Instagram last week announced that third-party developers (like Hootsuite) can now provide their users with new features for Instagram business profiles. The new features will allow business users of Instagram to schedule photo posts, view posts they’ve been tagged in and view other business profiles. 

These new features will start showing up in content management services that are Facebook Marketing Partners or Instagram Partners.

Content Publishing Beta

• Post an image to feed with or without a caption.

Business Discovery

• Discover and read the profile info and media of other business profiles.

Mentions

• Read public media that a business has been photo tagged or @mentioned in.
• Post comments on a business’ behalf on media it was tagged or mentioned in.

What platforms will include the new features?

Look for the new features on the platforms listed in these directories:

• Facebook Marketing Partners
• Instagram Marketing Partners

“Find out how to manage your rights on YouTube and learn more about respecting the rights of others.”

Supplementary Copyright Registration

On July 17, 2017, the U.S. Copyright Office (a part of the Library of Congress) implemented an online application requirement for supplementary registration. This adds more protection to copyright holders by allowing them the ability to update or clarify copyright information related to a specific creative work. The supplementary registration application may be accessed through the office’s online registration system.

Links to additional resources and information regarding copyright

Copyright.gov | Frequently asked questions about copyright

The U.S. Copyright Office is responsible for administering a complex and dynamic set of laws, which include registration, the recordation of title and licenses, a number of statutory licensing provisions, and other aspects of the 1976 Copyright Act and the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Electronic Frontier Foundation |Legal Guide for Bloggers

The Bloggers Guide to Intellectual Property is a list of frequently asked questions regarding issues that arise when you publish material created by others on your blog.

Berkman Klein Center | Lumen 

Lumen is an independent 3rd party research project studying cease and desist letters concerning online content. Its goals are to educate the public, to facilitate research about the different kinds of complaints and requests for removal–both legitimate and questionable–that are being sent to internet publishers and service providers, and to provide as much transparency as possible about the “ecology” of such notices, in terms of who is sending them and why, and to what effect.

Do you own a restaurant or any type of food-related business? If you do, you’ve probably wondered why your photos of food don’t look as appealing on Instagram or Facebook (or anywhere online or offline) than the photos appearing in advertising?

Here are the answers: You aren’t using the right ingredients in your recipes. This video from Top Trending (via: DIYPhotography.net) reveals ten secrets that professional food stylists and photographers use to make their photos so appetizing. (As long as you don’t eat any of them.)

If you don’t have time to watch the video, here are the ingredients…

1 | Water-soaked cotton balls for steam

For steamy food that looks freshly cooked, photographers use heated water-soaked cotton balls to create steam.

2 | Mashed potatoes for sweets and stuffing birds

That delicious-looking ice cream you see in photos is most likely made of mashed potatoes.

3 | Glue for milk

Real milk makes cereal soggy, so photographers use glue instead.

4 | Shoe polish for grill marks

Photographers use shoe polish to draw perfect grill marks on steaks. The meat is baked in the oven or on a flat grill.

5 | Shaving cream for whipped cream

Whipped cream melts in seconds so photographers use shaving cream instead.

6 | Spray deodorant for fruit

Fresh fruit sellers use a coating of wax to make the fruit look more appealing in person. That’s not enough for photographers, so they add a generous layer of spray deodorant to make the fruit shiny and delicious.

7 | Wax for sauces

When photographing sauces, it’s not easy to get the right consistency and color. Blending wax into the sauce solves both problems.

8 | Cardboard for cakes and hamburgers

Cardboard makes lots of foods look appealing in photos by helping them hold their place. It can evenly distribute frosting on a layered cake. It can hold layers of burger in place. All you need to add are pins to hold the cardboard in place.

9 | Paint and paper towels for roasted birds

Roasted turkeys you see in photos have been stuffed with paper towels to look plump and then painted with golden brown stain.

10 | Motor oil for maple syrup

Syrup runs so photographers use motor oil for a thicker, more tasty stack of pancakes.

VIA | TopTrending / HT | DIYPhotography.net

Smartphones solved the most daunting challenge of taking great photos: Always have a camera when a photo opportunity presents itself. Yet despite having these advanced digital cameras in our pockets or bags, many of us still fail to capture a good group shot at the office or a family photo around the Christmas tree. That’s too bad as the successful use of Instagram, Facebook, Twitter all depend on sharing engaging photos, Taking candid and posed photos are becoming an essential marketing skill for all small businesses. Here are some tips from Jessica Beach of CardStore Studio for getting great posed photos of people, at work or at home, in a group or by oneself.

1. Always be thinking about this posing checklist

Don’t mention it out loud, but always be thinking about this checklist of posing tips.:

Shoulders – Relax & pull shoulders back (no hunched backs!)
Chin – Push your chin forward & slightly down (helps avoid double chins, and bringing your chin down will make your neck look defined & slender)
Hands – Ballet hands! Keep your hands soft and relaxed – not rigid, straight, or in a fist or claw.
Arms – Pull your arms away from your body. They’ll look thinner if they’re on your hip, in your pocket or around someone.
Joints – If it bends, bend it! Knees, elbows, fingers, waist – a little bend goes a long way.

2. Posing tips for women and men

Women – Get them to twist their body a bit and not face the camera straight-on. Get them to lean on their back hip & lean slightly forward at the waist.

Men – Keep feet shoulder width apart and shoulders square to the camera. Place their arm around someone or put their hand in their pocket (Watch their thumbs – either 4 fingers in a pocket and thumbs out, or only thumbs in a pocket and fingers out).

3. Posing a group – get in close

Tell everyone to make sure they’re always touching someone else.Tell people to get in as close as they possibly can. Then move in a little closer.

4. Don’t say cheese

Don’t bring attention to the camera — especially if children are involved. Saying “cheese” makes people go rigid and put on a fake smile.

5. Non-posed posing – find the fun person

There’s at least one comic in every bunch. Let them do something ridiculous that will get everyone else laughing and loosened up.

VIA | CardStore Studio

It’s just a prototype now, but Western Digital Corporation yesterday unveiled the SanDisk 1TB (yes, terabyte) SD (secure digital) memory card at a major video and photography tradeshow in Germany. How much storage is a terabyte? Probably more than you have in your laptop computer. It’s enough storage for 500+ movies. It’s an unbelievable amount of storage. Well, not exactly unbelievable, as there’s a computer science theory called the (Mark) Kryder Law that, like Moore’s Law predicts processing speed and price, predicts that by 2020, a  2.5 disc will hold 40 terabytes and cost $40. 

The price of the card was not revealed, but likely be a lot more than $40, perhaps $500 or more. However, it is being aimed at the market of professional photographers and videographers who no longer will have to change cards during a photo shoot or video assignment.

“Sixteen years ago we introduced the first SanDisk 64MB SD card and today we are enabling capacities of 1TB. Over the years our goal has remained the same; continue to innovate and set the pace for the imaging industry,” said Dinesh Bahal, vice president, product management, Content Solutions Business Unit, Western Digital.

With Flyover Country, a free app from the National Science Foundation, not only can you learn your geographic location, you can learn about geologic formations, fossil localities and an array of other data.

For example, the Flyover Country app accesses interactive geologic maps from Macrostrat.org, fossil localities from Neotomadb.org and Paleobiodb.org, core sample localities from LacCore.org, Wikipedia articles, offline base maps, and the user’s current GPS determined location, altitude, speed, and heading.

Magic feature alert

It works even if you don’t have access to Wi-Fi. The app analyzes a given flight path and caches relevant map data and points of interest, and displays the data during the flight, with or without in-flight Wi-Fi. By downloading only the data relevant to a particular flightpath, cache sizes remain reasonable, allowing for a robust experience without an internet connection.

Flyover Country not just for flying

While its creators named it “Flyover Country,” the app’s usefulness is not limited to window seats on airplane. It works well for the terrestrial traveler, as well.

Available free for Android or iOS:

Android (Google Store)
iOS (iTunes Store)

‘Tis the season to take photos. At least that’s the message Google is trying to get out to small retailers, restaurants and local service providers. In support of the company’s “Get Your Business Online” program that promotes both the free and paid advertising and marketing services Google provides, the company has conducted recent research that compares company listings that include photos vs. those that don’t. Guess which works best?

To help small businesses spruce up their online presence, Google has created a special version of its local-marketing hub, www.gybo.com/holidays. It includes resources for updating your business information and uploading photos to Google My Business. Especially helpful: How to create a shot list.

(Promotional video from Google)

(Photo, video via Google)

For more help in using photography to promote your business, see SmallBusiness.com’s Small Business Guide to Photography.

The need

• Smartphones have given us all a powerful video and still photography camera that is with us all the time.
• Using those photos can help you grow your business in many ways.
• The price of digital memory has become so low, photo organizing and storage companies are willing to give it away for free in exchange for gaining loyal customers for other services or in exchange for advertising.
• Making sure all those photos get transferred from smartphone to the web can be confusing.
• Choosing among the various solutions for transferring and storing such media can be confusing.

Solution

Previously, we’ve outlined the benefits of having a Flickr account (with its new design) to solve such challenges.

Now (June, 2015), Google has launched a new photo service that is similar to Flickr except where Flickr provides a terabyte of storage space (more than you’ll likely use, ever), Google leapfrogs Flickr, offering free storage to infinity and beyond. (With an exception we’ll touch in a moment.)

According to early reviews, Google Photos also provides some pure-magic search options inside the software that helps the user find photos based on image search—not tagging like iPhoto and other software.

Background

You may think you are already using a product/service called Google Photos, but those were probably Google Picasa or Google+ Photos. This is something new.

The Verge’s Casey Newton had an early look at Google Photos and provides an in-depth review of it and explains some of the highlights of the service:

• It is more like Flickr than cloud storage solutions, e.g. DropBox Carousel.
• It is a “set-it-and-forget-it” system that automatically uploads and protects your photos and videos the moment you take them.
• It is from Google, so you’ll see some search magic. For example, using image search, Google will organize your photos in an endless variety of ways: search “dog” and all your photos of dogs will appear, even if you haven’t tagged them.
• Unlimited storage for free. (Fine Print: However, if a file is over 16 megapixels, it will be stored in a compressed format. To keep from storing such large files in a compressed format, the user will need a Google Drive account, a paid service after reaching 15GB.)

How to start using Google Photos

1. To use the automatic upload features, Google Photos requires you to have an app on your smartphone, mobile devices (Android, iOS) and desktop. You’ll find links to the apps here.
2. Take some photos on your iPhone or Android smartphone after installing the app.
3. Open the Google Photos web app (https://photos.google.com)
   1. At the top left, touch the menu icon Photos.
   2. You should see the photo you just took at the top. Try scrolling down to see what else is there.

Helpful Tip: Bookmark these links related to Google Photos (May, 2015)

• photos.google.com/ is the link to the actual web app called Google Photos, if you are logged into a Google account (e.g., your Gmail account).
• www.google.com/photos/about/ is the address to use if you want to see a promotional message about Google photos.
• support.google.com/photos#topic=6128818 is the address you really need to bookmark. It’s the Google support page that tells you how to use Google Photos.

Downside:

There is a popular quote among users of the internet (at least that’s who Apple CEO Tim Cook attributes it to) that goes like this: “When an online service is free, you’re not the customer. You’re the product.” When Google is willing to give away an unlimited amount of something for free, how do they expect to turn us into a product? (The obvious answer is the way in which they do already: through connecting users and advertisers.)

Google is a great search company. However, they’ve failed twice at being a great photo storage company. Is the third time the charm? Let’s hope so.

One of our favorite sources of such photography is Flickr, that started letting users designate various types of Creative Commons options for sharing photos a decade ago.

Now, even more good news: They have added two more ways photographers and others (museums, state archives, etc.) can designate photography they share to be free of any restrictions—photos that are in the public domain. Previously, even the most generous licensing option through Creative Commons required some form of attribution to the license holder. Why would someone not want attribution? There are times when the license holder does not want to be credited for reasons ranging from privacy to government regulations. And there other times when the person who shares the work is not really the license holder, for example when a more accurate designation would be “public domain” for various reasons.

Because of that, Flickr has added two more options its users have to grant permission for photography usage with “no rights reserved”: the Public Domain designation and the Creative Common’s CCo license. (The default option on Flickr accounts remains “All Rights Reserved.” You must indicate any other preference for your default setting in the settings panel.)

“Many members of our community want to be able to upload images that are no longer protected by copyright and correctly tag them as being in the Public Domain, or they want to release their copyright entirely under CC0,” said Rajiv Vaidyanathan, a product manager at Flickr.

The Creative Commons CCo license

CC0 enables scientists, educators, artists and other creators and owners of copyright—or database-protected content—to waive those interests in their works and thereby place them as completely as possible in the public domain, so that others may freely build upon, enhance and reuse the works for any purposes without restriction under copyright or database law.

In contrast to CC’s licenses that allow copyright holders to choose from a range of permissions while retaining their copyright, CC0 empowers yet another choice altogether—the choice to opt out of copyright and database protection, and the exclusive rights automatically granted to creators—the “no rights reserved” alternative to our licenses.

(Read more about the CCo license on the Creative Commons website.)

(Photo CCo: The photo is found on Flickr and was placed in the public domain by SpaceX Photos. It was shot just before sunset at 6:03pm ET on Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015. It is the Falcon 9 lift off from SpaceX’s Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Fla. and is carrying the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) satellite on SpaceX’s first deep space mission.)

It helps also that there are lots of talented photographers who are always trying to push the envelope on what someone can do with a smartphone camera. Exhibit 1: Lorenz Holder (website|instagram). In the video below created for The Cooperative of Photography, Lorenze demonstrates some tricks for doing things with a smartphone that seem like magic, or at least end up with magical photographs. After seeing it, you’ll doubt there’s anything a smartphone camera can’t do. (We’ll get to those in another post.)

(via: The Cooperative of Photography)