3D technology was featured somewhat prominently this year at CES, with companies unveiling televisions and cameras built for capturing and displaying 3D media. If you can’t wait to get started with 3D media, you can do so right now with just two photographs.

Launched about a month ago, Start 3D is an online service that allows you to create and share 3D images without requiring special glasses to view them. You simply take two photographs 3 inches apart, and the service will do the rest, creating the following 3D effect:

As you can see, the resulting image is simply one image transitioning to the other. However, the frames in between are automatically generated by a patent-pending technology, called “Piku-Piku”.

While embedding the images is possible, there currently isn’t a one-click way of doing so. They should probably make this a simple feature on the image pages if they would like to see YouTube or Flickr-style growth.

The service is currently free while in public beta, but the home page indicates that more than 20 uploads per month will require a membership fee.

(via PhotographyBLOG)

SnapSort is a new web application that’s super simple but surprisingly useful. Give it two camera models and it will give you a side by side comparison of the specs, as well as pick a winner for you. In addition, it lists pros, cons, and similar cameras for each camera.

The service was created by a team of four — two programmers, a CS professor, and a “serial entrepreneur”. Here’s a screenshot of a camera comparison:

The website states that the service will eventually turn into a personal camera recommendation service. There’s no word on how SnapShot plans to generate revenue, but this type of application can do well with both advertising and affiliate sale business models (much like Flickr’s Camera Finder).

I’m pretty interested in seeing where this service goes, especially with such a large team behind it. If you’re currently in the market for a digital camera, give SnapSort a try!

(via Photojojo)

Back in September we wrote an article discussing how difficult it is to keep digital photographs safe for a really, really long time. We mentioned that storing your images with a reliable service like Amazon is probably much safer than trying to archive data yourself, since you’re probably not an expert at doing so.

The problem is, although services like Amazon’s S3 storage service are probably among the safest options you have, the companies behind them don’t guarantee that your data won’t be lost. If your data is lost or damaged, the only thing companies like Amazon lose is their reputation and probably you as a customer.

Swiss Data Group, another data storage company, is offering a photo storage service in which they put their eggs in the same basket as yours: SnapHaven. They guarantee the lifetime storage of your data (99 years), and will return double your money in the case of any data loss or corruption. This might not seem like a good deal, but it’s much more than what Amazon guarantees, and the first photo storage service of its kind. I can’t see how they’d offer more than double money-back, since that might be making a promise they can’t possibly keep.

What’s even more attractive for photographers is the pricing model that SnapHaven offers. Rather than charge a recurring fee for storage and additional fees for data transfer like Amazon and similar cloud services, SnapHaven charges a one time fee of 3¢ per image for lifetime storage.

If you’re looking for a service to safely store your images for an extended period of time, you now have a pretty appealing alternative to Amazon and Rackspace.

SnapHaven (via The Imaging Resource)

Just launched today, FocalPop is a new online marketplace that tries to harness the power of crowd-sourcing. The concept is very similar to thematic photo competitions such as Photo Friday or DPChallenge, where a keyword or theme is provided, and photographers submit suitable photographs to the competition.

The difference is that buyers looking for a particular kind of photograph are the ones submitting the keywords and themes, and are ultimately the ones that choose which photograph “wins”. The photographer behind the winning image releases the high-res version of the image to the buyer, and receives 70% of the price that the buyer placed on the competition.

Here’s a screenshot of a completed competition where the buyer paid $142 for a photograph of a “Happy Dog” (while we’re on the topic of happy dogs, check out this comic strip by Dinosaur Comics):

I think the idea is pretty interesting and executed well from what I’ve seen so far. The design of the service reminds me a little of threadless, with brightish colors and a distinctly Web 2.0 feel.

FocalPop (via photography review)

If you’re a tennis player in the San Francisco bay area, check out ahathereitis. This interesting new web application (though it lacks a logo and design) aims to find things for you through satellite photographs and image recognition technology.

If you’re nerdy and so inclined, you can read about how the technology behind the application works. The image recognition isn’t done real time, so you won’t be able to use the service yet if you’re outside the Bay Area (try 94704 for Berkeley, CA).

I think this is an interesting example of how the way we make, manipulate, and consume photographs will become more and more advanced as technology improves. As evidenced by the domain name and the “More coming soon” option in the drop-down menu, this app won’t be limited to finding tennis courts.

The question is, what other interesting things could it eventually help us find in satellite photographs? Any ideas?

Check it out here: ahathereitis

Recently I’ve been working with Fotomoto co-founder Ahmad Kiarostami towards getting their service integrated into Photoblog. They’re a relatively new company offering a pretty interesting service, so I thought I’d share some thoughts on what I’ve seen so far with you.

Fotomoto is a service that helps you sell prints (and cards) of your photographs through your website or photoblog. I don’t have any personal experience with anything past getting the service set up, but the functionality and print quality probably isn’t very shabby, since some pretty notable photobloggers have begun selling their prints exclusively through Fotomoto (i.e. David Nightingale of Chromasia and Sam Javanrouh of daily dose of imagery).

When Ahmad first told me that the service required adding only two lines of code, I figured he meant two lines for each image you intend to sell. Turns out, you literally add two lines of javascript to the footer of your page, and the service “magically” figures out which images you’re trying to sell based on image dimensions.

Here’s what the code you add looks like:

<script type=’text/javascript’ src=’http://widget.fotomoto.com/stores/script/63ca5507bcee031e7976a1c4ca03be349b491033.js’></script>
<noscript>If Javascript is disabled browser, to place orders please visit the page where I <a href=’http://www.fotomoto.com/store/63ca5507bcee031e7976a1c4ca03be349b491033′ target=’_blank’>sell my photos</a>, powered by <a href=’http://www.fotomoto.com’ target=’_blank’>Fotomoto</a>.</noscript>

Basically it’s just a single line of javascript. The second line shows a message to people who don’t have javascript enabled. The long, random string of letters and numbers is my personal Site Key. It’s of no use to you, since you’re also required to enter the URL of each site the Fotomoto code will appear on to activate those URLs.

Does this installation process remind you of anything?

If you’ve ever installed Google Analytics on a website, then you’ll find the Fotomoto installation process to be nearly identical. Once you have it installed, it automatically adds a text toolbar under your photographs. Here’s what it looks like on Sam’s photoblog:

What it looks like on David’s (a little more customized):

Clicking the link to buy a print brings up a Fotomoto widget that steps the buyer through the purchasing process.

You don’t need high-resolution images available to Fotomoto at the time of the sale. Once you make a print sale, you’ll be asked to upload a high-resolution image with which the print will be made.

There’s a good amount of flexibility in the system, allowing you to set your own prices, manage which photos are for sale, etc… The service is free to sign up for and use, and you pay Fotomoto only when you sell prints (the cost to produce the print + 15% of the sale price). You get paid when your balance grows past $200.

Overall, I’ve been pretty impressed with what I’ve seen. I think it’s a service that many photographers will find useful, since it takes the pain and hassle out of selling prints, allowing you to focus on your photography. They’re in open beta now, so you can sign up without an invite code. Check it out!

I just asked David Nightingale about his experience with Fotomoto, since I don’t have any first-hand experience with their quality:

Before I started using Fotomoto I sent them one of my most difficult images to print: a deeply saturated shot, with a wide tonal range, that I couldn’t print myself – at least not well. Suffice to say that Fotomoto did a great job of it and I’ve been using them ever since.