Websites

Izitru: A Service that Helps You Prove You Didn’t ‘Shop that Photo

As digital photographs become easier and easier to create, edit, and share, it's also becoming easier to doubt the authenticity of photos. There have been quite a few stories in recent days of photojournalists, news organizations, and contest winners throwing their reputations away by using Photoshop to manipulate the truthfulness of photos.

Izitru (pronounced "is it true") is a new free service that aims to make it easier for honest photographers to prove the authenticity of their images.

Background Burner: A Web App That Cuts Out Subjects in Photos

It’s probably safe to say many -- if not all -- of us know how to remove a background from an image in order to separate the subject of that image. But, thanks to a convenient website called Background Burner, the process has been simplified for when you need speed more than specificity.

New #AmazonCart Hashtag Brings Gear Shopping to Twitter

For those of you who already have an Amazon camera gear purchasing infatuation, leading to a slim wallet and empty bank account, this may be NSFL (so turn your head away): Amazon has teamed up with social media giant Twitter for a new feature that allows you to now add items to your Amazon cart directly through the social network.

Online Photography Marketplace ‘Crated’ Offers an End-to-End Platform Like Never Before

When it comes to wanting to sell physical prints of your photographs online, there are but a few platforms. And of the platforms that do exist, many of them seem to fall short when it comes to offering everything you need in one, simple workflow.

Seeing this as a ripe opportunity, an incredibly talented team consisting of the co-founders of DNA 11, CanvasPop and dozens others have created an online marketplace that offers an end-to-end platform for artists to leverage. It’s called Crated, and it has the potential to be a game-changer for photographers who want to sell their work online.

Big Time Photographers Join Forces to Sell Prints and Raise Money for ‘Saving Eliza’

By now you're very familiar with the story of Eliza O'Neill and how the photo community has come together to try and spread the word and help fund her cure. But we're not done yet! Starting today, some big names in photography are teaming up with SmugMug to sell prints and help make sure this little girl lives on to see many more happy and healthy birthdays.

Seizure-Inducing Website Shares Real-Time Feed of #Selfie Tagged Instagram Photos

While you can argue that #selfies have nothing to do with photography as an industry, it's safe to say they've become a staple of a generation in which photography is as easily accessible as it's ever been.

Even if you don't mind selfies though, we might have come across a resource that will overwhelm even the most diehard selfie-takers. It's called Selfeed, and it uses the hashtag "#selfie" to stream a real-time feed of the self-portraits shared on Instagram.

The Image, Deconstructed: Offering Insight Into Quality Photojournalism

We love seeing and hearing about the process of creating an image. The motivation behind a photo combined with a glimpse at how it was shot can be both inspirational and educational, which is a powerful combo.

But while there are plenty of behind the scenes videos and articles dedicated to studio photography, one of the genres you don't get to hear as much about is photojournalism. That's where The Image, Deconstructed website comes in.

Flickr’s New Photo Experience Out of Beta, No More Opting Out

Flickr's new "photo experience," which has been in beta for the past few months, is finally live for everyone to see. While this isn't the full-on redesign that we mentioned might be on the way, this update completely overhauls the photo pages in particular -- bringing speed, functionality and aesthetic improvements.

Impending Flickr Redesign Said to Simplify and Unify the Flickr Experience

According to a report by Re/code, Yahoo! is getting ready to redesign Flickr yet again. Said to be coming "within the next few weeks," the updates won't be as dramatic as the last revamp, but it's definitely going to bring some welcomed changes that focus on the smaller details.

The overarching goal this time, it seems, is to simplify and unifying the mobile and web browser Flickr experiences.

Joey L Launches New Educational Website Packed with In-Depth BTS Tutorials

Online resources for learning about photography are anything but lacking. But every so often a new one comes around that changes things up a bit -- usually because it's created by a well-known, respected pro.

Last week we told you about Zack Arias' new site DEDPXL, and this week we have yet another educational resource to share. Joey Lawrence (affectionately known as Joey L), one of my personal favorite photographers, has put out his own aptly titled resource: Learn From Joey L.

New Top Level Domains for Photographers, Grab Them While They Last

As was inevitable, the more common and generic top level domains (e.g. .com, .net, and even .co) are becoming scarce as more and more domains are registered each day.

Knowing this moment in time would come, ICANN, the authority in charge of managing domain names, has been putting out more and more top level domains in hopes of opening up more options for those looking to grab their own piece of the web -- and photographers are benefiting more directly than most.

Will It Beard: Fun Photo Series of Random Household Items Stuck in a Man’s Beard

Here's something that'll help you start off the week with a grin (or a grimace, if you harbor an aversion to beards). Will it Beard is a fun photo experiment of sorts created by art director Pierce Thiot and his photographer wife Stacy Thiot.

They wanted to determine what household items 'will beard' -- meaning what random objects they could successfully pack into Mr. Thiot's beard -- and got a fun, viral photo series for their troubles.

InMyBag: A Website for Showing Off Your Gear and Exacerbating Your G.A.S.

'What's in Your Bag' posts are popular on major photography websites. National Geographic's PROOF blog even does a unique version where they focus on those things that have meaning, but aren't necessarily gear.

But what about the rest of us? If you're not expecting a call from Nat Geo asking you to reveal the contents of your camera bag any time soon, the website InMyBag gives you a chance to share that with the world and pique your gear envy at the same time.

Plagiarized Photography Portfolios are Now Just One Click Away…

You know, it used to be even photography thieves had to put some work in if they wanted to get a bit of dishonest business, but a new project by the name of Pro-folio shows that just a little bit of code can make stealing photos and creating a whole fake portfolio a one-click affair.

The Real Oldest Photo of New York City is Not Nearly As Cool as the Fake One

News flash: You can't believe everything you see on Twitter. We know, we were shocked too.

Such was the case with this striking sepia-toned image that started lighting up the mediasphere yesterday billed as "the Earliest Photograph Taken of New York City - Broadway, May 1850." (And immediately started attracting comments in the vein of: "And they haven't fixed the potholes since!")

The British Library Adds One Million Public Domain Images to Flickr

Rejoice, all ye illustrators and designers, at least if your work involves antiquarian subjects. The British Library has just posted more than a million copyright-free images to its Flickr photostream, and the pickings are choice if you need to illustrate anything from phrenology to 17th century geological theories.

Twitter Takes Aim at Snapchat’s Market by Letting You Send Pics via Direct Message

The tech world is full of 'wars,' all of them over the attention of that flighty creature known as 'the consumer.' And one of the wars being raged most furiously is between the major social networks: the established behemoths Facebook, Instagram and Twitter; that stubborn network loved by photogs, Google+; and the new kid on the block that has everybody's undergarments in a bunch: Snapchat.

Well, Facebook has had its go at stealing some of Snapchat's market (both literally and through acquisition) and has been ultimately unsuccessful on all counts. Now it's Twitter's turn.

Exposure: A New Web Service for Creating Beautiful Photo Narratives

The key to creating a good photo-based service is to fill a need that isn't being filled by any other app or website -- a task increasingly difficult as more and more players enter the market. Still, once in a while someone stumbles on an idea that is just the right mix of concepts to create a service really worth your while, and Exposure seems to be just that.

The Arcanum: An Online ‘Hogwarts’ Where You Can Learn One-on-One from the Pros

In the past, before resumes, interviews and portfolios, there was the master/apprentice relationship. If you wanted to learn a trade, craft or skill, you sought out a master of that skill and humbly asked for their tutelage.

That system has all but disappeared where most professions are concerned, but photographer Trey Ratcliff wants to bring it back into the world of the arts, and he's doing it through a newly-formed online "Magical Academy for the Mastery of the Arts" that he's calling "The Arcanum."

Boomf Makes Instagram Photos Edible by Printing Them on Marshmallows

This might just be one of those services both the loves and haters of Instagram will like. Because while other services print your Instagram shots on magnets or postcards, Boomf prints them on... marshmallows.

So, you see, if you like Instagram you get to turn your favorite photos into edible confections, and if you don't, you get to eat all of those pretentious selfies, food shots and cappuccino pictures you so despise. As Michael Scott would say: "win win win."

Shitty Rigs: A Site Dedicated to the Crappy Rigs Filmmakers MacGyver Together

You might have found yourself in this situation before: you're in the middle of a photo shoot and you find that you badly need to set up a shot or lighting that is, in fact, impossible to do 'professionally' given the gear you have on hand.

So what do you do? You go all MacGyver of course! You put together an off-the-top-of-your-head DIY fix that gets the job done (even if it doesn't look all that good doing it). The Tumblr blog Shitty Rigs is dedicated to showing off those brilliant, if a bit silly, creations.

Histagrams Imagine How Historic Moments Might Have Been Shared on Instagram

The idea isn't entirely new. At one point, photographer Allen Murabayashi experimented with re-imagining famous photos as if they had been taken with Instagram to dispel the thought that filters and a square crop often somehow "improve" a photo.

The website Histagrams is similar, only it takes it a step further and lends a comedic edge to the whole experiment. Site creators Gusto NYC and Gavin Alaoen imagine how historically significant moments might have been shared if the people behind them had had Instagram at their disposal.

Give It 100: Create a 100-Day Video Time-Lapse of the Journey Towards Your Goals

Back in July, we shared a viral "Dance-Lapse" video put together by former Microsoft exec Karen Cheng that showed the amazing progress she made learning to dance in one year.

Since that video came out, she's received countless requests to help others create similar video time-lapses of their own journey towards personal goals. And so she decided to start a website dedicated to that very thing.