading to popular sharing sites including Facebook, KODAK Gallery, Flickr, and YouTube. Pictures can also be tagged to email or to send directly to the new KODAK PULSE Digital Frame.

KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera features include:
– Intuitive 3.5-inch, 16:9 LCD touchscreen with anti-reflective coating
– KODAK SLICE Search Feature and Face Recognition to easily sort, locate
and share pictures
– Share Button for easy upload to Facebook, KODAK Gallery, Flickr,
YouTube sites and e-mail
– Store up to 5,000 pictures in HD resolution
– Stunning image quality with a 14MP CCD sensor and 5X
SCHNEIDER-KREUZNACH Lens
– Built-in optical image stabilization
– 720p/30fps HD video capture
– Kodak’s exclusive Smart Capture feature, which analyzes scenes and
automatically adjusts camera settings to deliver beautiful pictures
more often
– Compatible with PC or APPLE iLife Software
– Li-Ion rechargeable battery included

The KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera will be available in black, nickel and radish for US $349.95 MSRP beginning in April 2010. Best Buy will initially be the exclusive retailer for in-store sales. The KODAK SLICE Touchscreen Camera will also be sold online at Amazon.com and Kodak.com.

Kodak is also introducing a case for the SLICE Camera, which was designed in a competition among accessories students at the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) in New York City. The final case design was chosen by celebrated designer Steve Madden and FIT faculty.

*Colors and availability may vary by region

Cooliris Changes the Face of Media Sharing with Visually Stunning Custom Galleries Non-Technical Users Can Build

Jess — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:32:21 +0000

Cooliris Express delivers a free and easy way to embed unique photo and video experiences in social media, business, and personal Web sites

PALO ALTO, Calif., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ — Cooliris, innovator of the fastest and most stunning way to browse photos and videos from desktops or mobile devices, today announced Cooliris Express, a free tool that lets non-technical users create compelling digital experiences that showcase their photo and video content.

With Cooliris Express users can easily build and share fully customizable, cohesive, and immersive walls of photos and videos — not just a single photo or album — to websites, social networks, and blogs.

As media-rich content booms, users are constantly looking for better ways to share photos and videos either on their personal sites, directly with business colleagues, or via popular sites like Facebook and Twitter. To address this, Cooliris provides a simple-to-use solution that delivers a cutting-edge experience and a giant leap forward compared with today’s presentation of single photo or album uploads.

With Cooliris Express users of all skill sets can pull any number of videos and photos from Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, or any media RSS feed; easily build a customized Cooliris Wall gallery for a supported social media site, their personal web site, or a business website and share it within seconds.

Coming soon, Cooliris will release a version of Express that will give web developers and premium content publishers a new, innovative way of delivering their media and advertising.

Customized Media Walls in Seconds

Cooliris makes it easy for users to get started creating custom galleries by providing a simple to understand, intuitive, step-by-step wizard that walks them through the gallery building and posting process. First it prompts them to locate their personal media-rich content, then it provides options for where the content will be viewable, and finally with just one-click post they are able to share their custom galleries to the world, or just to their friends.

A typical use case to share rich media involves selecting content from Flickr, Picasa, YouTube, or any media RSS feed to create a theme of your choice. Once content is selected, Cooliris pulls it into a custom 3D wall of rich media and automatically adds it to your news feed with one click, like any other post or gallery. Whether you are sharing a trip to Paris with your Facebook friends or a political topic for your blog that you want punctuated with numerous YouTube videos, the end user experience is intuitive and elegant.

Another compelling feature is that the Cooliris Express galleries are dynamic. Once you create and post a gallery you can update it at the content source (ie: YouTube or Flickr) and the galleries you have posted to your blog or social media sites will be automatically updated with no additional steps required from the end-user.

Express works across the web

Incorporating Gigya social media technology, Express supports social media sites and blogs include: Twitter, Facebook, WordPress, TypePad, Netvibes, Yahoo, Hi5 and Orkut.

In addition to social media sites and blogs, Cooliris Express also allows users to integrate the Cooliris Wall into their personal websites. Instead of selecting a social media location, the user would select a personal site and the tool automatically generates the code they need to copy and paste into their page for the Cooliris Wall to appear.

Stock Photographers Power Up Their Social Media Activity With iSyndica

Jess — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 20:26:44 +0000

iSyndica’s latest release gives stock photographers a powerful tool to leverage social media

NASHUA, N.H., Nov. 2 /PRNewswire/ — iSyndica’s latest update gives stock photographers the ability to distribute their images with custom watermarks to popular social media sites such as Facebook and Flickr. The custom watermarks can be applied to portfolios automatically, saving users hours of processing and uploading duplicate images for public use. The service also lets photographers resize their images to guarantee that the images they publicly share can’t be reused for unauthorized commercial purposes.

The 2009 PDN Photo Plus Expo highlighted the growing interest among photographers in social media, with two panels addressing Twitter and social media. However many expressed concerns as to where and how to start. iSyndica helps answer that question by connecting users’ existing portfolio to the most popular services on the internet. Engaging in social media activity can now start with the click of a button, sending images with signature watermarks to Twitter or Picasa. iSyndica also supports videos with YouTube and blip.tv among other sites.

“iSyndica’s been a real time saver for me. I use it to submit my portfolio to nine (stock photography) agencies,” says user Jane Goodrich. “With just another click, it’s on Facebook and Flickr. I just love it. The addition of a custom watermark will really add the layer of personalization I had been waiting for.”

For more details on iSyndica, visit http://www.isyndica.com/